A U.S. intelligence officer who is frightened of women and a self-described fat-headed guy full of pain, Devlin is the boy who meets girl and loses her. In Notorious' love triangle, Devlin loses out initially to Sebastian, a NAZI businessman whom Alicia dates & weds to get intelligence on. As an acquaintance of Alicia's father, Sebastian seems too old for her, but Devlin as a secret agent keeps his feelings secret, too. There's not much competition: Sebastian woes Alicia, and Devlin in biting dialog by Ben Hecht abuses her.A lot of people want to know why Devlin's so mean. Perhaps his cruelty is really fear. He admits he's frightened of women but gets over it. When Alicia teases him about wanting to hold her hand, he can't take it, physically or otherwise. You like making fun of me, he says. Whatever a woman or women did to Devlin must've been painful because when Alicia speaking of their love affair asks, Hasn't something like this happened before, Devlin grows surly and says Alicia's been the other woman in many affairs. It's odd that Devlin says this to her because when a state department official makes a denigrating comment about the sort of woman Alicia is, Devlin defends her in her absence.Devlin seems full of pain because he has made Alicia the woman she is and the pain comes from what he's done. Sebastian has loaded Alicia with poison; Devlin literally kicks her into Sebastian's clutches. In the climatic stair scene, Devlin has to undo everything he's set up, including Sebastian's bedding of Alicia.