US 101m Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Key Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
Original Screenplay
This was one of Hitchcock's few 40s films to attract a big cast and it is often said to be the first time he delivered a romance effectively.
After her father is convicted of being a Nazi spy, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is recruited by government agent T.R.Devlin (Cary Grant) to serve her country. As the pair travel to Rio and await their assignment they fall in love. Things get complicated when Alicia's assignment turns out to be to seduce Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), her father's friend and a leading member of a Nazi organisation.
The film is a sort of spy-drama love triangle. Alicia and Devlin's relationship is complicated by her assignment and Sebastian senses their affection for each other and is jealous of Devlin, though doesn't know they are spies. The relationship between Alicia and Devlin is really convincing, perhaps aided by the fact that Grant and Bergman got on well during filming and remained lifelong friends. The film also contained the longest screen kiss at the time- censorship rules meant that it could only last three seconds but Hitchcock worked out he could just show a long kiss if there were breaks every three seconds.
The film is more of a romance in the first act and becomes more of a spy film in the second and third acts. This isn't an action film by any stretch but instead builds excellent tension in the threat of Alicia being uncovered. There's a reason that Hitchcock is the master of suspense and even though the stakes seem relatively low compared to later films he manages to keep that tension going for a large portion of the film.
This is one of the cases of a fantastic team coming together. Grant and Bergman are perfect in the lead roles and Claude Rains is brilliant too. He sort of has a villain role but is mostly very gentlemanly and has a sort of odd heroic moment at the end of the film. Hitchcock's direction is fantastic here from lingering on the romantic stuff to some great camera shots to show suspense including several dramatic prototype dolly zooms which feel far more dynamic than most films of the era.
A superb film that succeeds in both delivering a great romance and building huge amounts of suspense.
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