Indiscreet (1958) - film review

On her return to London, the world-renowned actress Anna Kalman appears disillusioned with love, certain that she will never find a man who will engage both her heart and her intellect.  Then she meets Philip Adams, a financial guru who has just been recruited by her brother-in-law as an adviser to NATO.   Philip is Anna’s ideal man – handsome, charming and intelligent.  But just as she begins to yield to his charms, he tells her that he is married and that a divorce is out of the question.  Undeterred, Anna pursues a passionate love affair with Philip.  They meet every weekend and neither could be happier – until Anna discovers that Philip isn’t really married at all...

After their unforgettable appearance together in Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946), Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman were finally reunited for this delightful romantic comedy, directed by Stanley Donen (of Singin’ in the Rain fame).  The film is based on Norman Krasna’s unsuccessful Broadway play Kind Sir, which starred Charles Boyer and Mary Martin.  Grant and Bergman are well-matched and once again make an iconic screen couple, with the latter showing a surprising and seldom seen flair for comedy.  Throw into the mix some splendid British actors, including the incomparable Cecil Parker, and the result can hardly fail to please. 

Viewed today, Indiscreet does occasionally feel like a parody of a Douglas Sirk film.  The set design is so outrageously garish that it must have been created by the very same people who went on to design the test card for colour television.  (What kind of person would live in an apartment that shows only slightly less restraint in its use of colour than a Chagall painting?)  Then there is the score, which somehow manages to feel more saccharine than a warehouse full of sugar.   Thankfully, the comedy is an adequate distraction from all this sensory overload, and with such talented performers as Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman to entertain us, Indiscreet ends up being nothing less than 100 minutes of pure escapist fun, the perfect restorative after a dreary day in the real world.

© James Travers 2009

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