Alfred Hitchcock directs Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains in this spy thriller where the secret service pressgangs a Nazi traitor’s beautiful daughter into being a honeytrap for a nuclear scientist in Brazil.

One of the very best romantic thrillers because the beautiful lead is always at risk… growing more vulnerable and trapped as scenes progress. Bergman is wonderful here as the good time girl in a bad situation. Grant makes for a handsome Hitchcock substitute as the conflicted handler. He stoically loves his amateur agent but his duty dictates he keeps her in harms way, in increasingly perilous positions. And Claude Raines is the Sam Rockwell of the Golden Age of Hollywood, no matter whether he sides with the devils or the angels, he improves a movie immensely with his mere presence. Hitch pulls off a lot of bravura visual tricks to seduce and thrill us but it is the brevity and flow of the storytelling that impresses the most. A cynical delight.

9

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