Phillim Director Stanley Donen hates tension, hates high stakes. His films depend on glamour and performer charm, and an at-least-mildly-compelling script, as with 'Two for the Road'.'Indiscreet' by its casting suggests something akin to Hitchcock's 'Notorious'. Nope. Here, Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant are charming and skilled, but the script is hack Broadway comedy of manners -- what they used to call a 'sex comedy'. 'Indiscreet' is full of tedious, repetitive exposition and explanation, in lieu of anything like action. On stage that can succeed with electrifying performers; on film, it's a no-go -- a fact known from the time of the early talkies.Bergman plays a stage actress, and makes the madly intelligent choice to play her without a speck of artifice. Bergman's marvelous technique of presenting authentic behavior, suggests a real, fleshy, smart and worldly human -- hers is a performance miles beyond the material, a performance timeless in its honesty. Particularly effective are scenes where she handles constant autograph seekers at the most inconvenient moments -- Bergman's ambiguous dark/polite responses are profound.Cary Grant is Cary Grant, which goes a long way, but quickly wears out its welcome with a script too tired to even get started. Everybody's wealthy, commute casually by jet, live in palatial suites and go to expensive places, wear evening clothes, are smooth with each others' contented servants, carefully talk about the weather in front of elevator operators -- it's a poor child's fantasy of wealth and sophistication.I guess in 1958 unmarried people having sex was considered a spicy enough subject to require burial in blandness. This movie's big daring moment: its famous split-screen effect showing the sexy couple talking to each other by phone in their respective beds, as if side by side -- a cheeky way to circumvent Production Code restrictions against a man and a woman sharing a bed. At one point Grant fiddles with his bedding on the right side of his frame, making *virtual* contact with Bergman's hiney on the left side of her frame -- both are directed to giggle at the precise moment. Cute gimmick, admirable for its tawdriness, but not enough to sustain the other creaky 99 minutes.The color is garish like the old Sunday funnies -- over-saturated primary colors everywhere. Grant and Bergman's faces look like rouged oranges. I was certain it was horrible 1980s digital colorization -- later research proved the film was indeed shot in Technicolor. Post-WWII and into the 1950s, British film producers paying for expensive Technicolor liked to get their money's worth. Masters like Michael Powell used strong colors to spectacular effect, e.g., 'The Red Shoes', 'Black Narcissus'. Inferior product like 'Indiscreet' reminds us not to take our real cinema artists for granted.

Aaron Sanvido Appreciation for the 1958 romantic comedy 'Indiscreet' will likely depend on one's interest in watching the two stars, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, play out romantic scenarios. Though both deliver charming performances, one is left with the impression that the generic and largely unfunny script would have come apart completely in less capable hands. As it is, 'Indiscreet' is not a bad movie. The performances of the two leads, together with a few genuinely amusing moments towards the end as the couple's tangled schemes start to unravel, are enough to compensate for its deficiencies. However, for another, much finer, Bergman/Grant romance, try Alfred Hitchcock's 'Notorious.'

Kirpianuscus like many old films, not exactly the story is the source of seduction. or, more precise, not the basic source. but the meet with two great actors and theirs performances in the lead roles. and the right performances for the secondary roles, like perfect frame. Ingrid Bergman is admirable in the role of famous actress and Cary Grant is himself, the same from so many films, mixing charm, ambiguity and humor in a splendid way, giving a fascinating character who preserves the flavor of great performance after the end of film. short, a lovely film, game of masks, doubts and love , remembering the atmosphere of a subtle art.

SnoopyStyle Anna Kalman (Ingrid Bergman) comes home early from vacation. She's a single London actress who can't find love. Her sister Margaret (Phyllis Calvert) and her diplomat husband Alfred Munson (Cecil Parker) is on their way to a hard currency dinner. Philip Adams (Cary Grant) comes up before going to the dinner. Anna falls immediately for Philip and he for her. At first, he tells everyone that there is no Mrs. Adams. Later he tells her that he actually has a wife in San Francisco but just no Mrs. Adams with him. She dates him anyways. He starts working out of Paris for NATO. However he is going to New York for five months. She is beside herself. Then Alfred finds out that Philip isn't actually married. He is lying only because he never wants to marry and this is the only way to ensure that the lady starts without any hope of marriage. Then Margaret lets the cat out of the bag.It would be better if the romance is tone down at the beginning. If only Anna treats this more as a friendship. In general, she needs to show some deference to his marriage no matter what. It would help sell the comedy a lot better. Of course, that may have been too modern for the era. It's a bit early to ask whether men and women can be friends without romance. It's an odd thing to say but the chemistry doesn't work for the first half. Obviously it's not Grant or Bergman's fault. It's the story. The audience is watching a couple cheat without any resistance and little reservations. Grant is so cool in this that one can take it as being cold. It becomes a funnier joyful movie after the secret is revealed. It's like a different movie and quite a better one. Bergman finally finds her voice and the couple discovers their chemistry. Grant is also released to be the fun character that the audience expects. The first half is at most a 5 but the twist saves it a bit.