Saturday Night Cinema: Indiscreet

Tonight’s Saturday Night Cinema selection lightens things up a bit with a good rom-com, Indiscreet. This film stars Ingrid Bergman as a wealthy actress and Cary Grant as an international financial wizard. Bergman’s sister and brother-in-law introduce Grant to Bergman. Because he feels he has no time for marriage, Grant pretends to be married to avoid romantic tangles. However, his plan backfires.

“It’s nonsense, of course, but utterly charming.”

And beautifully set. A 1958 New York Times article claimed that the British set designers Messel and Furse lent works from Picasso, Roualt, John Piper and Raoul Dufy for the set.

Variety, December 31, 1957 | 11:00PM PT

A beguiling love story delicately deranged by the complications of sophisticated comedy, Indiscreet is an expert film version of Norman Krasna’s 1953 stage play, Kind Sir. Though tedious in its opening reels, the production warms up in direct relation to the heat of the love affair and, in the end, manages to fade out in a blaze of playful merriment.

A beguiling love story delicately deranged by the complications of sophisticated comedy, Indiscreet is an expert film version of Norman Krasna’s 1953 stage play, Kind Sir. Though tedious in its opening reels, the production warms up in direct relation to the heat of the love affair and, in the end, manages to fade out in a blaze of playful merriment.

As the successful actress who has yet to find love, Ingrid Bergman is alluring, most affectionate and highly amusing. Cary Grant makes a ripping gadabout, conniving and gracious, his performance sometimes hilarious and always smooth.

Moving from the New York of Kind Sir, the locale has been shipped to London where Bergman lives and wants to love. Grant, a rich American who holds a NATO post, lives there too (at least on weekends, commuting as he does from Paris) and he too wants to love. But the difference is he wants nothing of marriage and, to protect all concerned, advises Bergman on first meeting that he is a married man, separated and unable to obtain a divorce. Still she invites him to the ballet.

Cecil Parker, as the brother-in-law, becomes funnier as he becomes more unnerved, and Phyllis Calvert is excellent as the sister. Megs Jenkins turns in a fine performance as the maid, and David Kossoff, as the chauffeur, admirably grabs the high spot of hilarity with his pseudo-lover stroll-on.

Indiscreet
Production
Grandon/Warner. Director Stanley Donen; Producer Stanley Donen; Screenplay Norman Krasna; Camera Frederick A. Young; Editor Jack Harris; Music Richard Rodney Bennett, Ken Jones; Art Director Don Ashton

Extract of a review from 1958. Running time: 100 MIN.
With
Cary Grant Ingrid Bergman Cecil Parker Phyllis Calvert David Kossoff Megs Jenkins