Following the conviction of her (German) father for treason, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman, in her early 30s) takes to heavy drinking and partying. One night, she meets a stranger at her bungalow in Miami (a party crasher). They drink long into the night (after her pals leave or fall asleep drunk), and she insists on going on a drive. When Alicia’s car is stopped for speeding and swerving on the highway, the stranger shows the cop his ID. The cop salutes him and quickly drives off, issuing her no ticket. Alicia gets very angry and combative when she realizes that her passenger is a government agent, T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant).

The next morning, he reveals that the feds have been bugging her house for 3 mos; she shared the place with her father. We also discover that Alicia is patriotic (she had an American mother and adopted the US as her homeland) and detests the doings of her father. The feds want Alicia to spy on some of her father’s old (Nazi) friends operating in Brazil. They land in Rio, Alicia quits drinking, and over a week, she and Devlin develop feelings for each other. She says “I love you” to him, but he doesn’t say those exact words back. They plan to have a romantic chicken dinner together (in her apartment), but Devlin is called away.

When Devlin goes to see his boss, Paul Prescott (Louis Calhern), he learns details about the mission which has been chosen for Alicia. His heart sinks- she will have to seduce a wealthy and powerful man, Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), who used to have feelings for her. The feds seem to think this will be an easy task for a woman (“not a lady”) like Alicia, who is “notorious” not only for her father’s crimes, but her wild lifestyle.

Wow, who knew Alfred Hitchcock could do romance this well!? It helps that he has megastar (and gorgeous) co-leads in Grant and Bergman who help to anchor this story. When these two actors are close- it’s like sparks are flying onscreen! Bergman is playing against type here (as some critics have noted). She looks tired, hungover, and disheveled the morning after she meets Devlin. Grant is quite reined in (as his character demands), so you need to focus on his eyes and the (small) expressions of his face. If you’ve only seen younger (he’s 42 here) and comedic Grant movies, you’re esp. in for a treat.

Hitch does a lot of things which reveal him to be “the master of suspense”- building tension w/ music, unique takes on close-ups, playing w/ shadows, and the trope of the controlling mother (played here by a formidable-looking Austrian theater actress- Leopoldine Konstantin). Even mundane domestic moments in the Sebastian mansion are made suspenseful, thanks to the director’s choices. The screenplay (which is lean, yet still gripping) by Ben Hecht scored an Academy Award nomination. Character is revealed not only through what is said, but w/ tone and action. Some embraces, kisses, and laughs conceal the truth, others reveal the truth. After all, Alicia and Devlin hide their love for each other, b/c of the mission and- like ordinary people- b/c they’re afraid of getting hurt.