Indiscreet

Adapted by Norman Krasna from his own play “Kind Sir”, Indiscreet is designed as a deliciously adult entertainment.  As a comedy of manners it is dated somewhat but largely in a good way.

Ingrid Bergman plays a successful theatre actress, Anna Kalman, living in a posh Mayfair flat and Cary Grant a financial wizard, Philip Adams, who is introduced to her by her sister (Phyllis Calvert) and brother-in-law (Cecil Parker). It’s lust at first sight but as Philip is married he appears to be off-limits. Perhaps because she is “artistic” Anna finds the prospect of an affair with a debonair married man or a certain age to be quite exhilarating. But then she discovers that Philip has been toying with her and decides to get even with the rotter. 

Grant who was in his mid-fifties and a decade older than Bergman is a little too old for the role and the fake tan doesn’t help in stopping him looking like a Madame Tussaud’s exhibit but he is still Cary Grant and no-one can carry off this kind of fol-de-rol the way he can.  Bergman is forced to spend a little too much time fluttering and as the lives of the rich are not as entertaining as they were once considered by Hollywood to be, this gets tiresome but once the clever plot twist kicks in and her claws come out she come into her own and the film’s final third is a fun romp in the classic “mistaken identity” manner leading, of course, to a happy ending.

Donen dresses his sets with appealing late 50s décor and more decorative style is brought to bear by filming in the actual Painted Hall of the Royal Naval College and the Garrick Club. Cecil Parker delivers another incomparable performance and David Kossoff and Meg Jenkins round out the cast as Anna’s devoted servants.

Indiscreet may not live up to its title but it is a genially amusing diversion.

 

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