Notorious (1946) is Alfred Hitchcock’s most romantic thriller, as Ingrid Bergman played Alicia Huberman, a woman recruited to spy on Nazis in post-war Brazil.
Opposite Cary Grant, Bergman played Alicia with a mixture of recklessness and vulnerability. Her famous long kiss with Grant, interrupted by a phone call, became one of the most celebrated scenes in Hitchcock’s work.
Alicia’s love for Grant’s character and her dangerous assignment pull her in opposite directions, and Bergman made that conflict feel entirely real. Notorious remains a high point for both director and star.
Image: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergman_%26_Bogart_Casablanca_still.jpg