How Ingrid Bergman Triumphed After "Indiscreet" Affairs
Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 6:00PM 
When Ingrid Bergman won the Academy Award in 1957 for Anastasia, it read like the end of a tinseltown screenplay: tarnished star, humbled by exile for her shameless behavior, returns to the city that made her famous, and is welcomed home with open arms. Of course, the truth was a little more complicated. Bergman was unable to attend the Academy Awards. Instead, she received the award from Roberto Rosselini while in the bathtub.
More importantly, despite the years of alienation and recrimination, the Swedish star was far from humbled. Even while attempting to attain a divorce from Rosselini, Bergman refused to regret her decade of tempestuous marriage and moviemaking with the neorealist director. She had taken risks, romantically and artistically, and the result had been more artistic freedom - if not mainstream acceptance - and three beautiful children. Neither did Hollywood fully embrace her. A pre-recorded intervew with Bergman was pulled from The Ed Sullivan Show when an audience poll rejected the idea. So, in 1957, with 2 Oscars, 2 divorces, 4 children, and tenuously positive box office appeal, the question was: what's next?
The answer came from Ingrid Bergman's old friend, Cary Grant. [More...]
He and director Stanley Donen had the script for a failed Broadway comedy called Kind Sir, about a woman who falls in love with a married man, only to discover after months of flirtation that he's been single and lying in order to keep from being tied down. This kind of battle-of-the-sexes comedy was common enough in the 1950s. However, it was uncharted territory for the dramatic actress more used to playing saints and serious roles. Still, Ingrid Bergman needed the money, and she was always up for a challenge, so she joined her friend Grant in England to film this little sex comedy - renamed Indiscreet as a nod to both its theme and its lead actress's notoriety.
Indiscreet is a silly, sexy piece of fluff that benefits highly from Bergman's ill-repute. Any questions about whether Bergman could do comedy are completely laid to rest - it turns out, she's pretty good! Though slapstick comedy is not her forte, it helps that Ingrid Bergman still has the same sizzling chemistry with Cary Grant as they'd had in Notorious a decade previous. Grant dances - sometimes literally - through the film. The real fun, however, is hearing the scandal-plagued Bergman toss off lines like, "How dare he make love to me and not be married!"
This wink-and-a-nudge tone is the appeal of late 50's sex comedies. Whereas in the early 50's, Bergman had been excoriated for her affair with Rosselini, as sexual mores were loosening and Hollywood was playing faster and looser with the Hays Code, now Bergman could laugh at the absurdity of it all and - at least in the film - sleep with a married man (offscreen, of course). Indiscreet itself holds all of the genre cliches, from the beautiful costumes, to the silly dialogue, to a splitscreen shot of the two in bed that looks straight out of a Doris Day picture. However, the elegance and fire of Grant and Bergman together elevates Indiscreet from cute to classy. Well, mostly classy.
With Indiscreet completed, Ingrid Bergman started a new phase of her career in a dramatically different Hollywood from the one she'd left. The studio system was crumbling, the star system was fading, and new opportunities were hard to come by. However, Bergman had more control over her career than she'd ever had before. Her next few films would show just how well she could use her newfound freedom.
previously: Intermezzo (1939), Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1942), 10 Best Ingrid Bergman Kisses (1935 through 1970), Notorious, (1946), Joan of Arc (1948), Journey to Italy (1954)
Reader Comments (12)
I'm crazy about Indiscreet. I would never call it one of her best films but it is one of her most enjoyable. Grant has a great deal to do with that and their chemistry is flawless. The film and Ingrid are beautiful to look at, her wardrobe and jewels are eye popping and it has two brilliant supporting performances from Phyllis Calvert and Cecil Parker as Ingrid's sister and brother-in-law both of whom are a delight.
How can someone win three Oscars and not deserve any of them?
As much as I love Ingrid Bergman in her serious dramatic roles, I would give anything to have seen her in more films in the vein of Indiscreet and Cactus Flower. "Silly" you say? Compared with the so called romantic comedies of today this is a masterpiece ...
Grant was a special dear fren of her & had accepted her 2nd Oscar on behalf. They even presented 1958 Best Pic together (Ingrid's 1st reappearance at the Oscar since La Scandal)
The 1st time I watched Indiscreet I din find it anything special (I was like 16) but on 2nd viewing I find it v enjoyable. I wont called it silly, it was one of the few classy, witty rom com in the 50s & I was astonished to find Ingrid does comedy so well (She will only do one more, Cactus Flowers in 1969), it's a shame that she din do more comedy.
Grant & Bergman were so good together, I wish they had made more pic as a team
I would love to know if this predates other split screens of lovers or when the first one was. This is soooo much better than the ones with Doris Day Probably because it IS wink wink nudge nudge and you can actually see the sex onscreen. Ingrid did not have to worry about her virginal image like Miss Day.
I too liked Cactus Flower. Miss Bergman had a flair for comedy and she steals the movie from Walter Mathau and Goldie Hawn.
This is rom com for grown ups...........
LOVE "Cactus Flower". That goofy scene of Bergman and Hawn dancing at a mod club to a muzak arrangement of a Monkees song? Brilliant.
adelutza & Claran - I do *not* mean "silly" as a bad thing. If anything! I enjoy INDISCREET *more* just to get to watch Ingrid Bergman's unknown silly side blossom! And all while she wears designer dresses and flirts with Cary Grant.
Dave S. & Leslie19 - I've never seen CACTUS FLOWER, but now it's definitely going on my list!
Cactus Flower is pure genius. Bergman and Hawn together ... wonderful.
Oh, Anne Marie, you are going to love Cactus Flower.
Indiscreet is so delightful, in all the ways of a good rom-com, and it shows, with the right chemistry, sex appeal onscreen doesn't end after age 40. But Grant was also so good with many of his other leading ladies (even the young ones, Loren, A Hepburn, Kelly), except the one he actually married, Betsy Drake.
I am ashamed to say, as a huge Bergman fan, I have not seen this. It's shot to the top of my queue.
And I'll join the chorus singing the praises of Cactus Flower. So fun. And Rick Lenz is adorable.
Anne Marie, always a pleasure to see a review by you, and "Indiscreet" is charm personified.
Both it's lead actors - Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman know how to make the most of this
lighthearted look at romance between an Opera Diva and a confirmed bachelor.
Stanley Donen was a master at directing such films. "Funny Face", "Charade", "Indiscreet", and "Two for the Road" to name but a few. He was sort of a musical version of Nora Ephron, which might sound like I'm stretching a point but I think you know what I mean.
I'm delighted that you enjoyed this "bit of fluff" and I'm sure you will like "Cactus Flower" for exactly the same reasons.
For all the reasons in the world I just love and adore this movie.i enjoy it so much.i must have seen it 120 times since October 2015 at least once a day.cary and Ingrid who I love so much just have that magnificent on screen chemistry I cannot describe enough.i wonder though why their lifetime friendly love for each other never turned into a romantic relationship.i wish I live on their time!