Pun Salad

Not to be confused with the biopic of Christopher 'Biggie' Wallace. This one has Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains. IMDB ranks it #127 on its list of the top 250 movies of all time. Directed by Hitchcock, written by Ben Hecht, and no rap music that I could discern.

Mr. Grant plays good-guy spy T. R. Devlin, who recruits Alicia Huberman (Ms. Bergman) to infiltrate a group of postwar Nazis who have holed up in Brazil, and are up to something nefarious. She's the daughter of a just-convicted Nazi sympathizer, but her real occupation is Miami party girl/floozy, and maintaining a 24x7 alcoholic fog.

But soon they're flying off to Rio, and… well, look, it's Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, you think they aren't gonna fall for each other? In Rio? But it's not happily-ever-after for them, because Alicia's assignment turns out to involve turning her feminine wiles upon Alex Sebastian (Mr. Rains), chief Nazi slimeball and momma's boy.

Understandably enough, friction is generated between Devlin's professional duties and his personal feelings. He doesn't communicate this well at all to Alicia, who stomps off and throws herself into Sebastian's arms, and, it's strongly implied, other body parts as well. She rapidly finds herself in all kinds of peril.

The DVD I got from Netflix was digitally restored, and included a number of good extras, including a charming excerpt from the 1979 American Film Institute tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, where the post-movie history of a small but vital prop was revealed.