Romance

Bump

I can speak only for myself, but, no. A spy's human, too. And you'll notice he fights it all the way through until the end, because he doesn't want to compromise the mission. Sets up a quite a rich dramatic framework, in my view (and that, after all, comprises the film's "mission").

As for Alicia: she'd made her mind up. She loved him, but hated his seeming emotional indifference, as well as the verbal abuse he heaped upon her (which, unbeknownst to her, he did as a way of deflecting his own feelings). And because of his rejection, she not only throws herself into the mission, but needles him about it to get back at him, which in turn increases his resolve to resist his attraction to her.

It's a pretty classic formula, although perhaps more common in romantic comedy than drama: two people in love, who pick away at each other in hostile exchanges instead of acknowledging, and acting on, their true feelings.

In fact, it's a formula of which Cary Grant himself had already been a part on more than one occasion: The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday, for example, and was used, with variations, in some of his subsequent films, like The Bachelor And the Bobby Soxer, Every Girl Should Be Married, To Catch A Thief, Indiscreet (again with Bergman) and That Touch Of Mink.


Poe! You are...avenged!

Not hard to believe at all. Cary Grant's performance makes you believe in a cagey fellow like Devlin.

And....about "the woman" (her name was Alicia)...she clearly does love him. If she outright hated the guy, why not get him kicked off the assignment? Or blow his cover somehow? She's clearly in love with him. Love just isn't all that nice and tidy.

Please nest your IMDB page, and respond to the correct person -

Why shouldn't he have fallen for her? I saw nothing unusual about him loving her.

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💕 JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen 👍