Alfred Hitchcock summoned darker shades of suspense and passion with this twisted love story. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia, a woman with a checkered past recruited by Devlin (Cary Grant), an intelligence agent, to spy for the U.S. After she falls for Devlin, she learns that her mission is to seduce a Nazi industrialist (Claude Rains). Coupling inventive cinematography with brilliantly subtle turns from his leads, Hitchcock orchestrates an anguished romance steeped in deception and moral ambiguity. A thriller of rare perfection. (Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes)

After the film, join us for a talkback with film scholar and head of public programs, Will Schmenner.

Image: Notorious (1946)