Brunettes Have More Fun

Alfred Hitchcock's affinity for women with blonde hair was reinforced almost everytime his heroine would be on screen. Kim Novak in Vertigo--blonde, Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest--blonde, Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much--blonde, and of course, the luminescent Grace Kelly. But even among all of these beautiful fair-headed ladies, Hitch's favorite actress to ever bring enigma to espionage or sex appeal to suspicion was a brunette--the beautiful Ingrid Bergman.
Ingrid worked in three films for Hitchcock throughout her career, Notorious(1946), Spellbound(1945), and the lesser known Under Capricorn from 1949. In each Ingrid plays a strong beautiful woman with either a horrible past, a plagueing future or an inability to cope with and aliviate the present. She is a wonder to watch in Under Capricorn and alongside a young Gregory Peck in Spellbound but undoubtedly her best performance of the three is as Alicia Huberman in Notorious.
Now this being the second time spotlighting a performance from Alfred Hitchcock's near perfect suspense masterpiece is no coincidence. Rains and Bergman paint perhaps two of the most genuine portraits of any pair of characters ever on screen. Ingrid as Alicia, however, is the greatest example of her work as an actress. Her humanity, grace and comedy can be seen in any film but this role required what usually brought out the best in her and that is the demand for sex appeal.
It is funny that usually when Ingrid is mentioned she is considered one of the sexiest women of the Hollywood Golden Age, but rarely--very rarely is she portraying an overtly sexual woman. Her trademark is her subtly and what makes the roles Hitch cast her in so memorable was his ability to gage flawlessly, not only the overall compatibility between her and her characters but what she could bring to it with just a simple flick of her eyes.
It is not hard to describe other actresses from the same era in a few words, and with the accompaniment of a head shot understand the origin of such a description. Rita Hayworth can be described as vivacious, Grace Kelly as poised, Barbara Stanwyck as elegant and Katherine Hepburn as strong. Yet looking upon Ingrid Bergman it is almost impossible to comprehend her power in every area of femininity and grace, for the only solution is to watch her move and speak on screen, and then, like a waterfall, her talent rushes over you; for they just do not make them like her anymore.