The Sunday Movie Presents: Charade (1963) Run Time: 1H 56M

Welcome gentle reader to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a romantic comedy-thriller starring the immortal Cary Grant and the effervescent Audrey Hepburn.

Reviews:

The Guardian says:

It is sad that Hepburn and Grant took so long to make a film together, and that they never made another. They would have made a good pairing for a remake of Hitchcock’s Notorious, with Grant rumoured to have spied for the British in Hollywood, and with Hepburn genuinely having a father with fascist (indeed Nazi) connections. Yet at least we have Charade, a movie that unifies two highly compatible acting styles. On the one hand there is Grant’s ironic presence, performing himself and somehow standing aloof from that performance. Then there is Hepburn’s heartfelt earnestness combined with her genius as a comedian, present in her ability to transform in an instant seriousness into silliness. Donen’s film manifests the same doubleness – it’s a screwball suspense movie, a comedy laced with violence, channelling the droll anxieties of Hitchcock at his lightest. In its plots and counterplots, its version of an endlessly various Grant (his identity changes four times), Donen taps into the latent fear in Grant’s urbane demeanour – the potential killer of Hitchcock’s Suspicion lurks behind his persona’s unruffled calm. As such, Charade plays on the spy film’s interest in the notion of trust as the basis of love – in a world of espionage, of deceits and dishonour among thieves. With two actors whose whole image was nourished by the contrivance of an artful naturalness, the film wants to ask: how can we tell when someone is lying to us? How do we know who is merely an actor?

Letterboxd says:

Even though this movie introduces a new status quo about every 20 minutes or so, I wouldn’t consider it a “twist” movie. It’s got a light touch—there’s no real danger—and that’s fine because it’s a delightful comfort watch of two all time movie stars in their element.

The Film Magazine says:

Donen and screenwriter Peter Stone handle Charade’s tonal shifts flawlessly. Its duality as both a comedy and a suspenseful mystery is evident from the very first frame. After an opening scene, where we witness Charles being thrown from a moving train, landing on the tracks with blood dripping down his face, we cut to the beautiful, snow covered mountains of the French Alps. We see Reggie eating lunch out on an open air deck and the camera pans away from her to reveal a gloved hand, pointing a gun directly at her. But as the mysterious figure pulls the trigger, water hits Reggie right in the face and it’s revealed that it’s only her best friend’s son, Jean-Louis (Thomas Chelimsky), having fun with a water gun. This subversive moment, juxtaposed with the gruesome one that comes before it, perfectly sets up the tone of the film as being equal parts hilarious and dangerous.

My take: A fun little confection of a film. Hepburn was truly iconic and her Givency outfits even impressed me, a guy who wears the same clothes until their zippers break. She is light hearted and light footed as a naïve innocent who has fallen amongst thieves and killers. Cary Grant is stunningly handsome in his sixties and plays his warmly duplicitous role with ease. James Coburn and George Kennedy are perfect as the cold-hearted crooks looking for their stolen loot. Matthau makes only a few appearances but is funny as the CIA agent also in pursuit of the money.

Director: Stanley Donen

Written by: Peter Stone and Marc Behm

Notable actors: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, George Kennedy, James Coburn, Walter Matthau

Plot (Spoilers!):

Regina “Reggie” Lampert (Hepburn) has problems. Her husband has been murdered. The Parisian police are demanding answers. The CIA is demanding 250K dollars they say her husband stole. And now a trio of murderous thieves is after her as well.

She also meets Brian Cruikshank (Grant) who gives her a couple of aliases before she learns his real name. He seems to be on her side but she can’t be sure. Neither can the viewer.

While the thieves plot and plan, the cops investigate, and the CIA demands, hi-jinks and hilarity abound. The thieves are killed off one by one and Brian and Reggie are left. The money is discovered in the form of rare stamps. The CIA plays it’s hand. Brian reveals his true identity and the two declare their undying love to one another, no surprise.