Charade (1963)

• Year: 1963
• Released: 05 Dec 1963
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 3 wins & 9 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056923/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/charade
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/charade
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Romance
• Runtime: 113 min
• Writer: Peter Stone, Marc Behm
• Director: Stanley Donen
• Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
• Keywords: loss of loved one, paris, france, cia, train, whodunit,

	7.9/10
	83/100
	50% – Audience

Charade Storyline

Regina Lampert (a stunning Audrey Hepburn in the chicest Givenchy) in gorgeous Megève, has decided to divorce her husband, Charles, because of all his secrets and lies. Before she can, Charles is found dead – pushed off a train. When Regina returns to Paris, she’s found her apartment empty, the closets bare, and a French detective, who tells her Charles supposedly left with $250,000 on his way to South America. A note left for her to come to the US Embassy where she meets Hamilton Bartholemew (Walter Matthau), who tells her Charles stole the money from the US government, and they want it back. Soon, three men show up, threatening her for the return of ‘their’ money. She’s terrified, because she knows nothing of any of this, nor where the money is. Dashing Peter Joshua (Carey Grant) is there to help Regina, in director Stanley Donen’s soufflé of a film, hailed as the ‘best Hitchcock film he never made.’ One part glamour, one part Hepburn, Grant (as well as Matthau, Coburn, Kennedy, and many more), whipped stylishly together, in one of Mr Donen’s best-loved films, and after watching it, you’ll agree.

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Charade Movie Reviews

Audrey fingers Cary’s dimpled chin and asks, “How do you shave in there?”

Just one of the many marvelous moments in “Charade”, one of Cary Grant’s and Audrey Hepburn’s best films. There’s a quarter of a million dollars floating around instant-widow Hepburn but nobody can SEE IT (it’s right in front of their eyes). Filled with running jokes, colorful and eccentric oddities (such as trenchcoat-wearing George Kennedy with his hook and the little guy who won’t stop sneezing), funny set-pieces (like the funeral scene, and Audrey’s priceless exaggerated reactions) and suspenseful sequences, not to mention Audrey and Cary looking smashing together. This is one of 50 best films ever made, as good as “Casablanca” and “My Fair Lady”. In fact, I think it’s better.

Still Going Strong Past 50!

I have found many films just aren’t as good as I remember seeing as a kid. A wide-eyed youngster gaping at a big silver screen at the theater can be more memorable than a middle-aged guy seeing that film decades later on a small television.

However, here is one film that is EVEN BETTER than I remembered it. Yeah, it’s a little dated here and there, but not much, just mainly Audrey Hepburn’s dialog. However, the story with all its twists is just as suspenseful and fun to watch as it was over 50 years ago. I’ve seen this three times in the last two years, after that long, long absence. (Tip: spend the extra money to get the Criterion DVD disc. It is the only clear, sharp copy of this film I have seen.)

The story’s strength lies in getting the viewer involved. One never knows whether Gary Grant is a good guy or a bad guy. The dialog between Grant and Hepburn is very entertaining as the latter tries to figure out the same thing. There are lots of good lines, particularly by Grant. That in itself makes this film fun to watch multiple times. The pacing of this story also is good; the film moves fast and spaces the action out smartly.

This has to be one of the best movies ever to come out of the 1960s. I have never known anyone who didn’t like this film.

A nice blending of light romance and suspense

While I do not think this movie is good enough to make the IMDb top 250, it still is an excellent movie that is a lot of fun. I think some of the reason it is rated highly is because there seems to be an “Audrey Hepburn cult”—a devoted group of people who see her as the greatest actress that ever lived and her movies as masterpieces. While I would admit she was a heck of an actress, I just don’t think BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, ROMAN HOLIDAY or CHARADE are great–just very good and entertaining.

The film automatically is guaranteed to be very good just because of its pairing of Hepburn and Cary Grant. Both are such professional and likable actors that it’s no surprise at all that the movie succeeds. And while Cary is significantly older than his co-star, this is handled pretty well in the movie. The older Cary isn’t as sure of himself or tough as he once was and he even makes a few remarks about his advancing age. This is a very graceful way of making the pairing actually work. About the only aspect of the pairing I didn’t care for was how many times Cary turned out to be someone else. Considering how often he lied to Audrey, it didn’t make much sense for her STILL to fall in love with him. This does prevent the movie from scoring a higher rating from me, but it is a relatively small quibble since the rest of the film works so well.

The supporting cast is exceptional–particularly George Kennedy as the hot-head. The writing decent and direction superb. In particular, the exceptional camera-work result and music resulted in a wonderful romantic mood and the director worked with his crew to ensure this. Also I was impressed by the scenes where the two would-be lovers were on the barge having a romantic dinner. I noticed that they actually worked with the sound to make it sound as if the barge was actually going under the bridges–with Grant’s and Hepburn’s voices echoing realistically to this. That’s an excellent touch that many directors would NOT have included. It was obvious that this was a work of love.

So fans of the two stars as well as fans of romance should enjoy this film very much. About the only ones who might not like CHARADE are action-loving teens and kids who might just think the whole thing is “icky” and can’t understand why Ms. Hepburn would fall for “that old guy”–if only they knew and understood!