CHARADE

By Marc S. Sanders

I’d always heard that Stanley Donen’s Charade was the definitive Hitchcock movie that was not directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Maybe that’s true.  Yet, having watched it over sixty years after its release, I get the feeling this paved the way for other comedy/thrillers like what Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn did in Foul Play or Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepard accomplished with Moonlighting.  Remington Steele is another example. There’s a killer on the loose.  Nevertheless, that shouldn’t stop anyone from engaging in fun flirtations without breaking a sweat in some of the most strikingly colorful costume wear that Givenchy can provide.  

Audrey Hepburn is Reggie Lampert a woman ready to divorce her husband Charles due to a loveless marriage.  When she returns to Paris from a skiing retreat she finds their apartment has been emptied.  Mr. Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) calls Reggie into the American Embassy and explains that Charles was murdered and thrown from a train.  He also had ties with the CIA.  During the war, his military unit came upon a trove of a quarter of a million dollars.  The other members of that unit are likely looking for the money and they will go after Reggie to get it.  She has no idea what Charles was involved with or what he did for a living or how he made his fortunes.

Peter Joshua (Cary Grant, a Hitchcock regular) comes in and out of Reggie’s life.  She trusts Peter, but then gets skeptical of his charm when a truth becomes inconsistent.  He has an explanation for everything, and the cycle of good faith starts all over again.  

Charade is predictable, right from start, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a lot of fun.  Henry Mancini’s soundtrack keeps Donen’s picture peppy as Audrey Hepburn dodges suspects with Cary Grant’s assistance.  The movie doesn’t rush for the inevitable romantic kiss between the two leads.  The fast talking lines pace their performances.

The men in pursuit are James Coburn with a supply of threatening cigarettes to burn, a nerdy Ned Glass and George Kennedy looking like an imposing Bond henchman with an iron claw for a hand and a belted trenchcoat.  They all stand apart, and one of them could be the killer with a little more to collect on the apparent fortune to be found.

The Hitchcokian comparison stems from the recognizable structure of his pictures.  I don’t deny the familiarity.  Yet, most of Hitch’s films operate on a more sinister level.  Then again there was To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant and that movie could have been part of the same universe as Charade.  I simply credit Donen’s film with what it inevitability inspired as opposed to where it seems to have been sourced from.  

The story sets in motion the meet cute romance of Hepburn and Grant, and despite the clear age difference they’re also charming together.  Try finding a Gen X leading man who could shower with his suit on for an amused Audrey Hepburn.  Try finding a leading woman of today who could be so taken with a such a silly demonstration from a leading man.  Cursing and crude bathroom humor were never necessary for these two.

When a movie opens with a troublemaking kid shooting a squirt gun in the kissers of both Audrey and Cary you immediately recognize the lighthearted tempo of this picture.  These two sophisticates are ready to minimize their dignity while racing through a romp in beautiful Paris, France.  I was happy to run along with them.