Charade is a 1963 film produced and directed by Stanley Donen, the director of Singin’ in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Donen, also a choreographer, was referred to by David Quinlan as the “King of the Hollywood musical.” Charade represents a significant departure from the normative style of Donen, making it a most interesting film. The film is also notable for its screenplay, which plays up the witty banter between the characters and provides plenty of quirky moments and gags between the suspenseful moments in this thriller. Charade is a romance/comedy/thriller with music by Henry Mancini and an animated title sequence by Maurice Binder.
Filmed on location in Paris, Charade was said to be an excuse by the studio to unite its stars, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn and Grant had previously been tapped to play opposite each other in Roman Holiday, but Grant turned it down because he felt he was too old to play her love interest. In Charade, Grant agreed to play the role if, and only if, Hepburn would be the aggressor in the relationship and would pursue Grant’s character, likely to avoid any notion that Grant was playing a “creepy old man” archetype. Mission accomplished, then.
Hepburn, ever beautiful, stars as Reggie Lampbert. We meet Reggie when she is about to divorce her husband. Upon return home from a vacation, she learns that her husband has been murdered and a whole lot of money is missing. Reggie meets with a secret agent (Walter Matthau) who informs her that the money was an amount of cash that her husband stole from a World War 2 payroll. Her husband’s partners in crime will now be seeking the money to get their share and, by default, everyone assumes that Reggie knows where the money is. She doesn’t and so it’s up to Cary Grant, who plays a charming stranger with many different names throughout the film, to help the poor girl escape these thugs. The plot unfolds with tons of twists, turns, double crosses, name changes, and all sorts of other happenings.
The beauty of Charade is in its eccentric energy and in its ability to shuffle the deck. It almost gets ridiculous at moments, as one never knows which side a particular character is on or whether a particular character actually knows where the money is. The film works because it is absorbing and involving through every frame, as we truly feel for Reggie’s plight and, like Grant’s character, attempt to help her out. The motivations and realities of characters are explored, dismissed, and explored again by Donen’s steady hand in the director’s chair as we unlock the mystery of this thriller that is so often compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s work.
Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn were nominated for Golden Globes for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy. Hepburn picked up the BAFTA award for Best Actress and the film’s screenplay won a 1964 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Charade is often considered a film to rival some of Hitchcock’s finer masterpieces, but I don’t quite see it that way. While it is charming in its own way, the film often enters into ridiculous territory as it seems that the characters are double-crossing merely for the sake of it. The plot meanders at moments, often leading viewers on chase sequences that simply feel tacked on, even by today’s disproportionate standards. Some moments are grand suspense, no doubt about it, but the film lacked certain cohesiveness in my view.
The beauty of Charade lies in its script and in the charm of its stars. The film is often very comical and always very sharp, allowing many of the sillier suspense moments to get a pass on pure charm. It works because of Peter Stone’s blended screenplay, in which he tries to tap into just about every single glitzy genre Hollywood ever made in order to mish-mash the film together. This style is risky and may alienate some viewers, but for the most part it works very well thanks to the professionalism of the film’s stars. Without Grant and Hepburn at the helm and without Donen’s able direction, the screenplay may have faltered heavily down into camp territory. But the performers here are so richly self-aware and so amiable that Charade not only stands a chance at the stuff, but it rather excels at the material.
For the most part, Charade is a film that functions very well on its own steam. It is clever, romantic, and rousing in many areas. Despite several ideas that feel tacked on and forced, Donen’s film works as a quirky little thriller. Hepburn is always articulate and enchanting and Cary Grant, once again, is Cary Grant. For a comic thriller with plenty of surprises (often too many surprises), you won’t find many more gratifying than Stanley Donen’s Charade.
8/10
