Retro Film Review: Charade (1963)

(source: tmdb.org)

Those people who are familiar with old movies often complain about the present-day state of cinema, especially Hollywood, which looks much worse than in the Good Old Days. Nostalgia and the natural tendency among humans to view past days and years through rose‑coloured glasses often lead them to conclude that the quality of films in general used to be much better than it is today. So, in that way, old decades look like a Golden Age when characters, stars and movies used to be Larger Than Life, and their success owed more to virtues like charm, talent and hard work instead of publicity campaigns. This is especially so when old‑movie connoisseurs compare certain average examples of certain genres with their classic counterparts. The difference in quality becomes especially striking in the case of light‑hearted comedies with a romantic flavour. One such classic example, although not a romantic comedy in the strict sense, is Charade, the 1963 film by Stanley Donen, an extremely entertaining piece of cinema which is often referenced as “the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made”.

The heroine of this film is Regina “Reggie” Lampert (played by Audrey Hepburn), a UNESCO translator who goes through a rather rough period in her life. While on holiday in Megeve she had decided to divorce her husband Charles, feeling estranged after years of unsuccessful attempts to find anything about his background or the source of his fortune. When she returns to Paris, her home is emptied of all possessions and Charles has disappeared. Police inspector Granpierre (played by Jacques Marin) brings more bad news – Charles has converted all his (and Regina’s) belongings to cash and tried to leave the country, only to be killed on the train. The money is gone, presumably taken by the killer, but that doesn’t concern three menacing characters – Tex Panthollow (played by James Coburn), Herman Scobie (played by George Kennedy) and Leopold Gideon (played by Ned Glass) – who visit Regina and demand $250,000, apparently owed to them by her late husband. Regina would like to pay them, but she hasn’t a clue where the money should be. On the other hand, CIA agent Hamilton Bartholomew (played by Walter Matthau) is also interested in the money, because it used to belong to the US government until it was stolen by Charles and his comrades during a covert operation behind enemy lines in WW2. The three men who harass Regina were apparently Charles’s partners in the scheme, who got themselves swindled by their comrade. But this revelation is hardly comforting to Regina, who remains fearful for her life. Thankfully, charming and suave businessman Peter Joshua (played by Cary Grant) is always there to save her from unpleasant situations and offer assistance, but Regina gradually begins suspecting his true motives.

In this day and age, any plot containing a cynical widow, a large stash of stolen money and a multitude of menacing or double‑crossing characters determined to get their hands on it would probably be most suitable for a low‑budget Tarantinoesque farce with tons of black humour, graphic violence and thousands of shouted obscenities. However, Peter Stone wrote his script in a more enlightened, kinder and gentler era of moviemaking. The humour in Charade might look macabre at times, but in general the film is very light, at least by today’s standards. Characters are simple but effective, with actors – especially the supporting cast led by Coburn and Kennedy – making them colourful without heavy‑handed attempts to make them cool. But the greatest contribution to the light‑heartedness of Charade was probably given by director Stanley Donen. A filmmaker who had made his reputation by filming classic musicals in the 1950s like Singin’ in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, he successfully adapted his directing skills to the new genre, and also added his own tendency to make the material as light‑hearted as possible. Donen, on the other hand, also learned a thing or two from the masters of the genre. A major element of the plot – an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation – looks very Hitchcockian, as does the fight scene on the Parisian rooftop, probably intended as a humorous homage to the similar scene in North by Northwest. Some critics also found many links between Charade and early Bond films, including an effective teaser scene, a little flavour of international intrigue and an exotic Parisian setting.

But the most memorable element of Charade is not the plot or elaborate scenes. This film owes its reputation to its leading stars, acting legends who look like deities and represent the movie equivalent of the age when giants walked the earth. On one hand we have Audrey Hepburn, the embodiment of Class among Hollywood female stars. Her slender, almost anorexic figure, combined with girlish looks and the manners of an aristocratic adult, allows her to turn Reggie Lampert into one of the most memorable characters in the history of romantic comedy. Her “damsel in distress” routine is nicely illustrated with a few deliberate scenes of overacting, intended to keep the light‑heartedness of the movie alive in the few dark and macabre scenes. (One of the elements of Reggie’s character – a career in UNESCO – gives a prophetic dimension to this film, considering Hepburn’s real‑life work for the UN in later years.) Opposite her is Cary Grant, another Hollywood legend who also built a reputation by playing charming and suave characters in romantic comedies. In this film he uses the script opportunity to play not one, but many variations of the same character, additionally entertaining the viewers by making them guess his true alignment (and that game continues until the very last shot of the film). But the true strength of Hepburn’s and Grant’s performances is in their interaction – all the murder, mayhem and international intrigue that goes on around their characters represents nothing more than one giant MacGuffin‑like obstacle on their romantic path. On the other hand, their exchanges, although always amusing, at times seem a little bit distracting and unnecessarily lengthen the film. Few screen couples had so much chemistry between them, and Charade is therefore one of the most effective and entertaining romantic comedies. Finally, another memorable element of this film is the musical theme by Henry Mancini, the composer who would later become a legend by producing music for Blake Edwards’s films.

All in all, Charade is an excellent piece of classic Hollywood entertainment, somewhat overlooked by present‑day audiences, but nevertheless a splendid product of a bygone era of filmmaking.
RATING: 9/10 (++++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 18th 2000)