Charade (1963)

Charade is a great movie, mostly thanks to its scenario which is awesome. The entire movie focuses on the achievement of one goal : to find the money that was stolen during war by a group of fellows. There are lots of surprising, funny and intelligent turnarounds, until the last minute of the movie, therefore the suspense is really intense and the movie can proudly be called a police film. A mix of action and romance very well balanced. Not to mention the remarkable performances of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, without whom the main characters would be nothing.An excellent movie.

With a whopping 8.0 rating, I expected it to be a fun 60's ride similar perhaps to "Penelope" or "Pink Panther". Turns out to be nothing like these. It's slow and talky. The mystery is barely there, the romance is unbelievable and the comedy and thriller bits get tired quickly because of poor script and heavy-handed direction. Rather than charming and feminine female character I always turn to older movies for, Hepburn is cold and hysterical. No help comes from unmotivated Grant, and Matthau, Coburn and Kennedy are all underused. The most dumbfounding disappointment though is the location: despite being shot in Paris, the movie stays mostly inside seedy hotel rooms and offices, and even when the action takes us outside, we're treated to process shots and fake backgrounds. This gives the film the hopeless, depressing feel of a Disney sitcom, where you know nothing exciting is going to happen as the plot won't escape the constrains of the 5 rooms it's trapped within.Pros: Henry Mancini score, some witty dialogue in the first actCons: Boring, contrived, claustrophobic

The Plot. Regina Lampert, a Paris based American, has decided to divorce her Swiss husband, Charles Lampert, because of the secrets and lies that have pervaded their marriage, she coming to the conclusion that she no longer loves him and really knows nothing about him. Before she can make that request to Charles, he is found dead, seemingly pushed off a Paris to Bordeaux train. While Regina was on holiday in Megève, Charles sold all their possessions making $250,000 in the process, and seemed to be on his way to the coast to leave the country for South America probably for good. The money, however, was not among his possessions on the train, those possessions which are returned to Regina. Regina further learns from Hamilton Bartholomew of the CIA that they were after him, Charles Lampert only the primary alias he has been using of late.So first of all, this is a VERY 60's film. The music and costumes are all "mod." which makes the movie rather dated. Cary Grant was pushing 60 when he made this movie. But he's never dated. The issue with the movie is the dialog which is snappy and out of place. It's as if they wanted to make this a pithy comedy drama instead of a straight dramatic presentation. It doesn't really work.Plus it's a rather slow and talkative movie low on action. And Audrey Hepburn is a think of the past. Her "acting abilities really don't fit today. As I said earlier, VERY 60's.

A woman finds she knew even less than she thought about her secretive and recently murdered husband. Worse yet, it seems he had twice-stolen money; both the authorities and his former accomplices want it back. But when more people start dying, who can she really trust?.As I write this, there are already 263 reviews on IMDb for this film. It is unlikely that I have anything entirely novel to say about it, yet I still feel compelled to give my impressions of this excellent film, having just seen it for about the fifth time.Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn are excellent here; despite his advancing years Grant is pretty spry and Hepburn is as lovely as ever, if painfully skinny-looking.Comparisons are made with Hitchcock films, and not without some justification; Cary Grant rushing around under an assumed identity, helping a beautiful woman involved in a mystery, it is reminiscent of 'North by Northwest'.But this film is really its own thing. The dialogue is so sharp and witty, particularly in the first half of the film; it is difficult to imagine anyone else saying those lines. (BTW this feeling is in no way diminished by the idiotic and lacklustre 'truth about charlie' remake). There are even a few goofy moments and sight gags too (such as when Inspector Grandpierre is watching the Punch and Judy show; I missed that before).There really isn't an on-screen moment wasted, and as it goes on the film's pace and seriousness both increase to a crescendo. I won't spoil it for the first time viewer, but you really are kept guessing, right up to the end.Weirdly this film is in the public domain because of a copyright marking cock-up. My advice is -if watching a video/DVD- to get the best quality version you can find; this film deserves it.