Charade

Stanley Donen – 1963 – USA 

Probably thirty years or more passed between my two viewings of Charade and sadly I didn’t like it much better the second time than the first. It’s a movie that thinks it’s far funnier and cleverer than it really is. It’s one of many that were made because people thought it must be pretty easy to make a Hitchcock film. It vacillates between scenes that feel vaguely Hitchcockian and scenes that flagrantly try to replicate famous Hitchcock moments. Shamelessly aping the story beats of North by Northwest in particular, with some James Bond elements tossed in like croutons, Charade has Cary Grant as a suave and witty mystery man romancing women half his age and tussling around on rooftops just like he did in To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest, and it all feels embarrassingly forced, even pitiful at times. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad film, as it’s often entertaining, but no matter what it’s best attributes are, it never shakes the feeling of being diet-Hitchcock, which there’s no reason to settle for when the real thing is readily available. It’s a popular film, though, based mostly on the charisma of Grant and Audrey Hepburn, the latter of whom never got to be in a Hitchcock film herself and obviously wanted to, as evidenced by Charade and Wait Until Dark. Only a few years from retirement, Grant seems tired and awkward. The real highlight is the trio of misfit crooks menacing Hepburn for the money they believe her murdered husband left with her, played by George Kennedy, James Coburn and Ned Glass. What ever you do, don’t miss the hilarious scene where Cary takes a shower in his suit and Audrey laughs uncontrollably about it because it’s written that way in the script.