#23 of 100 on my 100 Movies I’ve Never Seen Before Challenge (part II)
How do you know when someone is lying to you? That is one of the driving questions behind “Charade”, the 1963 film starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The film is one of those great romantic comedy thrillers that many of today’s movies only wish they could be. In fact one movie, a remake, “The Truth About Charlie” tried and failed to be this movie. Oh, how silly Hollywood is now.
Hepburn plays Regina Lambert, an unhappily married woman, who has decided to divorce her husband, Charles Lambert. The only problem is that Charlie has been murdered. The even bigger problem is his name isn’t Charles Lambert. He’s not who she thought he was at all. Turns out Charles is a thief and he’s involved with some bad dudes. Now that Chuck is dead, these bad dudes– James Coburn and George Kennedy among them– want their money.
She meets a charming guy, Peter Joshua (Grant), but he’s not who he says he is either. Together, they, along with the rest of the bad dudes, try and figured out what Charlie did with the money. Making things worse is someone is killing them off on by one. It’s a classic whodunit tale.
Directed by Stanley Donan, “Charade” is a very smart, very funny thriller that is great mainly because of the chemistry between Hepburn and Grant. They are both amazing actors and they are working with a great script from Peter Stone. The dialogue is great and the story is a twisted tale that will keep you guessing right up to the last plot twist.
Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant are actors that wish their caliber was around today. While there are some fantastic actors working in 2012, everyone in Hollywood is so self aware. These are actors that truly made the movies they were in better simply because of their charm and talent.
“Charade” is an intelligent and fun movie that is worth watching for the comic, flirty banter between Grant and Hepburn alone. With a running time of nearly two hours, the film runs at a brisk pace. It’s a movie that has been imitated and borrowed from by countless movies over the past fifty years, including the already mentioned, “The Truth About Charlie” (2002), but none of them come close to matching this intelligent caper.
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Charade theatrical trailer: