- Upon watching Charade, I was once again reminded that we need to invent a new category of film called "Not Quite Hitchcock." Like The Big Clock or The Bride Wore Black, Charade is an incredibly enjoyable film whose only real problem is that it emulates the works of Alfred Hitchcock without being quite as good. And of course it isn't! Maurice Binder instead of Saul Bass. Henry Mancini instead of Bernard Herrmann. Director Stanley Donen instead of...well, you get the idea. Normally these comparisons would be completely unfair, but the film's subject matter, look, and themes make them unavoidable. At least Cary Grant is the same everywhere.
- In Charade, the resemblance emerges early on when a man gets killed on a train just as a gun peeks out from behind a curtain at a remote ski resort. The fact that it's a squirtgun aimed at the vacationing Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), whose husband was the unfortunate train passenger, suggests Donen is going to have fun with his homage. In fact, Charade features what is hands-down the funniest funeral scene I've ever seen, and I do intend that as a compliment. As Mrs. Lampert sits quietly at her husband's wake, a trio of suspicious men take turns paying their respects. The timid Mr. Gideon (Ned Glass) looks the late Mr. Lampert over several times before a sneezing fit cuts his examination short. A cowboy named Tex (James Coburn) saunters in and takes matters one step further, placing a mirror under the dead man's nose just to make sure. Finally, the intimidating Mr. Scobie (George Kennedy) marches in and sticks the corpse with a pin. One gets the impression Mr. Lampert's life was more interesting than he let on.
- According to a slick CIA operative named Bartholomew (Walter Matthau), the dearly departed Lampert was both a spy and a thief, having stolen a small fortune intended to support the French Resistance. The three men at the funeral were his accomplices, but Lampert ripped them off, too, and the missing fortune never materialized. Naturally, everyone suspects the widow Lampert is holding out on them. And then there's the mysterious Mr. Joshua (Cary Grant), who keeps popping up everywhere and with a different name every time. Mrs. Lampert is obviously madly in love with Joshua (don't fret--the film's opening makes it clear she had been considering a divorce), but she becomes understandably suspicious of him when the trio of crooks start getting knocked off, one by one. "What do I have to do to satisfy you?" Joshua asks, "Become the next victim?" She replies: "That's a start anyway."
- Happily, that little exchange is typical of the interactions between Hepburn and Grant, whose mismatch in age (a 26 year difference) is more than compensated for by their immense charm and terrifically humorous performances, all of which is augmented by the film's ingeniously witty script. Coburn and Kennedy are perfect, too, as charismatic villains, and Matthau's performance reminds us why he was the go-to "man behind a desk" for much of the 60's and 70's. One of the film's best moments comes at its end, however, when Lampert finally admits her love for Joshua and his multiple identities. "I hope we have a lot of boys and we can name them all after you!" she exclaims. It's a clever coda to a film that may be "Not Quite Hitchcock" in its more serious moments, but that actually does attain Hitchcockian levels of humor. That's no small accomplishment, and certainly no charade.
- I neglected to mention actors Dominique Minot, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, or young Thomas Chelimsky.
