Charade

I tell you, this light-hearted picture is full of such gruesome violence.

Those are the words of New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, as he introduced his readers to Charade in December 1963.  I can only imagine how astonished he must have been at the movie’s playful and upbeat tone despite an increasing, and grisly, body count. 

Charade has been frequently compared with North by Northwest and that’s understandable.   Director  Stanley Donen is quoted as having said that he wanted to make such a movie and that he searched for something with “the same idiom of adventure, suspense and humor”.  While it is not clear as to how much the story or the script was influenced by Hitchcock’s movie, the similarities are certainly striking. Both films represent a blend of murder and mystery with romance and humour.  Both feature protagonists who are pursued by bad guys who have a mistaken impression of their identity/ knowledge.  Both are embellished with witty banter between the leads.  Furthermore, the presence of Cary Grant in both movies solidifies the connection. 

Yet I can’t agree with those who describe Charade as “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made”.  Saying that, even with the best intentions, is being unfair to Donen.  North by Northwest is probably the only Hitchcock movie that Charade bears any real likeness to.  Even so, there is a vibe, a feel to Charade that puts it in a class of its own.  It is simply incomparable.

At its heart, Charade is a whodunit that has shades of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”.  But its screenplay is audacious in the way in which it constantly, and easily, swings from scenes of serious danger or murder, to scenes of blissful nonchalance, or to scenes that are deliriously funny.  What makes these shifts even more incredible is that the visual depictions of nearly all of those who die, are pretty macabre. 

A number of the individual scenes are masterfully imagined.  Indeed, some of them represent an imagination gone wild, in a good way.  The funeral chapel scene, Cary Grant’s shower scene, the ‘drowning in the bed’ scene, the telephone booth scene: I could go on and on.

Add to this, the characters and the casting.  There are several key speaking parts, yet each of these is well conceived and fleshed out, and the casting is perfect.  Much has been written about the pairing of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.  Looking at their incredible chemistry in each and every scene that they share, it is hard to believe that this was their first and only movie together.  An equally inspired piece of casting was that of Walter Matthau, whose mannerisms are a delight to behold.  Then there is the trio of bad guys played by George Kennedy, Ned Glass, and James Coburn.  Each of them portrays a distinct variety of oddness and menace.  Last but not the least, there is the French actor Jacques Marin, who steals every scene that he is in. 

To top it all, is the dialogue.  While there is a lot of word play, there is also a situational brilliance to many of the lines.  Consider: “How do you shave in there?” or “If I were you, I would not stay in my pajamas”.

For my money, Charade is the most entertaining movie from the sixties, and one of the most entertaining movies ever made.

Here is a link to its trailer that captures the spirit of the movie well.