Charade

Stanley Donen's Charade is pleasantly entertaining black comic suspense film from 1963 that does not trouble to reach for greatness or sublimity. The script seems tailor made for Cary Grant making fun of his age and chin dimple. The script recycles plot contrivances from Grant's films with Hitchcock: the possibility that Grant is a cold blooded killer (Suspicion) or careerist heel (Notorious), a rooftop tussle (To Catch a Thief) and the peril and romantic banter of North by Northwest. However, the opening sequence alone establishes that Donen was not half the technician the Master of Suspense was. A clumsy pan across the French countryside precedes a jumbled depiction of a man being thrown from a train. Almost any Hitchcock action sequence is more dynamic, better constructed, and more memorable. It is certainly not the fault of cinematographer Charles Lang whose work here shows the finesse and feel for color he also displayed in One Eyed Jacks, The Stalking Moon, and Blue Hawaii.

Donen's direction work best in passages with theatrical conceits, perhaps due to his background in musicals. A nightclub scene displays the same winning flippancy towards European sophistication that Blake Edwards displayed in the contemporary Pink Panther films. A puppet show packs a visual punch and an actual theater is well utilized as the setting for the climax. Audrey Hepburn looks great in Givenchy and though no match for Grant's talents provides a good visual foil for him. The supporting cast is strong (George Kennedy, Walter Matthau, James Coburn) and Henry Mancini concocted an archetypal early 60s score.