CHARADE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: violence, thematic elements

Rated:

As a train goes whizzing by on the tracks, suddenly someone is hurled to his death, and we see the glassy eyes staring lifelessly into the camera lens. This is the sinister opening scene to Charade, that sets the tone for the two hours of sinister alleyways, frightening strangers, and haunting encounters that follow. Deemed by most as the "Hitchcock that Hitchcock never made," Charade is a truly unexpected delight... a murder mystery, a case of mistaken identity, and a romance. It's a thriller with heart-pounding excitement, engaging dialogue, and witty characters. It's the only on-screen pairing of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. I believe it goes almost without saying that you can easily see my attraction.

Regina Lampert is the beautiful wife of a man caught up in a deadly web of intrigue. Knowing little or nothing of her husband's past, Regina is seeking to divorce him due to marriage problems. While vacationing in the Swiss Alps, she meets a handsome older man by the name of Peter Joshua, but isn't overly interested in making his acquaintance. Upon returning home, she's unintentionally thrown into his wake when her husband is murdered and his apartment stripped of everything... money, keys, furniture, even groceries. Warily she allows Peter to book her a room at the nearest hotel. Then, strange things begin to happen... three sinister men come to her husband's funeral... and treat the corpse with less than proper distain.

Then she's called in to the US embassy in Paris by Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau), a CIA agent who informs her that her husband was a con man who, along with partners, swindled the US out of a quarter of a million dollars during the war. Lampert then cheated his partners in crime, creating powerful enemies. Regina is advised to find and return the funds before she becomes the current target for murder. When things are tight, the only people you can trust may not be so trustworthy after all. Peter is sweet, sophisticated, and suave... but he's also more than he appears. Someone is stalking her, slowly and deliberately attempting to terrify her into giving away the hiding place of her husband's stolen funds. But she doesn't know where it is... or even where to start looking. Who can she trust? What can she do? Where do the answers lie? Regina is caught up in a deadly game of cat and mouse... and this feline has sharp claws. She may not make it out alive.

Charade is many things... it's a suave and sophisticated thriller, it's a murder mystery, and it's a humorous romance. The characters also keep you on your toes... guessing to the very end. Is Peter a hero or villain? What roles do the other minor characters have to play? Where is the money? What would he have done with it? Blending dialogue laced with subtle humor and a few laugh-out-loud classic lines with a memorable and intense score, Charade has some of the best suspense I've ever seen in a non-Hitchcock film. The climax in particular is stunning, from a chase through the Paris underground finally to a darkened theater.

In true form, the film does have a few cautions that may keep occasional viewers away, but overall it's a clean production. There's some mild innuendo. Cary Grant was concerned with the gap in the ages of himself and Audrey Hepburn at the time the film was made, and so it's Regina that makes all the romantic moves. Even so, it doesn't get very suggestive but instead turns almost sinister in a tension-laced scene in which Peter asks to use her shower. (Humorously, he showers fully-dressed!) Language is light, but there are several inappropriate exclamations of "Lord." There is a lot of violence, all murder-related. One of the best scenes in the film is when a villain gets Regina trapped in a telephone booth and torments her with a match. A man is thrown from a train; another is apparently stabbed (unseen), one falls to his death from a great height. Regina comes back to her hotel room to find a dead man with a clear plastic bag over his head. There's some fighting, several suspenseful chase scenes, and bullets are exchanged at the climax. It's never overly graphic and well-balanced by the humor interwoven throughout the dialogue. It's a well-made thriller that will appeal to almost anyone.