Charade
If a man falls from a train in the countryside while travelling from Paris to Bordeaux, a ticket to Venezuela in his pocket, if no one sees, does his identity matter? Returning from Megève in the Alps, EURESCO interpreter Regina Lampert is perplexed to find her apartment empty, her clothes and belongings gone, told by the police that her husband auctioned everything before leaving with the proceeds.
Charles now murdered and the $250,000 missing though four passports of different names and nationalities were found, contacted by Hamilton Bartholomew of the CIA at the US Embassy she learns her husband’s real name was Charles Voss who during the war stole gold intended to fund the Resistance, never found, which his accomplices are now searching for, Reggie’s only ally charming older gentleman Peter Joshua.
The Unsuspecting Wife an unproduced script by Peter Stone and Marc Behm which was then turned into a novel which caught the attention of the same studios who had previously refused it, Charade is a masquerade throughout, a tower of cards of deception, double lives, multiple identities, misdeeds and murder, directed by Singin’ in the Rain‘s Stanley Donen with titles by Maurice Binder posing as a Saul Bass design for Alfred Hitchcock.
Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn both stars but an unusual pairing, he known for comedies and thrillers such as Bringing Up Baby and North by Northwest while she was associated with romance and drama, Sabrina and The Children’s Hour, their contrasting approaches to acting play well with characters, Reggie an open book eager to be ready, naive and trusting, incurious about the source of her husband’s wealth, while the dour and cynical Peter knows more than he lets on, a man worn down by the world.
Their ski resort encounter far from happenstance, despite the nature of the film Reggie is largely sheltered from violence, only threatened by Tex Panthollow (James Coburn), while it is Peter caught in a rooftop altercation with one-armed Herman Scobie (George Kennedy), and Charade remains well-mannered and genteel if a little slow in the later stages after the momentum of the first half, the staging and fashion firmly early sixties but the passive- aggressive barbs of the flirting feeling much more modern.
The hardest sell to a modern audience Reggie’s blithe acceptance of all that is thrown at her, the husband who betrayed barely in the ground yet pursuing a virtual stranger whose motive is dubious, the incongruity somewhat offset by the humour and Grant’s impervious charm, Criterion’s new 4K restoration of Charade is supported by an archive commentary from Donen and Stone, the trailer and an essay by film historian Bruce Eder.
Charade will be available on Blu-ray from Criterion from Monday 22nd June
