Blu-ray Review: CHARADE - An Elegant, Charming Entertainment

My favourite moment in Charade is during the scene in the hotel lift where Audrey Hepburn places a finger in the dimple on Cary Grant€™s chin. As he tries to impress upon her the seriousness of her situation, she asks, €˜How do you shave in there?€™ She makes the line so offhand and natural that, though I am sure credit should go to Peter Stone€™s script, it sounds like she just made it up on the spot. Some critics on the film€™s release were harsh on it, feeling the comedy and the darker thriller elements of the plot didn€™t sit together well, but watching it now the coupling of these two elements is exactly what keeps it entertaining; its main ambition is to show the audience a really good time. Released in 1963, the film was already something of a throwback, particularly to thrillers of the 1940s, yet its music and some of its visuals are unmistakably of the early €™60s. It was also inspired, clearly, by Alfred Hitchcock; some people even wrongly accredit it to him because it feels so Hitchcockian, down to the inclusion of Grant who had made North By Northwest just four years earlier. It€™s worth remembering that by this point, Hitchcock had lost some of his edge; after Psycho he was elevated to the status of auteur, and those critics, who may well have panned Charade, praised all those later, less entertaining, less exciting and less romantic Hitchcock movies. The Hitchcock comparison is so hard to shake that the real director of the film, Stanley Donen, has been rather short-changed. He is best remembered now for co-directing Singin€™ in the Rain with Gene Kelly, perhaps the greatest of all American musicals and another film that cares first and foremost about keeping the audience smiling. Kelly is namedropped at one point, as Grant and Hepburn stroll along by the Seine and recall An American In Paris, and indeed this is a movie that is very conscious of other films; even the characters played by Grant and Hepburn seem to remember their actors€™ previous roles. 'Here we are,' says Grant, 'on the street where you live' (a reference to Hepburn's My Fair Lady, in which Grant turned down a role). She plays the recently widowed Regina €œReggie€ Lampert, who quickly discovers that she didn€™t know her husband as well as she thought. Three shifty looking guys turn up at his funeral, in search of money (and to make sure, with as little tact as possible, that he is actually dead). She knows nothing of the money they€™re after. An American CIA agent (Walter Matthau) explains to her where the money came from, and why she needs to find it. Cary Grant€™s character, who introduces himself as Peter Joshua, turns up in her life out of the blue: charming, mysterious, and probably untrustworthy. Sometimes casting is so important in movies: think how quickly Reggie would get rid of this guy if he wasn€™t Cary Grant. During an argument he says the right thing and she visibly melts in front of the camera. Another scene has them playing a game in a nightclub involving passing an orange from person to person without using their hands, and their humorous neck-to-neck exchange seems like just a few degrees away from intercourse. Though in terms of visual storytelling the film cannot match the best of Hitchcock (very few can) it is an elegantly made picture: Charles Lang, who shot many of Billy Wilder€™s movies among others, was hired as photographer. The way he, Donen and editor Jim Clark employ the pillars of an old building during a key scene is particularly striking. The music is by Henry Mancini; almost as importantly, Hepburn€™s costumes were designed by Hubert de Givenchy, who also designed her iconic dresses in Breakfast at Tiffany€™s. It€™s all as light as a feather, but that in no way should undermine its achievement; indeed given the difficulty of making a movie and the effort that goes into one, it€™s remarkable when one can pull off €˜lightness€™ this well. Few movies have so successfully combined romance, comedy and suspense as this one. It was the only time the two iconic stars teamed up: though Grant was about 25 years older than she was, the age difference, which they joke about, isn€™t an embarrassment. At 59, Cary Grant was still Cary Grant, and even Hepburn €“ who was, let€™s face it, a Goddess €“ could be forgiven for falling under his spell. The supporting cast offers further pleasure: as well as Matthau there are roles for George Kennedy, James Coburn and Ned Glass. Pleasure is what the movie is aiming squarely for. It€™s a great entertainment. FILM: 4.5 out of 5 A terrific balancing act of humour, excitement, romance and, in the shape of Miss Hepburn, beauty. In other words, pretty much the things which draw us to movies in the first place. QUALITY: 4 out of 5 Famously Charade has been public domain since its first release due to an oversight on the part of Universal (incredibly, they forgot to put a copyright notice on it). There have therefore, much like It€™s A Wonderful Life and Night of the Living Dead, been several shoddy versions available on DVD. This release from Park Circus restores the film to its original visual quality and the colours are defined and well-balanced. The sound is taken from the original mono audio and is very sharp and clear, although obviously it can€™t compete with modern audio tracks. EXTRAS: 1.5 out of 5 Disappointingly, almost nothing. A trailer and production notes. PRESENTATION: 3 out of 5 Straightforward, fairly elegant menus and packaging. OVERALL: 4 out of 5 The lack of extras is particularly disappointing as the film is available on Blu-Ray from Criterion in the US with a commentary and booklet. But in terms of the film itself, this is probably the best it has looked in a long time, giving people the perfect opportunity to discover, or revisit, its charm. Charade is available on Blu-Ray now.
Contributor
Contributor

I've been a film geek since childhood, and am yet to find a cure. Not an auteurist, but my favourite directors include Robert Altman, Ernst Lubitsch, Welles, Hitch and Kurosawa. I also love Powell & Pressburger movies, anything with Fred Astaire, Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn, the space-ballet of 2001, Ealing comedies, subversive genre cinema and that bit in The Producers with the fountain.