| Charade | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Stanley Donen |
| Screenplay by | Peter Stone |
| Story by | |
| Based on | The Unsuspecting Wife[2] byPeter Stone withMarc Behm |
| Produced by | Stanley Donen |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Charles Lang |
| Edited by | James Clark |
| Music by | Henry Mancini Song: Henry Mancini (music) Johnny Mercer (lyrics) |
Production company | Stanley Donen Films |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[3] |
| Box office | $13.4 million[4] |
Charade is a 1963 Americanromanticscrewball comedy[1]mystery film produced and directed byStanley Donen,[5] written byPeter Stone andMarc Behm, and starringCary Grant andAudrey Hepburn. The cast also featuresWalter Matthau,James Coburn,George Kennedy, Dominique Minot,Ned Glass andJacques Marin. It spans three genres:suspense thriller,romance andcomedy.
Charade was praised by critics for its screenplay and the chemistry between Grant and Hepburn.[6] It was filmed on location in Paris and contains animated titles byMaurice Binder.Henry Mancini's score features the popular theme song "Charade".
In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[7]
While on holiday in theFrench Alps, Regina "Reggie" Lampert, an American expatriate working as asimultaneous interpreter, tells her friend Sylvie that she is divorcing her husband Charles. She also meets Peter Joshua, a charming American.
On her return toParis, she finds her apartment stripped bare. A police inspector says that Charles auctioned off their belongings, then was murdered after leaving Paris. Reggie is given Charles's small travel bag containing a letter addressed to her, a ship ticket toVenezuela, four passports in multiple names and nationalities, and miscellaneous personal items. At Charles's sparsely attended funeral, three men show up to view the body. One sticks a pin into the corpse to confirm Charles is dead. Another uses a hand mirror to see if he is breathing.
Reggie is summoned to meetCIA administrator Hamilton Bartholomew at theAmerican Embassy. She learns that the three men are Herman Scobie, Leopold W. Gideon and Tex Panthollow. DuringWorld War II, they, Charles, and Carson Dyle were assigned by theOSS to deliver $250,000 ($4.5 million in current dollars) in gold to theFrench Resistance, but instead stole it. Carson was wounded in a German ambush and left behind. Charles double-crossed the others, taking all the gold. The three survivors are after the missing money, as is the U.S. government. Hamilton insists that Reggie has it, even if she does not know what or where it is—and that she is in great danger.
Peter finds Reggie and helps her move into a hotel. The three criminals separately threaten her, each convinced that she knows where the money is. Herman shocks her by claiming that Peter is in cahoots with them, after which Peter says that he is Carson Dyle's brother Alexander and is trying to bring the others to justice, believing they killed Carson. As the hunt for the money continues, Herman and Leopold are murdered. Hamilton tells Reggie that Carson Dyle had no brother. When she confronts Alexander, he says that he is Adam Canfield, a professional thief. Although frustrated by his dishonesty, Reggie still trusts him.
Reggie and Adam go to an outdoor market, the location of Charles's last known appointment. Spotting Tex, Adam follows him. At the stamp-selling booths, Adam and Tex each realize that Charles bought some extremely valuable stamps and affixed them to the envelope in his travel bag. Both men race to Reggie's hotel room, but discover that the stamps are missing from the envelope. Reggie, who gave the stamps to Sylvie's young son Jean-Louis, suddenly realizes their significance. She and Sylvie find Jean-Louis, but he has already traded the stamps to a dealer. They find the dealer, who says that the rare stamps are worth $250,000; he returns them to Reggie.
Reggie returns to the hotel and finds Tex's body; Tex managed to write the name "Dyle" on the floor before dying. Convinced that Adam is the murderer, Reggie telephones Hamilton, who says to meet him at the Colonnade at thePalais-Royal. Adam sees her and gives chase. At the Colonnade, Reggie is caught in the open between the two men. Adam claims that Hamilton is Carson Dyle; surviving the German ambush, he became obsessed with revenge and reclaiming the treasure. Reggie runs into an empty theater and hides in theprompt box. Carson is about to shoot her, but Adam activates atrapdoor under him, sending him crashing to the floor far beneath him.
The next day, Reggie and Adam go to the embassy to turn over the stamps, but Adam declines to go in. Inside, Reggie discovers that Adam is Brian Cruikshank, a U.S. Treasury agent responsible for recovering stolen government property. With his true identity now revealed, he proposes marriage to Reggie. She says that she hopes that they have lots of boys so that they can name them all after him.
When screenwritersPeter Stone andMarc Behm submitted their scriptThe Unsuspecting Wife around Hollywood, they were unable to sell it. Stone then turned it into a novel, retitledCharade, which found a publisher and was serialized inRedbook magazine. The serial caught the attention of the same Hollywood companies that had passed on it earlier. The film rights were quickly sold to producer/director Stanley Donen. Stone then wrote the final shooting script, tailored to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, with Behm receiving story co-credit.
At the end of the film, Hepburn lists Grant's aliases, concluding, "I hope we have a lot of boys and we can name them all after you". In theCriterion Collection's 1999 commentary, Stone laments the fact that the music swells to mask his "best closing line". Donen tells him that he can say it now and get his own back.[8]
Cary Grant, who turned 59 years old during filming, was sensitive about the 25-year age difference between Audrey Hepburn (33 at the time of filming) and himself, and was uncomfortable with their romantic interplay. To address his concerns, the filmmakers agreed to add dialogue that has Grant's character comment on his age and Regina being portrayed as the pursuer.[9]
Production began in Paris on October 22, 1962. About half the film was shot on location, with interiors being filmed atStudios de Boulogne. The scenes in which Grant and Hepburn first meet were shot in January 1963 in a ski resort inMegève, in theFrench Alps.[1] Hepburn had just filmedParis When It Sizzles the previous summer in a number of the same locations in Paris, but difficulties with the earlier production caused it to be released four months afterCharade.
When the film was released at Christmas time 1963, Audrey Hepburn's line, "At any moment we could be assassinated", was overdubbed with, "At any moment we could be eliminated", due to the recent assassination of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. Official video releases of the film have since restored the original dialogue, although somepublic domain copies of the original release still carry the dubbed line.[citation needed]
All locations are in Paris, except for the railway and ski resort.
Studio scenes filmed at theBillancourt Studios.
The film was slated for a Christmas release, but Universal consented to a one-time advance screening at the Palace Theatre in Washington, D.C., which was a benefit to raise money to help low-income children stay in school. SingerElla Fitzgerald performed and, according toJet magazine, $50,000 was raised[1] (equivalent to almost a half-million dollars in 2023).
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Before 1978, U.S. law required works to include acopyright notice to havelegal protection. The film includes a notice reading "MCMLXIII BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. and STANLEY DONEN FILMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED", but this fails to meet this requirement, because it doesn't include the word "copyright", the abbreviation "copr.", or the symbol "©".[10][11][12] Consequently, the film entered into thepublic domain in the United States immediately upon its release.[13] As a result, copies from film prints of varying quality have been widely available onVHS,DVD and Blu-ray, in addition to official releases of the film from Universal, as well asThe Criterion Collection. The film is also available for free viewing onYouTube and free download at theInternet Archive.[14] However, although the film is in the public domain, the original music remains under copyright if used outside the context of the film.[15]
Charade received positive reviews from contemporaries, as well as from 21st-century critics. AtRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The consensus reads: "A globetrotting caper that prizes its idiosyncratic pieces over the general puzzle,Charade is a delightful romp with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn's sparkling chemistry at the center of some perfectly orchestrated mayhem."[6] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]
In a review published on January 6, 1964, inThe New York Times,Bosley Crowther criticized the film for its "grisly touches" and "gruesome violence", but also praised it for its screenplay, with its "sudden twists, shocking gags, eccentric arrangements, and occasionally bright and brittle lines", as well as Donen's direction,[17] said to be halfway between the 1930sscrewball comedy andNorth by Northwest byAlfred Hitchcock, which also starred Grant.[17]
In aTime Out review, the film was rated positively, with the assertion that it is a "mammoth audience teaser [...] Grant imparts his ineffable charm, Kennedy (with metal hand) provides comic brutality, while Hepburn is elegantly fraught".[18]
While reviewing theBlu-ray version of the film, Chris Cabin ofSlant Magazine gave the film a three-and-a-half rating out of five, calling it a "high-end, kitschy whodunit"[19] and writing that it is a "riotous and chaotic take on the spy thriller, essentially, but it structurally resembles Agatha Christie'sAnd Then There Were None", as well as describing it as "some sort of miraculous entertainment".[19]
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Song | "Charade" Music byHenry Mancini; Lyrics byJohnny Mercer | Nominated | [20] |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Foreign Actor | Cary Grant | Nominated | [21] |
| Best British Actress | Audrey Hepburn | Won | ||
| David di Donatello Awards | Golden Plate | Won | ||
| Edgar Allan Poe Awards | Best Motion Picture Screenplay | Peter Stone | Won | [22] |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Cary Grant | Nominated | [23] |
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Audrey Hepburn | Nominated | ||
| Laurel Awards | Top Comedy | 3rd Place | ||
| Top Male Comedy Performance | Cary Grant | 2nd Place | ||
| Top Female Comedy Performance | Audrey Hepburn | 3rd Place | ||
| Top Song | "Charade" Music by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer | 5th Place | ||
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Written American Comedy | Peter Stone | Nominated | [24] |
