Charade Poster
Charade is an 80s Hollywood mystery romance with a fine twist of comedy, and even though its plot wasn’t its strong suit, the enigmatic acting, cinematography, and witty script made up for it. There’s certainly a lot of loopholes and questions left unanswered but this movie just wants to have fun. Based on a 1961 short story, The Unsuspecting Wife written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, this film is a classic whodunnit.
Audrey Hepburn plays the role of Regina Lampert, a newly widowed woman running around Paris attempting to solve the mystery of her late husband’s missing fortune, accompanied by a charming stranger, Peter Joshua (who turns out to have many more names but we’ll stick with this one) who happens to be divorced, played by Cary Grant. Despite never having met before the film, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant had astounding chemistry, owing to their flirting and quippy bantering.
Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant and Regina and Peter Joshua
Charade, as the name suggests, is quite similar to the game. The clues and hints sprawled all over the screenplay like little easter eggs waiting to be found. For instance, the camera shows the puppet’s wife hitting the husband and it’s followed by a puppet police entering, the camera shifts swiftly to Reggie and Peter talking about the puppet show as they are watched by the French police who’s convinced Reggie’s done the deed herself. Or when Reggie and the supposed Bartholomew were in his office he kept going back and forth between the terms ‘spy’ and ‘agent’. Trying to be a conman requires experience as well as knowledge which he lacked. Another possible hint in the movie was that Bartholomew, who was supposed to be an American working in France seemed to have quite many liverwurst sandwiches to offer, which makes sense as he did spend a decade in a German prison, either that or he just really happens to fancy the staple German delicacy.
There are no jump scares in this mystery thriller but it does keep you wondering, the suspense is built superbly throughout the movie. The bad guys; Gideon, Tex, Scobie, played by Ned Glass, James Coburn, and George Kennedy respectively, they’re villainous yet amusing. There is subtle humour placed in almost all scenes. The director has gone to great lengths to make things funnier, for example killing off all four of the ‘villains’ in their pyjamas just so the french cop could have the ‘Don’t sleep in your pyjamas’ punchline.
The musical score by Henry Macini is highly praised by many, the album scored four and a half stars rating by Allmusic and remained on the Billboard Magazine’s pop album chart for 18 long weeks. Along with the music, the dialogues were also given a lot of importance like when Reggie and Peter were on the cruise gazing at each other, the music as well the lights went down and created the mood for the scene. When it comes to their colour palette, it was very craftily planned as you could see how much their clothing complemented each other, a chef’s kiss to their chemistry.
‘What are you doing here?’ Peter asked. ‘I’m having a nervous breakdown.’ Reggie answered. Quirky humour, soft romance, a stylish mystery with a tinge of action, and phone booths are how one can best describe Charade. If you’re looking for a good laugh, something to puzzle your mind and keep you at the edge of your seat all at once, then this is undoubtedly the film for you.