Charade (1963)

Lits Mayıs 12, 2022

1963

Directed by: Stanley Donen

Story / Screenplay: Peter Stone, Marc Behm

Music: Henri Mancini

Starring: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau,
James Coburn, George Kennedy, Ned Glass

I love Cary Grant. Along with James Stewart and Gregory Peck, he makes up the Hollywood trio who I find eminently watchable. (Montgomery Clift is an honourable runner-up in the stakes.) I found him rather dishy in his earlier movies, and found him so even in Charade, which he starred in when he was nearly sixty. One of his last movies as leading man, he almost rejected the offer on the basis that he was too old to play Audrey Hepburn’s lover. (She was 34.) However, one can understand Audrey Hepburn’s much-younger character falling for him.

And I adore Audrey Hepburn. Every inch of her petite self. I loved her in My Fair Lady, and that solidified into adoration when I saw Roman Holiday. Maybe the fact that I’d already reached my full height of 5’6” when I was 12 had something to do with being entranced by her elfin charm. She reminded me of one of those fragile dolls, only, she was sassy and impish and independent and absolutely marvellous.

So it beats me why I’d never seen Charade until recently. And it’s not like I hadn’t seen any of Stanley Donen’s work before. Having watched the movie, I’m still shaking my head at why I hadn’t come across this gem before.