USA,
1963, 113 min
Shown in 1995
CREDITS
- dir
-
Stanley Donen
- prod
-
Stanley Donen
- scr
-
Peter Stone
- cam
-
Charles Lang, Jr.
- editor
-
James Clark
- cast
-
Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn
- source
-
Universal Studios
-
COMMENTS
Stanley Donen appeared in person to receive the Akira Kurosawa Award.
OTHER
From the late 1950s onwards, Donen was in a rare fix. On the one hand, no one was inclined to make the sort of musicals at which he excelled; but, on the other, whenever he sought work he would be told that he was just a director of musicals. And this despite the fact that in his best musicals, Donen had always demonstrated an uncommon interest in story, dramatic context and humor. So he had a hard time re-establishing himself: Indiscreet was a success, but he fared less well with Once More with Feeling, Surprise Package and The Grass Is Greener. Charade was therefore a vindication—yet everyone called it a Hitchcock imitation! In truth, it is an old-fashioned star vehicle (Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn) and a comedy-romance (written by Peter Stone, who would later do Arabesque for Donen). Set in Paris, the story has Grant helping Hepburn, a widow, looking for a pot of money. Hepburn’s lately murdered husband has swindled some colleagues and now the search is on for treasure. The villains are varied and spectacular: Walter Matthau, George Kennedy, James Coburn. Charade may be closer to the 1930s than to the ‘90s in tone but that is high praise.
—David Thomson
FACTOID #10
In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which has inspired many women to jump into fountains, was pulled from the San Francisco International Film Festival’s program by the distributor and replaced with Roberto Rossellini’s Night over Rome.
