#22 Charade

January 22, 2021
Charade (1963) ****
TCM
Free
Wildcard

What can one say about Charade? If you’ve seen it, you know that it is a practically perfect movie, and if you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for? It’s a practically perfect movie!

As Ben Mankiewicz says every time the film is on TMC, it’s the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made, which is really true! Audrey Hepburn plays a woman whose husband, whom she doesn’t like very much, is killed and then several mysterious character actors start chasing after her to find the half $1 million that the dead husband had, but seems to have vanished.

Cary Grant is either a good guy or bad guy, but whichever one he is, Audrey Hepburn can’t help falling in love with him, because, well, he is Cary Grant after all.

Apparently, Cary Grant was very uncomfortable with their massive age difference, so would only do the film if she chased him, which is exactly what makes it work so beautifully.

Charade is like The Maltese Falcon, or The African Queen, in that when you have the opportunity you watch it, you watch it.