Taglines: Please don’t tell who did what to whom!
Charade movie storyline. Regina Lampert (a stunning Audrey Hepburn in the chicest Givemchy) in gorgeous Megève, has decided to divorce her husband, Charles, because of all his secrets and lies. Before she can, Charles is found dead – pushed off a train. When Regina returns to Paris, she’s found her apartment empty, the closets bare, and a French detective, who tells her Charles supposedly left with $250,000 on his way to South America.
A note left for her to come to the US Embassy where she meets Hamilton Bartholemew (Walter Matthau), who tells her Charles stole the money from the US government, and they want it back. Soon, 3 men show up, threatening her for the return of ‘their’ money. She’s terrified, because she knows nothing of any of this, nor where the money is. Dashing Peter Joshua (Carey Grant) is there to help Regina, in director Stanley Donen’s souflé of a film, hailed as the ‘best Hitchcock film he never made’. One part glamour, one part Hepburn, Grant (as well as Matthau, Coburn, Kennedy, and many more), whipped stylishly together, in one of Mr Donen’s best loved films, and after watching it, you’ll agree.
Charade is a 1963 American romantic comedy mystery film directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, and Jacques Marin. It spans three genres: suspense thriller, romance and comedy.
The film is notable for its screenplay, especially the repartee between Grant and Hepburn; for having been filmed on location in Paris; for Henry Mancini’s score and theme song, and for the animated titles by Maurice Binder. Charade has received generally positive reviews from critics. It combines the genres of whodunit, screwball comedy and spy thriller, and has been described as “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made”.
About the Production
When screenwriters Peter Stone and Marc Behm submitted their script The Unsuspecting Wife around Hollywood, they were unable to sell it. Stone then turned it into a novel, retitled Charade, which found a publisher and was also serialized in Redbook magazine, as many novels were at the time. In Redbook it 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 stars Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, with Behm receiving story co-credit.
Hepburn shot the film in the fall of 1962, immediately after Paris When It Sizzles, which she shot that summer in a number of the same locations in Paris, but production difficulties with that film caused it to be released four months after Charade.
When the film was released at Christmas, 1963, Audrey Hepburn’s line, “at any moment we could be assassinated”, was dubbed over to become “at any moment we could be eliminated” due to the recent assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The dubbed word stood out quite clearly and all official video releases of the film have since restored the original dialogue, though some public domain videos taken from original release prints still carry the redubbed line.
Cary Grant (who turned 59 during filming) was sensitive about the 25-year age difference between Audrey Hepburn (33 at the time of filming) and himself, and this made him uncomfortable with the romantic interplay between them. To satisfy his concerns, the filmmakers agreed to add several lines of dialogue in which Grant’s character comments on his age and Regina — Hepburn’s character — is portrayed as the pursuer.
The screenwriter, Peter Stone, and the director, Stanley Donen, have an unusual joint cameo role in the film. When Reggie goes to the U.S. Embassy to meet Bartholomew, two men get on the elevator as she gets off. The man who says, “I bluffed the old man out of the last pot — with a pair of deuces” is Stone, but the voice is Donen’s. Stone’s voice is later used for the U.S. Marine who is guarding the Embassy at the film’s ending.
Charade (1963)
Directed by: Stanley Donen
Starring: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, Thomas Chelimsky, Thomas Chelimsky, Claudine Berg
Screenplay by: Peter Stone
Production Design by: Edward Muhl
Cinematography by: Charles Lang
Film Editing by: Jim Clark
Art Direction by: Jean d’Eaubonne
Makeup Department: Alberto De Rossi, John O’Gorman
Music by: Henry Mancini
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: December 5, 1963 (United States)
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