We are going classic again with our favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn as Reggie Lampert who lives in Paris and starts in the movie on a skiing holiday. She had plans of divorcing her husband once she returns to Paris, only to find their apartment bare. A police officer explained to her that her husband was found dead and that he sold all their things inside the apartment prior to his death. The police asked about the money from the sale but Reggie doesn't know anything about it. The police also gave her husband's bag with his things including multiple passport with different names and nationalities and some stuff.
Seeing that Reggie does not have anything to do with her husbands death, she was let go and she was able to arrange for the wake of her husband. Three men showed up to pay their respects and then she received a letter summoning her for a meeting with CIA Administrator Hamilton Bartholomew (played by Walther Matthau). Bartholomew then confided with Reggie that the three men at the wake were her husband's buddies that stole USD250,000 from the US Government. He also warned Reggie that the three men thinks she has the money and that she is in great danger.
To allay her fears, she calls upon Peter Joshua (played by Cary Grant), whom she met during her holidy, to help her get a hotel room. He eventually played as her bodyguard of sorts protecting her from the three men who are after her. It turned out that Peter Joshua is in cahoots with those who are after the money and his real name is Carson Dyle. Reggie learned about this but she still trusts Peter now Carson.
While the story moved on, still on the trail of the money, one by one, the three men died in different situations. Reggie suspected Peter who was Carson and now Adam Canfield who killed them all. She phoned Bartholomew about it and she instructs Reggie to meet him at the Colonnade at the Palais-Royal. On her wait to the meet, Peter aka Carson aka Adam gave chase and she got in between Bartholomew and Adam. It turned out that Barholomew is Carson Dyle and he was the one killed the three men and now he is after the money. Adam eventually saves Reggie and the next day they bring the money (treasure) to return to the embassy when suddenly Reggie learns that Peter aka Carson aka Adam is really Brian Cruikshank, a government officer tasked to recover the stolen money. His true identity now in the open for Reggie, Brian then proposes marriage to Reggie and she kisses him.
A happy ending for an almost confusing number of changing identities. Maybe this was the main reason for the movie title. Charades. As per the dictionary, it is an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance. Cary Grant had 4 name changes while Walter Matthau had just one. These two gave an appearance of being nice guys to Reggie with the objective of getting the stolen money.
Cary Grant had it easy with Reggie being handsome and suave. Every time he changes his identity from Peter to Carson to Adam to Brian, he is forgiven and Reggie still trusts him. This might have turned us off but we love Audrey Hepburn as this naive unsuspecting widow, who gets smitten with Cary Grant. Who wouldn't. Reggie made it known in most parts of the film that she is smitten with Grant's colorful character.
We admit, that even with the age gap between them, they look good together. Hepburn throws herself literally at Grant, but being a perfect gentleman, he brushes off her approaches. Maybe this endeared upon Hepburn's character, making her love him more each time a new identity was discovered.
This film was made in 1963 so story telling then was very much different. Here we don't see an elaborate character development so we were kept guessing with Cary Grant's character. Reggie as a widow also had none so we were wonder beyond our imagination, how could have have married her husband whom he only knew his name. She didn't know how much money they had, what was his job, why would she marry him? Thankfully we did skip this and focused more on the story.
Film in the 1960's were mostly talking so bear with the back and forth question and answer situations. It is as if they were just reading off a page in the book the movie was based on. Thankfully Hepburn was a darling here and we love her every time she comes on screen. We can forgive the slow pace and the dialogues. Cary Grant is suave as ever, acting wise, he was just cruising along with Hepburn. Nothing exemplary, but was just right. He might not have shined here but he was an eye candy for us when standing beside Hepburn.
Another point to watch this film is the presence of well known celebrities like James Coburn, George Kennedy and Walther Matthau. These three actors were solid in their portrayal making the film interesting to watch. And we liked the French police inspector, Inspector Edouard Grandpierre. We liked his presence here and how we wished he was given more screentime.
If you like film classics, and a bit picky on what to watch from the era, we would gladly suggest this one. Breakfast at Tiffany's (another Hepburn classic) is available in Netflix, however Charade isn't. We can find Charade being streamed in YouTube for free.
