Charade
August 2004 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Reggie Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) has left her home in Paris to decide whether she should divorce her husband. She takes a vacation in the Alps, where she playfully flirts with Peter Joshua (Cary Grant), who, coincidentally, is also heading to Paris. When she gets back from the trip, she finds her home empty. Her husband has auctioned off all their possessions, taken a train out of town, and been murdered. All he left was an innocuous letter and several bogus passports. She also meets a CIA man named Mr. Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) who explains that she is in a great deal of danger. It turns out that her ex-husband had been in on a plot at the end of WWII to steal Nazi gold, and the other soldiers (James Coburn, George Kennedy, and Ned Glass) want their share of the take. Peter Joshua shows up and offers to help, but can she trust him?

Charade has all the right stuff for grand movie-making: beautiful stars at their peak; a cracking good script from Peter Stone; stunning camera work by Charles Lang; a jazzy score by Henry Mancini; fabulous location shots in and around Paris; and the fine direction by Stanley Donen. The movie drips with intelligent wit and sexy repartee, but you are never more than a few scenes away from a menacing shock. Donen takes us on a roller-coaster ride where we are never quite sure who are the good guys and who are the bad. At some point in the film, nearly every man involved looks as if he could save Reggie, or kill her. That the film provides so many laughs in the middle of the mayhem is further testament to the quality of Stone’s script, Donen’s direction, and the charm of the protagonists.

The history of Charade is almost as dizzying. Apparently, Universal forgot to copyright Charade back in 1963. As soon as the scavengers in the film business figured that out, we were deluged with inferior versions on TV with washed-out colors, scratchy film stock, and lousy sound. Given decades of dreadful presentations, Charade ended up losing its luster and became something you would see on a local TV channel at 3 a.m. With the advent of VHS, and later, DVD, Charade was again subjected to a spate of haphazard releases -- eight on VHS and 13 on DVD, at last count.

The new Criterion version features the best picture Charade has had since its premiere. (This is Criterion’s second release*; the first was letterboxed, but not anamorphic.) We can finally see the film with depth and clarity. It is like polishing an old piece of glass and discovering you have a diamond. The sound is clear mono. There are a few fascinating extras, the best of which is a commentary track by director Stanley Donen and scriptwriter Peter Stone. It was recorded in 1998, and we hear the two old friends reminiscing about one of their successes. It’s especially gratifying to hear Donen, one of Hollywood’s greatest directors (Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face, Royal Wedding, Two for the Road, Bedazzled), weaving a few stories about the stars and the production. Criterion has also provided a better than normal filmography for Donen and Stone, as well as the original trailer.

* In an inspired piece of loyalty to its consumers, Criterion is allowing owners of the letterboxed version to replace their copy for $15 plus shipping and handling. Go here for more details.

• Go Back