Charade (1963)
Director/Producer Stanley Donen...now that's a name cinema fans should know. Before he became a director Donen was an accomplished choreographer working on top level musicals for over 10 years. That impeccable sense of rhythm and timing is a trait of great choreographers, and it translates into one very skilled director.
Stanley Donen's Charade is near perfection. The film flows from act to act and scene to scene. Part of the perfection is the brilliant casting, topped off by one of the most charming actresses to grace the silver screen, Audrey Hepburn. One never gets a sense that she's acting as she's so natural and down to earth, that she seems like someone we might know in real life. There's an old saying about actors that's still true today, 'dying is easy, comedy is hard!' It takes a special talent to make comedy and romance come through the screen in a believable way. Audrey does that with so much ease that one forgets they're watching a movie.
Cary Grant had that easiness about him too. He's funny because he doesn't even try. It's his straight face delivery of funny lines that makes this and many of his other films classics. The few times he strays from that, tried and true straight comedy delivery, it doesn't work. The shower scene where he decides to take a shower in his suit, as he hams it up...is the only scene that didn't work for me.
For the rest of the cast, all I can say is what a good bunch of baddies! Is there anybody more brutish than George Kennedy or James Coburn, and along with the little guy in the glasses they make for a good counter balance to the effervescence of Audrey.
Charade came out of a unique time period at the height of the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis was in full swing during production. This cold war tension then launched a spree of spy thriller movies. Charade is one of the best of the bunch for it's effortless balancing of thriller-romance-drama-comedy elements all with wit and charm.
Stanley Donen's Charade is near perfection. The film flows from act to act and scene to scene. Part of the perfection is the brilliant casting, topped off by one of the most charming actresses to grace the silver screen, Audrey Hepburn. One never gets a sense that she's acting as she's so natural and down to earth, that she seems like someone we might know in real life. There's an old saying about actors that's still true today, 'dying is easy, comedy is hard!' It takes a special talent to make comedy and romance come through the screen in a believable way. Audrey does that with so much ease that one forgets they're watching a movie.
Cary Grant had that easiness about him too. He's funny because he doesn't even try. It's his straight face delivery of funny lines that makes this and many of his other films classics. The few times he strays from that, tried and true straight comedy delivery, it doesn't work. The shower scene where he decides to take a shower in his suit, as he hams it up...is the only scene that didn't work for me.
For the rest of the cast, all I can say is what a good bunch of baddies! Is there anybody more brutish than George Kennedy or James Coburn, and along with the little guy in the glasses they make for a good counter balance to the effervescence of Audrey.
Charade came out of a unique time period at the height of the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis was in full swing during production. This cold war tension then launched a spree of spy thriller movies. Charade is one of the best of the bunch for it's effortless balancing of thriller-romance-drama-comedy elements all with wit and charm.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 08-16-19 at 06:28 PM.