Charade

1963's CHARADE is the sort of film for which the word "delightful" was created.   Here's a twisty Hitchcockian thriller that also happens to be a charming romance, with effortless chemistry between its leads, who were a quarter century apart in age.  It's possibly the quintessential star turn for both Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.  It may well make an instant fan out of anyone ignorant of their film work.

Peter Stone's screenplay, based on his short story "The Unsuspecting Wife" is a sharp, clever tale that weaves several genres into an intriguing and satisfying tale of spies, er, agents and thieves and a woman who may be everyone's victim.  Are we to trust Peter Joshua (Grant), the mysterious man Regina (Hepburn) meets in the French Alps? Who also just happens to show up at her Paris flat, one discovered to be emptied of its contents? Regina learns that her late husband Charles, another elusive type she was planning to divorce, had auctioned off all their belongings before being thrown from a train.

What of the trio of shady fellows who appear at Charles' wake? One of them with a claw for a hand? It seems they are after the quarter million they stole during a WW II mission.  The one where Charlie took all the gold for himself and disappeared.  How about CIA guy Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau)? The one who knew Reggie's husband and the three heavies and informs her that she is not safe while they hunt for the loot - which Hamilton insists she has.

Twisty.  I've set up the plot.  Expect duplicity, or at least the appearance of it.  We're right there with Reggie, never sure who Peter (or most anyone else) really is.  As she gradually learns some rather disturbing things about him, she recoils but always falls back in love.  The girl can't help it.  She even swoons when he showers with his clothes on. 

Director Stanley Donen keeps the pace swift and his actors well framed.  Charles Lang's photography is crisply cinematic, accentuating Paris locations; the city has rarely looked more seductive, and menacing.  The cast is splendid, including James Coburn and George Kennedy as two of those heavies.  The film gets surprisingly brutal at times and two of the deaths we see in aftermath are memorable.  But it's all about Hepburn and Grant, who are irresistible.  Kudos to them and Donen for minimizing the cheese.