Charade
original film poster
Directed by	Stanley Donen
Produced by	Stanley Donen
Starring	Cary Grant Audrey Hepburn Walter Matthau James Coburn George Kennedy
Music by	Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 5, 1963
Running time	113 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Charade is a 1963 film written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It also stars Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, and Jacques Marin. It spans several genres including suspense thriller, romance, and comedy. Image File history File links Charade_movieposter. ... Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as the King of the Hollywood musicals. His most famous work is Singin In The Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. ... Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an British film actor. ... Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was an Academy Award-winning actress of film and theatre, Broadway stage performer, ballerina, fashion model, and humanitarian. ... Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an Academy Award winning American comedy actor. ... James Coburn in Sam Peckinpahs Cross of Iron (1977). ... George Kennedy George Kennedy (born February 18, 1925 in New York City, New York) is an actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. ... Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994), was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger. ... Charles Lang (March 22, 1902 – April 3, 1998) was a noted film cinematographer. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events January 28 - Filming begins on Dr. Strangelove. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... // Events January 28 - Filming begins on Dr. Strangelove. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... Peter Stone (February 27, 1930 -April 26, 2003) was a writer for theater, television and movies. ... Marc Behm was born in 1925 in New Jersey. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as the King of the Hollywood musicals. His most famous work is Singin In The Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. ... Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an British film actor. ... Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was an Academy Award-winning actress of film and theatre, Broadway stage performer, ballerina, fashion model, and humanitarian. ... Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an Academy Award winning American comedy actor. ... James Coburn in Sam Peckinpahs Cross of Iron (1977). ... George Kennedy George Kennedy (born February 18, 1925 in New York City, New York) is an actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. ... Jacques Marin is a French actor (1919-2001) whose good command of the English language and his ressemblance with the stereotypical Frenchman looks made a familiar face in some major American productions (Charade) and Disney movies (The Island at the Top of the World, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo). ... Thriller films are movies that primarily use action and suspense to engage the audience. ...

The film is notable for its screenplay, especially the repartee between Grant and Hepburn, for its location filming in Paris, for Henry Mancini's score and theme song, and for the animated titles by Maurice Binder. Look up Wit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wit is a form of intellectual humor, based on manipulation of concepts; a wit is someone who excels in witty remarks, typically in conversation and spontaneously, since wit carries the connotation of speed of thought. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994), was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger. ... Maurice Binder (August 25, 1925 - April 4, 1991) is a famous title designer best known for his work on 14 James Bond films beginning with the first, Dr. No in 1962 and ending with Licence to Kill in 1989. ...

It is sometimes referred to as "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made."

Plot

Regina 'Reggie' Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) meets a charming stranger calling himself Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) while on a skiing holiday in Megève. She then returns to Paris, planning to ask her husband Charles for a divorce, but finds their flat empty and all their possessions sold. The police then notify her that her husband has been murdered, thrown from a train. The police give Regina her husband's travel bag. At the funeral, Regina is struck by the odd characters who show up to view her husband's body, including one who sticks the corpse with a pin to verify he is dead. Megève is a commune of the Haute-Savoie département in France. ...

She is also summoned to the US Embassy, where she meets CIA agent Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau). He informs her that Charles was involved in a theft during World War II. As part of the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor of the CIA), he, 'Tex' Panthollow (James Coburn), Herman Scobie (George Kennedy), Leopold Gideon (Ned Glass) and Carson Dyle were parachuted behind enemy lines to deliver $250,000 in gold to the French Resistance. Instead, they buried it, but they were ambushed soon afterwards by a German patrol. Dyle was badly wounded and left behind to die, but the rest got away. Charles then doublecrossed the others, digging up the gold and selling it. The others killed him, but could not find the proceeds—and the US government also wants the money back. Reggie recognizes some of the oddballs from the funeral in pictures shown to her by Bartholomew. He insists that she has the money, even if she doesn't know where it is. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency and was a lineage precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as for the Special Forces and Navy Seals, who have traced their lineage back to... The French Resistance is the name used for resistance movements during World War II which fought the German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy regime, and was a vital and some say decisive factor in the defeat of Hitler and the Nazi revolution. ...

Reggie calls Peter to meet her at the park; he offers to help her figure out what to do. She becomes attracted to him, even though he keeps changing his name periodically (simultaneously amusing and confusing her) and unabashedly admits he's after her late husband's money as well. The dead man's partners in crime assume Reggie knows where the money is hidden and demand their share. Unbeknownst to her, Peter is in league with them, though none of them trust each other.

The searchers begin turning up dead, first Herman, then Leopold. Reggie and Peter go to the location of Charles' last appointment and find an outdoor market. They also spot Tex there. Reggie and Peter split up, with Peter following Tex.

It is Tex who finally figures out where the money is hidden, when he sees several booths selling stamps; Charles had purchased rare stamps and stuck them on an envelope in plain sight. Peter realizes the same thing shortly afterwards and races Tex back to Reggie's hotel room, where Charles' possessions are kept. However, they come up empty. The stamps have been cut off the letter.

Reggie had given them to her friend's son for his stamp collection. By chance, she runs into them at the market, only to learn that the little boy has traded them away. Fortunately, the stamp seller is honest and is satisfied just to have been in possession of the stamps, if only briefly; he gives them back to Reggie.

She returns to the hotel and finds Tex's bound body. Before he died, he was able to spell out on the carpet the name of his killer: Dyle. One of the identities that Peter had assumed was Alexander Dyle, Carson's brother. Frightened, Reggie telephones Bartholomew, who arranges to meet her. When she leaves the hotel, Peter spots her and gives chase.

Reggie hiding from the unmasked Carson Dyle.

Peter tracks her down to the rendezvous and Reggie is caught out in the open between the two men. Peter tells her that the man she thought was Bartholomew is really Carson Dyle and that he was the one who killed the others. Another chase ensues, ending with Dyle's death from a fall. Image File history File links Charadehepburn. ... Image File history File links Charadehepburn. ...

Reggie insists on turning the stamps over to the proper authorities, much to Peter's disgust. He refuses to accompany her inside the office of the embassy official she is going to see, but when she goes to see the appropriate bureaucrat, Brian Cruikshank, she is shocked to find Peter sitting behind the desk. After convincing her that he is actually a government official (by buzzing his secretary), he dispels her irritation at being deceived by promising to marry her...after she gives him the stamps. The movie ends with a split-screen grid showing flashback shots of all his different identities, with Reggie hoping that they have lots of boys, so she can name them all after him. An example of split screen used in the sitcom That 70s Show. ...

Production

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn

The movie was said to be an attempt by the studio to unite the popular stars Hepburn and Grant onscreen. Grant had previously been offered a role opposite Hepburn in Roman Holiday, but had turned it down because he felt he was too old to play her love interest. The role eventually went to Gregory Peck. Grant finally agreed to take the role, but in order to play down the 25-year age difference between them, he insisted that Hepburn's character be made the aggressor in the relationship. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy. ... Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an Oscar-winning American film actor. ...

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 with 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 end of the film. Since its first use in 1851, a cameo role or cameo appearance has been a brief appearance in a play (or later, a movie) that stands out against the general context for its éclat or dramatic punch. ... A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one nation state present in another nation state to represent the sending state in the receiving State. ...

Awards

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn were nominated for Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy and Best Motion Picture Actress in Musical/Comedy. Screenwriter Stone received a 1964 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... The Mystery Writers of America are an organization for mystery writers. ...

Copyright status

According to the Archive.org website and other sources, Charade is now in the public domain due to a legal irregularity: no claim of copyright was put into the original prints, even though copyright notices were mandatory in the US prior to 1989. This error did not become a serious problem until the introduction of VCR equipment, which meant that companies could produce retail copies without the need to pay licence fees. As a result, there are many editions of Charade on VHS and DVD, of widely varying sound and picture quality. The restored Criterion DVD edition sells, on average, for ten times the cost of most DVD releases of the film. The film was included as a bonus feature on the DVD release of its remake, The Truth About Charlie. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ... The video cassette recorder (or VCR, less popularly video tape recorder) is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable cassettes containing magnetic tape to record audio and video from a television broadcast so it can be played back later. ... The Criterion Collection is a privately held company which produces and releases authorative consumer versions of important classic and contemporary films on DVD. It was established in 1984 as a joint venture between Janus Films and the Voyager Company. ... 2002] US film. ...

Remakes

The movie was remade in 2002 as The Truth About Charlie starring Thandie Newton and Mark Wahlberg, and directed by Jonathan Demme. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2002] US film. ... Thandie Newton (born Thandiwe Adjewa Newton on November 6, 1972) is a BAFTA Award-winning English actress. ... Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and television producer, formerly known as rapper Marky Mark. ... Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an American film director, producer and writer. ...

Eva Green and David Strathairn are slated to star in a 2007 remake.^{[citation needed]} Eva Gaëlle Green [e-VA GREN] (born July 5, 1980) is a BAFTA award-winning French actress // Eva Green was born in Paris, France to a French mother and a Swedish father, and was raised in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. ... David Russell Strathairn (born on January 26, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American film and television actor. ...

Trivia

• When Peter and Reggie first arrive at the hotel room where she is staying, she asks where they are, to which Peter replies "On the street where you live," the name of a song in the musical My Fair Lady. Hepburn would play the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the film version the following year.
• Grant's character tells Reggie his name is (at various times):
  • Peter Joshua
  • Alexander Dyle, Carson's non-existent brother
  • Adam Canfield
  • Brian Cruikshank, his "real" name
• Henry Mancini's theme tune for the film was borrowed uncredited as the title-song for the 1965 Bollywood murder mystery Gumnaam
• Julia Roberts's character in the 1990 film Pretty Woman can be seen watching the end of Charade.

The original poster for the Broadway production of the show designed by Al Hirschfeld My Fair Lady is a 1956 musical theater production with lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. ... Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994), was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Bollywood (Hindi: }}, Urdu: ) is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindustani language film industry in India. ... Gumnaam (Urdu for unknown or anonymous) is a 1965 Bollywood film directed by Raja Nawathe and starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Helen and Mehmood. ... Julia Roberts (born Julia Fiona Roberts on October 28, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Pretty Woman is an American romantic comedy motion picture that was one of the top films at the box office in 1990. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Charade

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Charade

• Charade at the Internet Movie Database
• Charade at the TCM Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Eder
• Charade as a 21 episode serial - Free to watch and download (Windows format)