Review of Charade (1963) by Chris B — 05 Feb 2011

It takes a lot for a film to automatically jump into your favorites of all time. Charade is one of those rare films that did just that. Unfortunately ignored, mostly due to copyright mistakes made by the production company, this has been dubbed "The greatest Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made".

It's certainly true that this owes a lot to the works of Hitchcock. Despite not adding much originality to the genre, it perfects every single facet. Charade is a classical romantic-comedy disguised as a spy thriller.

The first noticeable sign that this is going to be brilliant is the witty and quick dialogue. Most comedies today don't generate so many belly laughs. This is a serious world, filled with real people.

This means that everyone has a slight sense of humor, and interesting character quirks. The film also works by making Hepburn more of a predator than her older leading man. Her character is given much to work with as a woman looking for divorce, before discovering her husband has been murdered.

A great thing about this film is that it has so many twists, and you only see them approaching seconds before the reveal. This film kept me guessing, excited, smiling, and intrigued. An absolute gem from when Hollywood crafted masterpieces.