Owing to the romantic setting of Paris and the haute couture style of the two lead actors, "Charade" fits right in with the cultural ambiance of early 1960s Camelot. Producers could not have picked two lead performers more suited for such a pretentious film: the annoyingly suave Cary Grant and the annoyingly sophisticated Audrey Hepburn. Completing the ensemble of annoying contributors is Henry Mancini, with his dreamy "romantic" music; mercifully, the film doesn't contain his song "Moon River".
The voluminous dialogue driven script is a mess, as it is as contrived and talky as we would expect for early 1960s haughty Hollywood. Worst segment is the "romantic" riverboat ride at night, all schmaltzy and dreamy, that just reeks of Camelot idealism. Further, the plot's alternating humor and murder is unsettling. It conveys the impression that both Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) and Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) are both plagued either by ten second attention spans, or worse, self-deception, wherein multiple deaths in two hours function merely as inconvenient intrusions into their budding love affair.
All that said, the mystery element is pleasantly reminiscent of Agatha Christie's film "And Then There Were None". And the final few scenes are suspenseful. The whodunit element is rather easy to figure out for most of us, except for the giddily delusional and oh-so-naïve Regina Lampert. The plot's predictability in turn results in a somewhat disappointing ending.
Color cinematography is average. I didn't notice any problems, but nothing about the visuals struck me as being overtly laudable, either.
"Charade" has no significant message to impart. It's a mainstream film that provides a pleasing two hours of diversionary entertainment for a star-struck mass audience. But the dreamy, romantic, sophisticated style of Grant, Hepburn and Mancini, set in romantic Paris, makes me yearn for a rowdy Western wherein old, cantankerous characters lacking teeth get dirty and cuss up a storm.
The voluminous dialogue driven script is a mess, as it is as contrived and talky as we would expect for early 1960s haughty Hollywood. Worst segment is the "romantic" riverboat ride at night, all schmaltzy and dreamy, that just reeks of Camelot idealism. Further, the plot's alternating humor and murder is unsettling. It conveys the impression that both Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) and Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) are both plagued either by ten second attention spans, or worse, self-deception, wherein multiple deaths in two hours function merely as inconvenient intrusions into their budding love affair.
All that said, the mystery element is pleasantly reminiscent of Agatha Christie's film "And Then There Were None". And the final few scenes are suspenseful. The whodunit element is rather easy to figure out for most of us, except for the giddily delusional and oh-so-naïve Regina Lampert. The plot's predictability in turn results in a somewhat disappointing ending.
Color cinematography is average. I didn't notice any problems, but nothing about the visuals struck me as being overtly laudable, either.
"Charade" has no significant message to impart. It's a mainstream film that provides a pleasing two hours of diversionary entertainment for a star-struck mass audience. But the dreamy, romantic, sophisticated style of Grant, Hepburn and Mancini, set in romantic Paris, makes me yearn for a rowdy Western wherein old, cantankerous characters lacking teeth get dirty and cuss up a storm.