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Monday, February 25, 2019

CHARADE (1963)

Everyone’s favorite faux Hitchcock-Lite (deservedly so), and doubly worth (re)watching now in the wake of director Stanley Donen’s passing. He’s in top form, flawlessly managing the unlikely tone of bald comic violence & grisly murder with grown-up Screwball Romance. A remarkably nimble showing, fresh & pacey, as clueless widow Audrey Hepburn tries to sort out the hidden $250,000 legacy of the late husband she hardly knew while holding off a trio of toughs (James Coburn, Ned Glass, George Kennedy); Walter Matthau’s CIA agent; and mysterious, if sympathetic man-in-the-middle Cary Grant. With lenser Charles Lang handling the ‘swellegant’ Paris locations, along with those classic faces, the film seems unable to put a foot wrong. No small concern on a plot carrying so much gun play & spirited, if deadly mayhem with a release date only three weeks after the JKF assassination.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL: Great light entertainment, like Stanley Donen’s, tends to be taken for granted. After all, half the trick lies in not letting the work show; yet it's famously hard to pull off. See Jonathan Demme come a cropper on his flop CHARADE remake THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE/’02 for confirmation. Even Donen came up short repeating the formula but pushing too hard in his visually stylish ARABESQUE/66. (see below)

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