Charade (1963) on Netflix
NR19631h 53mComedyMysteryRomance
American interpreter Regina Lampert plans to divorce her husband Charles in Paris. He is murdered, and three men from his wartime unit want the gold he stole. Peter Joshua offers his help.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.8/1094,767 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Regina Lampert, an American interpreter living in Paris, tells her friend Sylvie that she intends to divorce her husband Charles. On returning from a holiday in the French Alps she finds their apartment emptied, and the police report that Charles auctioned everything and was murdered after leaving the city. His travel bag holds a letter, a ship ticket and four passports in different names. At the funeral three strangers appear to view the body. Summoned to the American Embassy, Regina learns from Hamilton Bartholomew that Charles and four OSS comrades stole $250,000 in gold meant for the French Resistance, and that Herman Scobie, Leopold W. Gideon and Tex Panthollow believe she has it. Peter Joshua, whom she met in the Alps, helps her move to a hotel while the three men press her for the money.
Cast
- Thomas Chelimskyas Jean-Louis Gaudet
- Claudine Bergas Maid (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Albert Daumergueas Man in Stamp Market (uncredited)
- Jean Goldas Writer On Cafe Terrace (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Charade (1963)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film entered the public domain in the United States immediately upon release, because its notice read "MCMLXIII BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. and STANLEY DONEN FILMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" without the word "copyright", the abbreviation "copr." or the symbol.
- When the film was released at Christmas time 1963, Audrey Hepburn's line "At any moment we could be assassinated" was overdubbed with "At any moment we could be eliminated", due to the recent assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- Cary Grant, who turned 59 during filming, was sensitive about the 25-year age difference between Audrey Hepburn, 33 at the time, and himself, and was uncomfortable with their romantic interplay; the filmmakers agreed to add dialogue in which Grant's character comments on his age, with Regina portrayed as the pursuer.
- Screenwriters Peter Stone and Marc Behm could not sell their script The Unsuspecting Wife around Hollywood, so Stone turned it into a novel, retitled Charade, which was serialized in Redbook magazine; the serial caught the attention of the same companies that had passed on it earlier.
- Charade premiered as the Christmas film at Radio City Music Hall in New York on December 5, 1963 and broke the theater's box office record, then was the highest-grossing film in the country for five weekends straight in January and ended up the fourth highest grossing film of 1964.
- Before the Christmas release Universal consented to a one-time advance screening at the Palace Theatre in Washington, D.C., a benefit to raise money to help low-income children stay in school; Ella Fitzgerald performed and, according to Jet magazine, $50,000 was raised.
- In the Criterion Collection's 1999 commentary, Stone laments that the music swells to mask what he calls his best closing line, and Donen tells him that he can say it now and get his own back.
