These changes do absolutely nothing to change the brilliance of the film overall. In fact, it's downright refreshing to see a man try to resist Audrey, then at the peak of her career and her more mature beauty. Audrey plays Regina "Reggie" Lampert, a woman who comes back from a Swiss holiday with a friend to discover herself a new widow -- a widow who had wanted to divorce her husband, and who stood to inheirit a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) . . . if the money can be found. And she's not the only one after the money, either. Through many twists and turns we come to find that her now deceased husband Charles had been close with four other men during his service in WWII, and that this group of men had stolen the $250k and stashed it until the end of the war. The only problem was that Charles came back early, and ever since then, these men have been after him with a vengeance. Reggie is always barely a half step ahead of them, aided by Cary Grant's character, who goes through so many name changes it's like watching Susan Lucci's soap opera career on fast-forward. Every time Reggie thinks she can trust Peter (just to pick a name), a new twist pops up and she's back at square one with him. To complicate matters, she seems to be falling for him. But is she falling for the man who killed her husband, and who is willing to kill her for the missing fortune?
All in all, Charade is a brilliant thriller in the vein of Hitchcock's greater movies, but with more humor. Cary Grant loved to improvise and loosened Audrey up a bit, too, really showing her vastly underrated comedic side. Grant himself said that she should be allowed to do more comedies, since she had the gift. A running joke throughout the movie involves Reggie spilling her food on Peter's suits, or otherwise ruining his clothes. This stemmed from reality; Audrey and Cary's first meeting, to be exact. Director Stanley Donnen thought it would be less nerve-wracking for them to meet in a small restaurant, and when they all settled down at their table, Audrey said "I'm so nervous!" Cary said there was no reason to be, and told her to put her hands palms-down on the table and take a deep breath to help her relax. She did, but ended up knocking a full bottle of red wine onto Cary's cream-coloured suit. Mortified beyond belief, Audrey watched as Cary cooly removed his jacket and carried on as if nothing had happened. The next day he sent her a tin of caviar and a note telling her to forget all about it. It was this laid-back attitude of his on and off set that helped to set Audrey at ease and really have fun with her part. She and Cary worked well together, which is obvious from the beginning of the film, and though they often wished to work together again, it tragically never happened. Still, if there had to be only one Hepburn/Grant film, Charade is an excellent choice.
"He had more wisdom than I to help me with it [vulnerability]. He said something very important to me one day when I was probably twitching and nervous. We were sitting next to each other waiting for the next shot. And he laid his hand on my two hands and said, 'You've got to learn to like yourself a little more.' I've often thought about that." - Audrey
Rating: 5 stars
VHS: I think you'd actually be hard up to find a new VHS copy of Charade, even though it did fall into public domain a while ago. Amazon does offer videotapes for sale, but only through independent sellers, and most are used. But if you don't mind a used copy, then it doesn't get any better than .52¢! Plus, the artwork on the boxes is often hilariously good.
DVD: Since Charade was allowed to slip into public domain, there's a plethora of cheap DVDs to choose from. I can't answer for the quality of any of them except this one, which I bought at Best Buy a million years ago for $5. It's actually a pretty good print (much better than my old videotape, which had a "Please Wait - Changing Reels" screen pop up in the middle of a particularly exciting part of the film), and even comes with another, completely unrelated 1953 Charade with James Mason in it, which I still haven't watched. It also comes with the trailer and a quiz on Cary Grant, which is odd but entertaining. All in all, you're just gambling with your $5 or $10 when it comes to these off-brand DVDs, but if you're a collector and like bizarre things, this might turn into a hobby. I would recommend the version linked to above simply because it is good quality (the box claims it's fully restored and digitally remastered) and it'll hold you over until someone's willing to spend $40 and buy the Criterion edition for you.
Criterion Edition: Most fans call it the version of Charade to own, but annoyingly, Criterion has been very spotty about keeping this edition available. For a good two or three years it wasn't to be found, and now it's been re-released as anamorphic widescreen, instead of the original letterbox. For being such a pricey collector's item, though, I wasn't very happy with the extras on the disc. It does come with a commentary by Stanley Donen and screenwriter Peter Stone, plus a featurette on Donen's films and Peter Stone's career, the trailer and -- colour bars? The print of the film is worth owning, but I'm not so sure if the scant extras make the price worthwhile. Even My Fair Lady had more than this, and was half the price.
The Truth About Charlie: If you weren't aware, The Truth About Charlie is a recent remake of Charade, with Thandie Newton taking Audrey's part and Mark Wahlberg in Cary Grant's shoes. If you aren't shuddering in horror yet, just watch the first two minutes of the film. I couldn't even make it that far. As expected, the movie did horribly at the box office, and some say it really hurt Thandie's career (just like the Sabrina remake hurt Julia Ormond's career). When released on DVD, someone got wise and threw in the entire Hepburn/Grant Charade as a bonus feature, and most people unfortunate enough to spend money on this just ended up watching Charade instead. So, like The Audrey Hepburn Story, I guess some good did come from all that bad, but was the price worth it?