Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Seeing Audrey Hepburn wandering about 1960s Paris has a certain charm to it, especially when she is dressed like Jackie Kennedy, including those big O-O sunglasses. That is part of the attraction to watching Charade (1963), plus the film being a mystery, a romantic comedy, and having a host of well-known co-stars rolled into one.

In Charade Regina Lampert, AKA Reggie (Audrey Hepburn) decides to divorce her husband Charles while she is on a skiing vacation in France. When she returns to their Paris apartment she finds it has been stripped bare of every item, and her husband is missing. The Parisian police get involved and discover that Charles is dead. An investigation turns up some mysterious documents belonging to Reggie&#146s husband, which makes him look like a suspicious character. And then at his funeral three men view the body and are seen poking at it, just to make sure he is really dead. What is going on?

Reggie soon meets CIA employee Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) who informs her that her husband knew the three men that appeared at his funeral. They were all survivors of WWII who were involved in a plan to divert $250,000 in gold to the French underground movement. However, one of the men (Charles?) ran off with the loot and now everyone suspects that Reggie knows where it is hidden.

In the meantime a man named Peter Joshua (Cary Grant), who Reggie, had met briefly while skiing, reappears in Paris and offers to help Reggie get back on her feet. But before long Reggie is not sure who amongst all these men is really trying to help her, or is trying to kill her. And then one-by-one, like in an Agatha Christie novel, the various characters start turning up dead.

The plot of Charade is a good one but a little confusing at times. Cary Grant's characters changes identity several times and some of the good guys turn out to be bad guys, and vice-versa. Hepburn's character is the innocent damsel in distress, but then I started to think that maybe she was the real culprit. It is not until the movie&#146s end where everything makes sense.

The acting was very good by all in Charade. Hepburn played the character of Reggie as someone who was worried about all that was going on, but remained composed and level-headed (unlike her future role of Eliza Doolittle). She also looked terrific in the clothes she wore &#150 very smart and stylish. Cary Grant was his usual self in this film- suave and debonair and rarely broke a sweat until his life was on the line. His part was fairly complicated too because he pretended to have several different identities and had a critical part in a plot twist.

Walter Matthau, George Kennedy, and James Coburn were among the supporting cast members. All their performances were very good too. They each walked a fine line between being comical at times and being dead serious. I&#146m mostly familiar with Matthau's later performances so thought it was funny to see him with dark hair and a narrow little mustache as he appears in Charade. He was not yet a grumpy old man.

Charade has a slow start and I was initially confused about where the plot was leading. But eventually the pieces start to fall into place. I had misjudged the movie as strictly a comedy before watching it, which threw me off too. I also enjoyed seeing the street scenes in and about Paris in this movie. I think using actual locations instead of studio sets greatly enhanced the film&#146s believability. So overall I recommend Charade since it combines many fine acting performances and is quite entertaining.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older