Charade (1963)

Charade is a 1963 American romantic comedy thriller produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Set in Paris, the film blends suspense, comedy, and romance as a recently widowed woman is pursued by several men seeking a fortune her murdered husband had hidden.

The film was released without a proper copyright notice, causing it to enter the public domain immediately upon release in the United States — an accidental windfall that has made it freely available ever since. Critics have called it "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made." The score was composed by Henry Mancini, and the title song became a pop standard.

Watch

Video source: Internet Archive — charade_1963 · Public domain

Chapters

Click any timestamp to jump to that point in the film.

1. 00:00 Opening sequence — skiing holiday in the French Alps
2. 05:00 Regina returns to Paris to find her husband murdered and the apartment emptied
3. 10:00 CIA agent Hamilton and the hunt for the stolen gold
4. 20:00 Three dangerous men pursue Regina across Paris
5. 40:00 The true identity of Peter Joshua is revealed
6. 60:00 Climax at the Palais Royal

References

1. Stone, Peter. "Charade." Scenario: The Magazine of Screenwriting Art, 1998.
2. Thomas, Tony. The Films of Audrey Hepburn. Citadel Press, 1980.