TONITE’S BEST BET: 6 Oscars and a Dead - TopicsExpress

TONITE’S BEST BET: 6 Oscars and a Dead Body Charade/Шарада (Drama. USA, 1963) (Doverie, 13:50 & 01:05). -- > One of the great thriller-comedy-romances of the ‘60s – and a greatly undervalued one, for reasons that want pondering – Stanley Donen’s “Charade” brings together an intriguing plot, the wonders of Paris and a cast you won’t find repeated anywhere: Cary Grant in one of his last romantic leads-- and altogether convincing at age 59; Audrey Hepburn opposite him, in peak form and playing a character far more appealing than the allegedly-effervescent Holly Golightly (whose job was what again, exactly?); Walter Matthau as his best empathizable-everyman, the guy you can’t help but trust; George Kennedy, marvelously threatening as a one-armed bandit; James Coburn, almost as frightening as the lucky/unlucky Tex, who “figures it out” first; and the always reliable Ned Glass doing his Ned Glass thing. Yes, if you’re counting that’s 5 Academy Award winners, directed by a 6th – and for once the medal count is really indicative. This movie is loads of danger-packed/laugh out loud/puzzle-solving fun, and has been on my All-Time Top 10 List for, let’s see here, something like four decades now. Screenplay by Peter Stone (from his story, w/ Marc Behm). It all starts on a train, from which a body flies (is heaved?) as the opening credits roll -- leading us, naturally enough, to a ski resort in the Alps, where Cary and Audrey meet accidentally-in-quotation-marks. Maybe. The body, we soon learn, may well have been the husband of Audrey (Regina Lambert), though his demise seems remarkably unperturbing to the apparent widow. The French police are called in and, as they say, the plot thickens… Tune in for a great good time the way Hollywood used to do ‘em. Or put it this way: check out the preview trailer for “Charade” below (on Kinopoisk, where it rates a hefty 8.2/10) and then try NOT to watch the movie. Oh, and hold this thought: Carson Dyle had no brother…