With all of its twists and turns, a movie like Charade (1963) would normally annoy me.  Mind you, I am fine with a few left turns in the plot.  I do not need a story so straight forward that you can guess the ending practically before the opening credits conclude, if not sooner.  Actually, it is even more disappointing when I can see what is coming so soon.  Yet, something so convoluted that I stop being able to follow what is happening is frustrating.  If you wish to think me a simpleton for admitting this, then please feel free to do so.  I have been called worse.  Today’s film nearly tipped into the realm of the incomprehensible.  Because I was having a little trouble figuring it out, it made it that much more satisfying when everything fell into place in my head.  The title helps.  So, too, does the fact that it stars Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.  With those two, particularly Grant, I can forgive a great deal.

If you are familiar with their work, it might surprise you that Charade begins with a dead body being thrown from a moving train.  This is Charles Lampert, whose wife, Regina “Reggie” Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), is vacationing in the French Alps.  The fact that she is not with him at the time this happens says much about the state of their marriage, and she admits to her friend Sylvie (Dominique Minot) that Reggie plans on divorcing him.  Ironically enough, shortly after saying these words, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) introduces himself.  Their brief but charged conversation reveals that they will soon both be heading back to Paris, she to join her husband.  Unfortunately, once she gets to her apartment, she finds it empty and the police looking for her.  This is how she learns that her husband is dead.  At the station, the mystery thickens as she is shown multiple passports owned by Charles.  This seeming double life is news to her, who apparently had gotten hitched to him without knowing much about him.  Things were different back then, I guess.  This lack of knowledge fits with the funeral service when she and Sylvie are almost the only two people present.  They are soon joined by a trio of people, each of whom poke at Charles’ corpse as if making sure he is no longer living.  After the service, she is taking one last look at her old residence when she is visited by Peter, who offers to assist in finding a hotel.  She cannot leave Paris because Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has informed her as to why there is this unique interest in Charles.  During World War II, Charles had been a part of a mission by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA’s forerunner, to bring gold to French Resistance.  Three of them are identified by a picture in Hamilton’s possession: Leopold W. Gideon (Ned Glass), Tex Panthollow (James Coburn), and Herman Scobie (George Kennedy).  There is another in the photograph, Carson Dyle, but he died during the war.  Hamilton goes on to say that these men, Charles included, instead of getting the money to its intended target, decided to steal $250,000 in gold.  After all this time, the three living accomplices appear to have assumed that Charles had gone back for their pilfered riches before the others.  According to the gendarme (French police), Charles had sold all their possessions, which suspiciously amounted to the same total.  Hamilton does not think the others have the money, but implicates Reggie, who is truly clueless as to its whereabouts, but is told nonetheless that she needs to find it and hand it over to the government before the others catch up with her and possibly kill her.  As if on cue, after returning to her room escorted by Peter, she is greeted by the hooked hand, hot tempered Herman.  Peter is on hand to come to the rescue, and he chases Herman out the window.  Peter comes to a room in which Herman, Leopold, and Tex are discussing the money.  Peter drops in on them, and they refer to him as Dyle.  Get ready for a few different aliases on the part of Grant’s character.  Reggie’s suspicions are raised when he first admits this different name to her.  When she learns that Carson Dyle is dead, he claims to be his brother Alexander.  The film also leads you to believe that he is just after the money, though it is clear that Reggie is falling in love with him.  The ones that are more self-interested are Herman, Leopold, and Tex.  They decide to confront Alexander and Reggie, but they turn the tables on them, accusing one of them of potentially already having the loot.  The fact that they now suspect each other means that they are individually potential suspects in their killings as one-by-one they start turning up dead.  Adding to the growing mistrust is Hamilton, who informs Reggie that Carson had no brother. This leads to yet another appellation, this time Adam Canfield.  Together, they head to an outdoor market that is the last entry in Charles’ appointment book, hoping to find some clue to the money.  While Adam chases after Tex, Reggie encounters Sylvie.  Her son, Jean-Louis Gaudel (Thomas Chelimsky), is trading stamps.  We see that it is Tex who has first figured out the riddle.  Amongst Charles’ possessions had been an envelope.  Tex shows Adam the paper where the postage is missing, positing that Reggie had been playing them the entire time.  Reggie, meanwhile, goes to the stamp dealer and obtains the three rare stamps worth $250,000, which had been unwittingly swapped by Jean Louis.  When she returns to the hotel to tell Adam this development, she finds Tex’s dead body with the word “Dyle” written in the dust on the floor, indicating that Adam is the murderer.  Thus, she immediately calls Hamilton to arrange a meeting, barely avoiding Adam on the way.  When she makes it to the rendezvous, she finds herself caught between Adam and Hamilton. It is Hamilton who reveals his true character first.  It turns out that he is the real Carson Dyle, meaning, among other things, that he had been behind the murders.  Adam is able to take care of Carson, saving Reggie’s life.  The next day, they go to the American Embassy where Reggie plans to turn in the valuables.  We get one more name change, though.  As it turns out, Adam had been Brian Cruikshank all along, a United States Treasury Agent, and we end with a marriage proposal.

I hope that my description of Charade was not too laborious.  If you had been following along, in light of my introduction, you probably guessed Hamilton’s real identity about the same time I did.  Between him and all of Brian’s changing identities, one of the themes the film underscores is the topic of trust.  Much of this pertains to Reggie, though I will confess to wondering more than once whether it is her behind the whole . . . well, charade.  While her character is not quite the vapid, man-hungry female lead typical (though becoming less common) of that period, there are elements of this tendency.  For instance, every time she is given a new name for Brian, her next question invariably is to ask if he is married.  What it speaks to, despite the evidence to the contrary, is her desire to trust Brian.  She openly acknowledges his lying, but looks past it anyway out of love for him.  How often can we say we do this with anyone, much less with God.  While that last phrase may seem strange, it is something that I have seen lead to people turning away from Faith.  Something does not turn out how they expect or, worse yet, how they prayed.  The thing is, though, that God answers every prayer we make.  He just does not always do so as we want.  This should make sense since He has infinite wisdom, meaning He can see better how to put our petitions to use better than we can.  In a limited way, this is Brian’s role with Reggie.  The entire time he has a fuller picture of the situation.  You may ask why he does not reveal everything to Reggie right away?  Why the . . . uh, again, charade?  It is because he has a duty to find the money, which had been the property of the government, and he does this despite his own feelings for Reggie.  Sometimes we think everything would be easier if God would just do whatever it is we want.  What we have to realize is that there are matters bigger than us and beyond our understanding.

The fact that we are not the center of the universe is probably a deeper discussion than Charade warrants, though it is a great movie.  Grant and Hepburn are fun together.  Finally, the movie is set in Paris, with many of the location shots being done in the City of Lights.  I am not sure what else you could want from a film, which is why it gets my recommendation.