Charade

In Brief: Often spoken of as “the best Alfred Hithcock movie Hitchcock never made,” the truth is that Stanley Donen’s Charade is much better as sophisticated, sexy entertainment than anything Hitchcock himself was making in the 1960s. In fact, by 1963, Hitch would never make anything that was this much pure fun again. This is old-style Hollywood moviemaking, complete with a pair of movie stars who really were (and are) movie stars: Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. (It would also be Grant’s last appearance in this kind of film.) It’s every inch a work of style and polish. But don’t let it fool you — this isn’t just a case of somebody “making ‘em like they used to.” Charade is by no means reactionary filmmaking. If anything, it’s the bridge from Donen’s 1950s filmmaking into the freer style of the 1960s. (He's one of the few Hollywood directors who effectively made that transition.) It was probably nothing but luck that brought Donen together with this cast and Peter Stone’s screenplay, but it was the perfect blend for the 1960s — and it remains perfect today. The only film to come close to this kind of entertainment since then is Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven (2001).