Saturday, April 19, 2008

Charade, Anyone?

Another older movie that I absolutely love is Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
Hepburn, above, and on the right in the photo below, plays a young widow suddenly thrown into an intriguing maelstrom of mystery, murder, and mayhem in Paris, immediately following her husband's death. This scene takes place at her husband's bizarre funeral visitation. The other woman is her sister.
Some of the best things about Charade are the settings and props. The Paris hotel where much of the action takes place provides an eerie atmosphere with the spiraling staircases, curlique shadows of wrought iron railings, and the fancy old elevator.
Old-fashioned telephones and phone booths also play a major role in this movie. Oh, so romantic, for some odd reason........in a way that cell phones could never, ever be.
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An interesting fact about Charade: The original screenplay was rejected by seven movie studios. The writer, Peter Stone, then wrote a novel out of the screenplay's premise; it was published in the magazine Redbook, allowing the story to become familiar and popular. After that, Peter Stone wrote another screenplay for Charade, and this time ALL seven movie studios wanted to buy it!!

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Charade contains an ample supply of details........names, places, pertinent items, etc.,........from which this blogger will soon attempt to stump you with a quiz about those aspects of this movie.

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