Charade or (The Greatest Film Hitchcock Never Made)

If you know movies, you know the legendary name, Alfred Hitchcock. He’s been looked back as one of, if not the definitively most influential filmmakers of history. Many know him as the master of suspense. With countless classics like The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, The Birds, North by Northwest, Rebecca, and my personal favorite, Psycho. I can go on and on about why Hitchcock revolutionized suspense and changed film forever but instead, I’m going to talk about the greatest movie he never made. This isn’t some secret movie that Alfred Hitchcock was trying to make but fell through. Instead, this is a Hitchcockian style suspense film that anyone can view whenever they’d like.

Charade is an infamous 1963 film directed by Stanley Donen. The film is famous for being a big production with well-known actors that the moment it was released, it became a part of the public domain (if you don’t know what the public domain is, you can click here to learn more) because somehow everyone working on the film completely forgot to copyright it’s material upon its release. Because of that, you can view this movie whenever you’d like absolutely free of charge.

Charade isn’t just interesting because of the story behind its release, it’s also one of the best suspense movies I’ve seen. When people say it’s the best film Hitchcock never made, they aren’t lying. The movie is directed in a very similar style to the works of Alfred Hitchcock ranging from how characters are written to how information is presented on screen. The story is that of Audrey Hepburn’s character “Regena Lambert”. After the death of her husband, she learns that he was a wanted criminal of the united states with a large fortune of money. Being the only relative to him, it is assumed that she has access to the money. A wild goose chase occurs trying to find answers to where the money is so she can save her own life from those trying to get it from her. It’s funny, romantic, and sexy.

Like I said before, you can watch the movie anytime but if you want a different viewing of it, come to Davis b-23 on November 13th. IUP’s SFA will be hosting a special viewing party on a nice big screen. While there, you can meed the rest of the club and talk about the movie. We hope to see you there.

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