Cary Grant And Audrey Hepburn's Beloved 1963 Romantic Comedy Is Streaming For Free

Stanley Donen's "Charade" is about Reggie Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), a professional interpreter who is on the cusp of divorcing her husband, Charles. While on vacation in the French Alps, she meets the charming and handsome Peter Joshua (Cary Grant), a fellow American that she instantly has chemistry with. They go their separate ways, but he will return to her life shortly enough. Back home in Paris, Reggie finds that her husband has been murdered, and he has left behind a mysterious satchel with plane tickets and several fake passports. At his funeral, some shady-looking dudes stab his corpse with a pin to make sure he's really dead. Charles, it seems, was up to something Reggie never knew about. 

An American diplomat (Walter Matthau) explains to Reggie that her late husband was once a soldier in World War II and had been assigned a delivery task, secretly shipping gold to the French underground. Charles, however, stole the gold and hid it. After Charles' death, his shady pals came to Reggie, assuming she has the gold. They are threatening and scary. This is where Peter Joshua re-appears to protect her. Peter, however, is not all he seems. Indeed, he revealed that his real name isn't actually Peter. Reggie, however, seems to trust him, though, because ... well, he's Cary Grant. 

"Charade" will eventually reveal the location of Charles' stolen gold, and, golly, is it clever. I won't dare reveal its true location, but it's a conceit that many writers have ripped off in the years since; I recall seeing the same twist used in an episode of "Alvin and the Chipmunks." 

"Charade" is a slick, sexy international caper film about attractive people on the run, sporting a breezy tone and a light air of romance. If you haven't seen it, you now have no excuse: Multiple streaming services are offering it for free, including Roku, Kanopy, Hoopla, Pluto TV, The Shout! Factory, and even less popular services like Fawsome, Darkroom, Flixhouse, and DistroTV. It's also on Prime Video, if you must. 

"Charade" is the type of movie that Hollywood tries to replicate often, rarely with any notable success. One can look at the last five years of Netflix's big-budget capers — specifically "Red Notice" — and see the limp imitations at work. Indeed, Jonathan Demme tried to remake "Charade" in 2002 as "The Truth About Charlie." The remake starred Mark Wahberg and Thandiwe Newton, and while both those actors have their strengths, emulating the chemistry between Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn is not among them. 

Stanley Donen, however, knew how to make a caper like this work. Specifically, he knew to let the central relationship between his two dazzling lead actors take center stage, while the caper plot remained secondary. The New York Times review from 1963, written by Bosley Crowther, placed "Charade" on a matrix between the recent spy stories of Alfred Hitchcock, and the whimsical, screwball comedies of Frank Capra from the mid-1930s. It's equal parts delightful and action-packed. 

Grant was deeply aware that he was a full 25 years older than Hepburn at the time (he was 59, she 33), and felt the age gap was inappropriate for a romantic couple. (This movie marked the end of an era for him.) The script was famously altered to include lines about his age, and the Reggie character was altered to become his romantic pursuer. While the age difference is noticeable, the two come across as cosmopolitan adults, logically pursuing their hearts. Also, they both capably sell their respective statuses as a lying undercover agent of some kind, and a neophyte in over her head.

"Charade" was made for a budget of $3 million, and earned a respectable $13 million at the box office. Universal, however, hasn't been able to cash in on the popularity of "Charade" because of a simple clerical error. When the film was released, the copy editor forgot to include the copyright symbol, or the word "copyright," in its credits. When that happens, the film immediately lapses into the public domain. The same thing happened five years later with "Night of the Living Dead." 

But because it's in the public domain, "Charade" can be shown by anyone, anywhere, for free. Any bootleg you find on YouTube is just as legal and legit a version as an officially sanctioned home video edition. The Criterion Collection has put out an edition, but one can just as easily go to the film's Wikipedia page and watch the whole film, embedded among the summary. This also explains why so many streaming services have it; no one has to license "Charade" to exhibit it. Like "Night of the Living Dead," it also happens to be an excellent movie, and there's no reason why we, the public — the owners of the film — shouldn't watch it. 

Only the film's score, composed by the immortal Henry Mancini, remains protected by copyright. That would explain why other filmmakers don't often include clips of it other movies; they would have to pay Mancini's estate for the rights. 

Indeed, many, many excellent classics are in the public domain, and one can (and should) watch the following anytime: Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls," Rupert Julian's "The Phantom of the Opera," Buster Keaton's "The General," Rudolph Maté's "D.O.A.," Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour," and the Bela Lugosi horror film "White Zombie." You could have a pretty excellent film festival with the world's public-owned movies.