'Charade' No Pretender, and 'Laura' A Top Example of Film Noir

This week, I will take a look at two films recently put out on Blu-ray disc (Charade was put out on the Criterion Collection label in Blu-ray back in 2010, but the recent non-Criterion release includes a digital copy and an Ultraviolet (also digital) copy). 

Charade is one fun movie. It’s not the best story in the world and sometimes it seems a little trite. But, when Hepburn and Grant appear on-screen together right at the beginning, the chemistry those two actors exude reels you in and just will not let go. This is the only time they appeared together in a film and they seemed to make the most of it. Grant is never more debonair. Hepburn is never more charming. The screen just lights up when they are together. The plot isn't that bad -- it does have a good trick ending and enough twist and turns on the way to make even the most avid film fanatic woozy. Would this film be the classic it is without Grant and Hepburn? No, but it would still be a decent thriller, especially with director Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain) at the helm. With the two stars, though, it becomes something more than just an ordinary movie. It becomes magic.

A note about the Blu-ray transfer of Charade:  If you are a die-hard filmie, splurge and get the Criterion Blu-ray copy.  Criterion, as always, produces a superior transfer, whether DVD or Blu-ray.  But, if you are like me (a geek) and already own the Criterion DVD copy, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the non-Criterion Blu-ray.  It’s a decent transfer, plus the digital copies are a nice bonus.

And now, onto a completely different type of thriller.  Like Charade, Laura is basically a murder mystery, complete with a series of suspects and a hard-edged police detective, with a little love story tossed in to make things interesting. The thing that makes Laura stand out above all of the thousands of other thrillers is the style and the stunning filmmaking. Laura is a first-rate example of Film Noir, a type of film in the 1940s and 1950s that grew to represent the dark, threatening era of first, World War II, then the Blacklist, and later, the Cold War. Produced in 1944, Laura is one of the first film noir films and possibly one of the best.   (Coincidentally, 1944 was a good year for early noir…Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity was also from that year, another stellar film noir example.)  Like Wilder did with Double Indemnity, Laura’s director Otto Preminger masterly increases suspense and romance with the right combination of lighting and the camera angles. Preminger didn’t direct many noir films after this one, but he should have, since he was so superb at it.

Charade: 1963, not rated, 113 minutes, directed by Stanley Donen, starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, George Kennedy, James Coburn and Ned Glass. 

Laura:  1944, not rated, 88 minutes, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson . 

The Niles Library owns these titles on DVD.