Scott Stilson


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Just watched: Charade (1963). Having these two all-time most charming American film icons together on the same silver screen would likely have been enough to qualify this thriller-comedy-romance as a classic. Yet here they have at their disposal not only their own abundant charisma and sense of timing, but also a smart script, Henry Mancini, the City of Lights, and Givenchy. Not to mention directorial sparklemeister (né dancer, then choreographer) Stanley Donen, whose feel for space and staging shows up in every shot. Top-five classic Hollywood magic stuff. A parable of courtship as spycraft and of the trust pitfalls of love.