Charade

Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie together on screen for the first time. What could go wrong? Well, when The Tourist hit theaters back in December, critics provided a whole list of answers to that question. The main one was that they’d seen the movie’s glamorous, globe-trotting romantic-caper shtick before…and done a whole lot better in films like Charade (1963, Not Rated, 1 hr., 53 mins.). When you watch that groovy, giddy Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant classic again, it becomes obvious pretty quickly how much The Tourist ripped off from (or, if you’re feeling charitable, ”paid homage to”) director Stanley Donen: the ritzy Euro locales, the deadly double-crosses, even the leading lady’s posh Givenchy wardrobe.

If you haven’t seen Charade, you really need to. Hepburn plays an American in Paris whose husband has been murdered and who then finds herself being pursued by hair-trigger hitmen (James Coburn and George Kennedy) looking for the loot he supposedly took with him to his grave. Enter Cary Grant, the natty, wisecracking gent to the rescue. But wait, he could be one of the bad guys too! Hepburn doesn’t know whom to trust and neither does the audience, which is what makes this Hitchcock-lite thriller so much fun. The chemistry between the two leads — something surprisingly missing between Depp and Jolie — is electric. Never more so than when Hepburn touches the cleft in Grant’s chin and asks, ”How do you shave in there?” Strange as it seems now, Charade actually got mixed reviews when it came out. Which means there’s still hope for The Tourist after all. Just give it another 48 years or so. A?