Charade

The odd trio of James Mason, Pamela Mason and director Roy Kellino (Pamela's first husband prior to James) made this obscure 3-part feature, which IMDb omits any mention of an American release. It's quite poor and merely a curiosity.

In-joke throughout is that Mason has decided to produce a movie, and this is it. He was riding high as a major movie star at the time, fresh off playing Rommel in "The Desert Rats", Brutus in "Julius Caesar", Captain Nemo in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and with "A Star Is Born" on tap. Unfortunately, while hardly a home movie, its sense of the Masons indulging themselves is palpable.

Kellino was doing a fine job directing segments of "Four Star Playhouse" on TV at the time, and this one plays like three reject segments of same, stuck together, with the Masons starring, sort of a Two Star Playhouse.

Worst one is a comedy in which Jame plays a modern King Midas character, uncannily able to make a fortune effortlessly, but unsatisfied with his empty life taken up entirely by wheeling and dealing. He opts to give it all up and goes to England to seek some purpose in life, yet oddly spending his time working in menial jobs ranging from window washer to a butler. He fall in love with a Cockney style maid played by Pamela, and ends up back in New York running his former empire again -strictly a shaggy-dog story written by Pam & James without an ending.

Better is a Dumas adaptation by Scott Forbes of an Alexandre Dumas story, with Forbes starring as the bad guy opposite James. It's a one note affair about them duelling, with Scott the cad. Typically, in the movie's wraparound footage, James regrets not taking the villain role himself instead of the hero.

He gets to be a sterotypical, egotistical villain in the other vignette, a two-hander for himself and James. It's a tedious suspense story minus suspense, as she witnesses a murder but falls in love with the murderer, who of course is James. Their verbal sparring is boring, and the material goes nowhere.

1st watched 2/24/2002 - 6 out of 10(Dir-Roy Kellino): Whimsical and well-made trio of short films made by the husband & wife team of James and Pamela Mason. This movie plays out like a pet project of the couple which it probably was and shows how well-rounded an acting talent James Mason is. His wife isn't bad either which I'm surprised I haven't seen her in other things. The first short is kind of a murder mystery, the second is kind of a romantic drama, and the third is a sort of light comedy piece. They all are done well with the last being the weakest and the in-between sketches discussion between the husband and wife add kind of a commentary feel to the movie. On DVD with 1963(Charade) movie put out by Madacy Entertainment despite the lack of similarity between the two except the title.

Episodic British film about a couple (James and Pamela Mason) who go through three scenarios as possibilities for a film, with them taking the lead in each scenario.

The best one by far was the first, about a woman who sees her neighbor's killer but doesn't tell anyone. Later he shows up to romance her, and she falls for him.

The second one is a period piece about a soldier challenged to a duel, and the third is about a man with the Midas touch who gives it all up to look for what he really wants in life.

All in all, very good.

When I saw that James Mason was both starring in and producing Charade I was very interested to check it out. It was interesting in that his wife was the female lead playing opposite him throughout all three shot films. I really wanted to like Charade, and I did to a certain degree, but generally speaking it was a rather disappointing viewing experience. For starters I felt that Pamela Mason has a limited acting range and was not able to convincingly adapt her talents to all three of the short films showcased here. She wasn't bad, but for me she was a weak link overall. Still, it was kind of interesting and if you're curious then check it out and see what you think.

I bought a video of this Charade months ago and was almost afraid to watch it after reading Sheridan Morley's comments about it in the biography he wrote about James Mason. (If Morley's account of Mason's life is to be believed, he threw opportunity for real Hollywood stardom away with both hands.) I was pleasantly surprised as it was a delightful film, perfect for the small screen. The stories were charmingly portrayed, the acting was fine, but I doubt Pamela would have had much of an acting career without James' coattails to ride on. I actually liked the last story the best. James as Jeeves was particularly funny to me. You could see him switch gears and Viola - there was Diello from Five Fingers.

Having said that, it is clear to me that James and Pamela really had a desire to be creative above any desire for James to be a Hollywood star. One of their early efforts was an independent film James and Pamela wrote, produced (with her ex-husband, Roy Kellino), starred in and distributed. It's called "I Met A Murderer" and despite the hokey title, it's very good.