An essential. In the delightfully chatty, 1999 commentary to Charade, director/producer Stanley Donen and writer Peter Stone are struck dumb with delight almost every time Audrey Hepburn enters a scene. At one point, Donen wistfully reveals, sotto voce, “I wish I had known what Audrey looked like first thing in the morning.” Oh yeah. The mystery part of Charade is a massive McGuffin, in that the rather silly plot isn’t that important. Unimportant, next to the leading lady, her clothes (Givenchy, of course), her leading man (Archie Somethingorother), the brilliant cast (Walter Matthaeu, George Kennedy, James Coburn, 1960’s Paris), a cameraman (Charles Lang, The Magnificent Seven, Some Like It Hot) to literally die for and that great Henry Mancini score. Everything just holds together, indicating Donen’s genius. As of today, he’s still wonderfully alive. If there is a merciful god . . . the Angel of Death looks, and speaks, like Audrey Hepburn.