Stanley Donen creates Charade based on traditional themes and techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was one of the greatest directors of suspense thrillers of all time and is best known for films such as Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Pyscho (1960), and The Birds, which was released in 1963 around the same time as Charade. Hitchcock used suspense to build up his films rather than straight mystery plots like so many of his predecessors had used. Rather than shocking his viewers, Hitchcock chose to draw them in using mysterious events and people.

Donen uses several techniques that were used commonly by Hitchcock. First, he builds suspense over the course of the movie. From the opening scene when Reggie is "held at" gunpoint by Jean-Louise's water pistol until she is aimed at again by Carson Dyle, the viewer is slowly drawn in to the plot of the...