Walter Matthau was overly broad - very mild spoilers

I took those quirky parts as a way to show the audience that there was something just not right about this "agent".

And I'd say you were absolutely correct.

Stanley Donen was a smart director who placed clues about Matthau's character in that very first embassy scene - and initially, Matthau seems quite at home in those official government surroundings. But the quick little burp was an indication that something wasn't quite right about him. There's also that brief moment when he tries to remove a stain on his tie with a handkerchief he's doused with cleaning fluid; when he's succeeded, he looks happy and says "Voila." But before he returns the handkerchief to his suit pocket, he puts it to his nose and inhales the fumes! There's something definitely OFF about a guy like that.

But these moments are so brief that many viewers don't notice them on a first viewing.

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Matthau was "coming along" as a great character actor...en route to becoming an improbable leading man(it happened with The Fortune Cookie and Best Supporting Actor Oscar and then The Odd Couple as a megahit that made him a star.)

Still, Matthau is "getting ready" for stardom here. In a documentary on Matthau, his agent said that when he went to see Charade at Grauman's Chinese Theater with a large crowd, when Matthau first appeared on screen there were "positive noises" - - people were happy to see Matthau. He was likeable and yet -- in this first scene -- mildly threatening("I'm sorry to have to say this, Mrs. Lambert -- but please remember what happened to your husband.")

A somewhat aged(finally) Cary Grant is the leading man here, so he gets the best photography and hairstyle and camera angles. As a "supporting guy," Matthau does not.

But Matthau had all the charisma in the world...even with that burp....and he was on his way.

Came 1969 and the movie Cactus Flower, Matthau got a role that was first offered TO Cary Grant. And he got Ingrid Bergman("Notorious") too.

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Yeah, he's not really gross. The burp is a mild comic effect. Most of the time, he's doing "basic support" and exposition on the plot(which Cary Grant generally hated to do). In preparation for the star that he would become, Matthau projects a certain comic charisma leavened with seriousness. I love his banter with Audrey Hepburn, mid-exposition, when she barely smokes a cigarette he gave her. She asks for a new cigarette:

Matthau: Well, what's wrong with that one, you barely finished it.
Hepburn: I know but--
Matthau: (Interrupts) Do you know how much those things COST?

Its funny given who he turns out to be that Matthau's character would linger on simple little thing like that.

One of the various reasons Walter Matthau became a star, by the way, is that he was very tall and very thin. He could stand beside other tall stars like Gregory Peck and Cary Grant and match their height, which came in handy when stardom came to him. The similar Martin Balsam was short and stocky and couldn't keep the weight off; he remained in the supporting actor ranks.

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