Gambit (1966)

That was an excellent one.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

one of comfortable films. for the twists, for fun,for the charm of Michael Cain and for the Shirley Mc Laine performance. easy, seductive, remembering others films from the same genre. so, a good film. first, for the nostalgic.because, its basic virtue remains to be a nice trip vehicle to a sort of smart, ironic cinema.

Robert Neame's "Gambit"(1966) stars Michael Caine as a criminal who concocts an elaborate scheme involving the theft of a priceless sculpture. The film was released several years prior to "The Italian Job"(1969), another heist movie starring Caine.Unusual for heist flicks, "Gambit's" entire first act is comprised of a fantasy sequence in which Caine's scheme flawlessly unfolds. Caine's idealizations are then mirrored to various male characters, who either idealize the past or pine longingly for actress Shirley MacLaine, who's forced to adopt a blank face, a canvas upon which men project their fantasies. Emblematic of deified women, and venerated artwork made in their image, Shirley eventually does something which shatters the fantasies of her admirers: she reveals a personality. The film's final act then sees various illusions and idealizations shattered, and then promptly built back up, Caine revealed to be "not quite a criminal" after all. Such thematic preoccupations make "Gambit" one of the more unusual heist movies of the 1960s.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See Antonioni's "Beyond The Clouds".

Michael Caine and Shirley Maclaine star in "Gambit," a 1966 movie done in the style so popular in that era, the "caper" film. Inspired by the success and style of "Charade," the '60s brought us "How to Steal a Million," "Topkapi," "Rififi" et al. - sophisticated, glamorous, international, breezy fun. In "Gambit," Harry (Michael Caine) hires Nicole (Maclaine) to pose as his exotic wife so that he can get into the apartment of the richest man in the world, Shabhandar, played by Herbert Lom. "There's no such thing as the richest man in the world," Nicole complains. "It's like the highest star or - " "Okay, the second richest man in the world, the third richest!" Harry yells. Nicole is made up to resemble Shabhandar's late wife. The purpose: robbery.Without giving anything away, the beginning of the film is fabulous and draws the viewer in immediately. Caine is a riot as the gifted Harry, who finds that coping with Nicole is one part of the plan he hadn't counted on, and Maclaine is very funny as a performer who gets more involved in her assignment than she wanted to. Herbert Lom, as the first, second, whatever wealthiest man in the world, Shabhandar, is perfect portraying the urbane, suspicious, and calculating recluse.This isn't the top of the genre, but it's still very enjoyable.

I just watched this again, after a period of many years; I think that I must have seen it in its original release, and it would have seemed wildly glamorous and exotic at the time. Its always been a favorite of mine; I love it when MacLaine finally opens her mouth and starts talking, and the entire story tilts and veers off in an amusingly different direction.So very many things could have gone wrong with this production, and MacLaine could have completely overwhelmed it. Miraculously, everything stays in harness and no scenery gets chewed (as opposed to, say, "Topkapi", which although fun goes completely over the top, and where Mercouri lustily devours everything in sight). Caine and MacLaine were both in their early 30's at the time, and MacLaine gets away with photographing much younger. Its one of the earliest of her films where she got top billing; she had been making a series of Hollywood big-budget bombs, and I suspect that this somewhat modest entry kind of redeemed her. Its great straight entertainment.