Gambit 1966 Original story by Sidney Carroll, screenplay by Jack Davies and Alvin Sargent, directed by Ronald Neame. I watched the Kino Lorber Blu-ray and the movie looked very nice. Ronald started as a cinematographer in 1930s Britain, he started directing in 1947 and he'd directed 26 films when retired in 1990. You might have seen Man With A Million, The Horse's Mouth, A Man Could Get Killed, Prudence And The Pill, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, The Poseidon Adventure or The Odessa File.
Michael Caine plays Harry Dean, with the help of his art forger pal Emile he plans to steal a priceless statue from a rich Arab called Ahmad Shahbander. Shirley MacLaine play Nicole, a dancer with just the right face.
Herbert Lom plays Ahmad, the statue is of a 2000 year old Chinese woman who is the spit of his dead wife. She died a year after they were married and he loved her so much he never remarried. Nicole also looks like Ahmad's dead wife and Harry plans to use her face to get into Ahmad's apartment so he can case the place.
Harry's got a magnificent plan in his head but carrying it out is another story. As you'd expect in a comic heist film things go wrong and Harry has to improvise. There's plenty of laughs as the story unfolds. There's a bit of tension and a bit of romance. The movie has a satisfying ending.
The disc has an audio commentary with 98 year old Ronald Neame, it was pretty entertaining, sadly he died the following year. There's a second audio commentary with film historians Howard S Berger, Sergio Mims and Nathaniel Thompson. The guys liked the picture and were happy to chat about it and it's cast and crew. There's also a theatrical trailer.
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