Gambit
Dir: Ronald Neame
1966
****
A great little 1960s crime-caper that is criminally overlooked. The structure of the film is very clever and still stands up today (as proven in the recent remake that is also criminally overlooked). Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine are great together and Herbert Lom is brilliant as the anti-stereotype bad guy (of sorts). That's part of it's charm, I say Herbert Lom plays the bad guy but he doesn't, if anything he's the good guy. The film turns the crime-caper on its head and brilliantly so. Ronald Neame was a great director, from the serious masterpiece (The Man who never was) to the comedy crime caper (Gambit), to the Blockbuster disaster film (The Poseidon Adventure) to the classic adaptation (Scrooge). The man did no wrong and deserves more credit.