MacLaine and Caine in an Unsung Little Classic

(SPOILERS)

Posting this in 2010, I am reminded that the two stars of this 1966 movie -- Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine -- are still with us, and hopefully for some time to come. We've gotten perhaps too "used to them," but they are both treasures. Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine(gotta love the rhyme; they used it to promote this movie: "Shirley MacLaine raises Michael Caine.") Stars who went the distance, and who still work in major movies today...though Caine retains greater bankability at this time.

Shirley MacLaine got a very "instant stardom start," very young, debuting for Hitchcock in "The Trouble With Harry" in 1955, rapidly seguing to a Martin and Lewis hit, and then working in movie after movie after movie in the late fifties with such rapidity that by 1958 she could Oscar-worthy and moving in "Some Came Running" and in 1960 she could Oscar-worthy and moving AGAIN in "The Apartment," and her career still had years to go.

The suave male lead in "Gambit" was first offered to Cary Grant, but he was serious about his retirement that year. He turned down three 1966 thrillers and three different male actors ended up in the parts: Gregory Peck in Donen's "Arabesque," Paul Newman in Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain," and "that new young fellow" Michael Caine, in "Gambit."

By the time Michael Caine got "Gambit," it was already a Shirley MacLaine vehicle. With Cary Grant off the radar, MacLaine was given the first shot at recommending a male star, and she picked Caine. Michael Caine wrote in his autobiography of his lonelieness and wonderment in coming to smoggy Hollywood to make his first movie on American soil, hanging out at the Beverly Hills Hotel and meeting folks like John Wayne(who flew into the park across the street in a helicopter, wearing his dusty cowboy movie costume) and Jane Russell(who invited him to what he thought would be a sexy private lunch...that turned out to be a Christian Science luncheon.)

Michael Caine had hit stardom with the one-two punch of 1965's "The Ipcress File"("The Thinking Man's James Bond," Caine did the part with glasses and got the sexy intellectual thing going straightaway) and 1966's "Alfie"(glasses off, sexy and soulful and Oscar-nominated and fully "launched.") Those were bigger deals than "Gambit" would be, but Michael Caine arrived at Shirley MacLaine's doorstep a Fully Formed Young Star.

MacLaine threw Caine a Hollywood party and everybody showed up, from Sinatra on down. Caine remarked that he took "Gambit" for the chance to work in Hollywood and meet those people, but that the script was quite good anyway, and the movie fun to make.

It WAS a fun little movie. Not a thriller really...no one gets killed and the violence is minimal. "Caper movie" is more like it, but the caper is hidden within a con job that looks forward to "The Sting" while borrowing heavily from Preston Sturges "Unfaithfully Yours"...but wonderfully so.

The scenario is fairly simple. Caine arrives in a Hong Kong nightclub and watches the sultry American showgirl MacLaine on stage, at work. The caper begins, and everything about it is flawless and timed like a fine watch. MacLaine says not a word, enacts Caine's scenario of playing a woman who looks just like a zillionaire's late wife(shades of "Vertigo") and helps him pull off the successful filching of a "priceless statue."

And then the REAL version of this caper unfolds. The "perfect" version had been all in Caine's mind. In the real version, MacLaine's mysterious woman doesn't STOP talking; the zillionaire(perfectly played by reliable Herbert Lom) is suspicious of the scam from the start, and every one of Caine's perfect strategems goes hilariously wrong. But MacLaine is there to save the day, of course, and to prove invaluable to Caine in the success of the mission. (Note in passing: Julie Andrews similarly saved Paul Newman's bacon the same year in Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain," but that was a much more grim and violent affair than "Gambit.")

Being a Universal film of the mid-sixties, "Gambit" is a bit cheap around the edges, with a backlot/soundstage look(despite what looks like some location filming off the coast of California to double for..where?.) But the script, MacLaine, and Caine are never less than polished, witty, and fun.

For her part, Shirley MacLaine only had a few years of pert sexiness left to her before her face would harden and a "floozie" effect would set in. In "Gambit," MacLaine's command of the showgirl glamour, the elfin comedy, and above all the poignant heart of her role are deeply gratifying to behold. She treats new star Michael Caine as her equal(he's quite funny and angry and frustrated as his perfect plan falls apart and he does "Caine anger"), and you spend the movie wrapped up not so much in the caper, nor even in the con, but rather in suspense for the exquisite moment when Caine finally says to MacLaine, "I love you" -- which triggers a wonderful twist in itself when an ecstatic MacLaine reacts to Caine's confession with great happiness at exactly the wrong time.

I saw "Gambit" when I was very young and I remember being buoyantly exhilarated when Caine told MacLaine "I love you"...and delighted and surprised by her effervescent reaction in return. Here was a love story told on terms that were shrewd and suave and meaningful. It is as if the goal of the caper isn't to get the statue...its to get these two lovebirds together.

Seeing "Gambit" again years later, I determined that what "sold" this moment for me("I love you") was the great charismatic talents of BOTH MacLaine and Caine. Funny thing: though they were around the same age, MacLaine was by 1966 a Hollywood veteran while Caine was very much a movie newcomer(as a star, at least; he'd been around for some time -- a supporting role in 1964's "Zulu" got him "Ipcress" and "Alfie.")

"Gambit" was a Christmas '66 attraction. Caine and MacLaine had many decades to go, with peaks and valleys for each of them(especially her), Oscars for both of them, and a rather grand final period of great respect waiting here in the 21st Century for them.

A bittersweet postscript: MacLaine and Caine were reunited just a few years ago in 2005, playing husband and wife -- in the Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell "Bewitched" movie. On paper, it was inspired casting: MacLaine and Caine seemed like their TV counterparts(Agnes Moorhead and Maurice Evans) writ "movie star"; they actually looked like the parents of Nicole Kidman and -- for us nostalgic ones -- they had been in "Gambit"!

Well. Caine and MacLaine were just great in "Bewitched," but the movie didn't use them much(especially MacLaine), used them wrong, and generally backfired in every way(it was turned into a "TV meta" Will Ferrell vehicle, two mistakes that compounded each other.)

No matter. It was great to see Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine acting together in 2005 because for me at least, seeing them summoned up fond memories of a time long, long ago, and the two younger sexier heartthrobs MacLaine and Caine once were...in the very fine and quite unsung little gem, "Gambit."

Catch them if you can.