The Thief and the Showgirl
Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine in Gambit
“Go ahead, tell the end, but please don’t tell the beginning!” begs the movie poster for the 1966 film Gambit. Why would the filmmakers prefer to blow the ending rather than beginning?
Today’s moviegoer is accustomed to film plots that mangle chronology, forcing us to reassemble the sequence of events without clear signposts from the director. Gambit doesn’t quite go that far but it does employ a number of devices to trick the viewer into thinking a certain narrative has taken place when it has not. I can’t proceed without a spoiler alert so if that’s too much for you, please stop reading.
Gambit is a heist caper starring Michael Caine as the mastermind Harry Dean, Shirley MacLaine as the bait Nicole Chang, and Herbert Lom as Ahmad Shahbandar, the millionaire mark. Shahbandar has a priceless antique bust, Dean wants it, and Nicole is brought in to distract the millionaire. The trick is that the bust, a portrait of the ancient Chinese empress Li Su resembles Shahbandar’s beloved dead wife as well as a certain Eurasian woman—Shirley MacLaine—that Harry has discovered dancing in a shabby Hong Kong club. Harry plans to ingratiate himself with Shahbandar and use Nicole to dazzle the old man while the thief executes his plan without a hitch.
From the first shot, the movie puts us on shaky footing. Through a car windscreen, we watch a shapely young woman in a green and white polka dress and headscarf dodge Hong Kong traffic and enter the International Palace of Joy. We’re put in the position of the driver but the scene intercuts showing Caine driving—this device establishes that what we are about to see will be from Caine’s perspective. Inside the nightclub, Caine watches MacLaine’s desultory show and then approaches her after her act when she is seated at a table. MacLaine wears a white lace sheath dress, her hair in a pert bob. (Gowns are credited to French-American designer Jean Louis, more about that later.) Caine introduces himself and leads her to another table in the back. There she meets Caine’s confederate and hears their offer to make $5,000.
In the next sequence, Caine, posing now as Sir Harry Dean, and his wife, Lady Dean (MacLaine), arrive via private jet in Damuz, Turkey. MacLaine deplanes in a flawless red brocade cheongsam gown with white peacock embroidery, her hair in a high chignon ornamented with gold. Ram, a turbaned flunkey from the hotel, obsequiously greets them and Sir Harry calls for the Rolls Royce to take them into the city. In the Royal Suite, Harry reads a magazine article about the reclusive Shahbandar while MacLaine stands by. When he invites her to sit down, she does so with showy grace, reclining on the sofa and throwing one leg over the other to allow her dress slit to open and reveal a contrasting lining in gray with matching capri pants. Sir Harry finishes his instructions and concludes by telling her that precisely at 11:30, no matter where she is, she must drop everything and head to the airport. Why, we aren’t told.
As anticipated, Sir Harry and Lady Dean are invited for cocktails by Shahbandar who occupies an apartment in the same hotel. This time, MacLaine wears a luscious teal cheongsam with gold and silver embroidery of flowers and scrolls. After various maneuvers in the elevator up to Shahbandar’s apartment (all done to prepare for the heist), the couple emerge and meet the reclusive millionaire. Lom in monocle and fez is indeed fascinated by Lady Dean and ushers them into the special room where he keeps the bust of the Li Su. At dinner, Sir Harry natters on about cricket while Lady Dean sculpts an orange rind. Sir Harry finds an excuse to step away (it’s heist time!) and Shahbandar invites Lady Dean to visit the Arab quarter. While there, MacLaine watches the dancing impassively (the echo with her own dance career is unmistakable) and promptly departs the club at 11:30. She arrives at the airport where Harry gives her a British passport, a plane ticket to London, and an envelope of money. MacLaine backs toward the airport terminal without a word.
Now we know why the Gambit movie poster urged us not to disclose the beginning! For the first half hour, MacLaine speaks not a single word. This cinematic “gambit” creates unease and confusion; it also insinuates that the sole concept of reality is Harry Dean’s alone up to this point. In his imagination, he has planned a faultless heist and the figure of the girl is a mere tool to be utilized for a time, paid off, and forgotten.
But as fans of Shirley MacLaine know, she is seldom compliant and almost never docile. When the movie hits reset, we are back in the Hong Kong club where things fall apart from the first interaction between Harry Dean and Nicole Chang. It becomes clear in minutes that Nicole is a human being not a robot. When the pair land in Damuz, there is no Ram from the hotel, no Rolls Royce, and Harry has to bribe the customs official to let them through. In a cramped taxi, Nicole complains of motion sickness and says she knows Harry is mad at her because she is wearing the yellow dress instead of the red one. At the hotel, the harassed manager gets Dean’s name wrong. (We also learn that Ram is no longer with the hotel and that the hotel no longer has a limo service—even the best laid plans can’t predict reality on the ground.)
In the Royal Suite, Harry attempts to put the plan back on track by completing Nicole’s instructions. There’s a charming exchange in which Harry gives Nicole an old magazine—she exclaims over the funny hats—with an article about Shahbandar in which he is described as “the richest man in the world.” MacLaine laughs and points out that there is no such thing and then she sees the wedding photo of Shahbandar and his late wife. “You made me look like this dead lady,” Nicole says flatly and the whole plan is gutted of its glamour and intrigue. She realizes she is being used and is hurt and confused. But she also makes a conscious decision to stay the course; after all, there is the $5,000 payoff. Harry accuses her of being “far too human,” but it is a great deal better than the robotic Nicole of the movie’s first act.
Although Gambit is primarily a heist caper, it is also a variant of the Pygmalion/My Fair Lady story. Of course, Harry Dean is far less effective than Henry Higgins was at transforming Eliza Doolittle from a “guttersnipe” into a fine lady; Nicole is already adept at emulating respectability. Like Eliza, Nicole is captivated at first by the prospect of moving up in the world—living as a Hong Kong showgirl is not much better than selling flowers in the Tottenham Court Road. What both Higgins and Dean fail to factor in is that their protégées are human with emotions and ambitions of their own.
Once they arrive in Damuz, Nicole transforms from reluctant participant to willing accomplice. Strengthened by her resolve, she soon bests Harry at his own game, using her intellect, social finesse, and adaptability to charm Shahbandar. Far from the aloof recluse that Harry imagines, Shahbandar in real life is cosmopolitan and worldly, a high-flying investor and art collector. What’s more, he quickly identifies Harry Dean as an imposter. He invites the couple for cocktails as well as lunch the next day on his yacht, more as a rich man’s entertainment than because he is dazzled by the Deans. Nicole recognizes this and, as she steps aboard the yacht Osiris in a pink cheongsam, there is deviousness in her eyes.
This is a good moment to talk about Gambit’s costumes. For the film, Jean Louis’s remit was narrow. MacLaine’s character has to look beautiful and glamorous but reflect the story’s exotic settings. Louis’s work in Hollywood was known for its femininity and elegance so he was a perfect fit for Gambit. His reliance on the cheongsam reflects the Chinese diaspora to the West and fits MacLaine’s character as an Eurasian woman. The cheongsam or qipao is Chinese in origin but became popular in the West especially in the 1950s and 1960s when Hong Kong became a fashion center. The dress is form-fitting and usually made of silk or satin, often brocade, with or without embroidery, and an asymmetrical closure with fasteners known as frogs (pankous). The dress is completed by a stand-up Mandarin collar and cap sleeves. Louis chooses fabrics in jewel tones in keeping with the bright color palette of 1960s films. The standout costume of the film, however, is not Eastern but a white crepe, one-shoulder toga gown which MacLaine wears with her hair down. The fact that this costume is clearly Western-influenced indicates that Nicole’s character has fully departed from Harry’s guiding plan and is striking out on her own. Her loose hair and natural makeup further emphasize that she is liberated from her would-be tutor and his supposedly perfect heist scheme.
We finally get to the heist itself during which Harry has to improvise to reach the bust accompanied by a suspenseful soundscape by Maurice Jarre that mixes, quite successfully, harpsichord and bongos. An unexpected accomplice bounds in—Nicole in olive green sweater, matching capris, and rust-colored ballet slippers—and the two of them almost pull it off. Alarms sound. Does Harry have the bust or doesn’t he? He and Nicole escape separately, her outfit topped off now by a belted trench coat. (Audrey Hepburn herself could not have worn it better.) The movie’s final act contains a twist you have to see for yourself.
One final gambit of note. The film contains a number of shots through grills or screens. This places us in the position of viewing the action seemingly first-hand, but then the director returns us to the role of viewer by showing who is on the other side—remember the movie’s opening sequence? The idea of mediated action reinforces the movie’s overall concept of distanced reality. Of course, the entire act of watching a movie is mediated but directors can use various methods to pull in viewers or push them away. Gambit’s director Ronald Neame had a long, distinguished career during which he made several films that relied on suspense, misdirection, and intrigue, among them Blithe Spirit (a ghost), The Magic Box (flashbacks), The Man Who Never Was (espionage with a dead body), and The Chalk Garden (unreliable witnesses). Gambit shows his facility with this style. And in Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine we have stars who ultimately garner our sympathy even though their initial appearances were far from warm and engaging.