Gambit (1966) Cat burglar Harry Dean (Michael Caine) recruits Nicole Chang (Shirley MaClaine), a dancer who works at a low-end nightclub to pretend to be his wife so they get into the good graces of the most wealthiest man in the world, Ahman Sharmenda (Herbert Lom). Ahman's wife passed away twenty years ago and he hasn't married since then. Chang looks like the spitting image of Ahman's late wife. Dean and Chang are invited to Ahman's apartment and admire his vast art collection. Dean plans to steal the Misu bust, which resembles Ahman's late wife and is worth a fortune. There's a catch, though, because the apartment is secured to the max, with the latest in security technology to prevent anyone from breaking into the apartment and getting out alive. Even though this movie took place 52 years ago, a lot of Ahman's security apparatus are advanced, even by today's standards.
Lom was sharp, intelligent as Ahman Sharmenda. He pretends not to know what is going on but he figures out rather quickly what angle Dean and his pretend wife are pulling over him so he plays along. You get the sense that he's attempting to fill a void in his life by collecting more and more works of art. While Gambit was compelling for the first hour and thirty minutes the last fifteen minutes of the movie was a let-down, and it didn't feel like it had a sense of direction with the music. There was a zany, comedy music as the movie soundtrack.
