Okay, I was all set to write a review of this that completely contradicted my view on horror remakes (see my Poltergeist review). I hadn’t heard of this film until someone recommended it to me, and as I was watching it, I kept thinking “this is great, but you know, this is one of those films that might benefit from a remake.” There’s nothing wrong with it—it’s funny, got great performances (especially from MacLaine), and was fairly well directed. It even reminded me of one of my favorite episodes of “Laverne and Shirley” in its execution. But it felt a little dated, and some of the storyline seemed a little unbelievable for a modern viewer. Besides, it wouldn’t be like remaking a film after 20 or 30 years; this film is pushing 50.

However, as you may have guessed by now, somebody else thought it was ripe for a remake, too. The Coen brothers (writers) and Michael Hoffman (director) made Gambit in 2012, with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz. I hadn’t heard of that one, either, which makes me think it wasn’t much good. I suppose, then, if I was wrong, I was in good company, but I will say that, even though I haven’t seen the new version yet, the casting seems all wrong. I’ll have to watch it to be sure. One of the complaints I had about the original is that although Herbert Lom is a great actor casting him as a Middle Eastern businessman seemed a bit…”racially insensitive.” I see they’ve got Englishman Alan Rickman in the role for the updated version. Sooooo… (Actually, I just double-checked, and it turns out that in the new version, the character apparently IS British, so I guess they addressed that, although he still has the same name.)

This is definitely worth watching if you can find it. Skip the remake for now. (I’ll try to watch it in the next day or so, and report back.) It’s a nicely-acted, well-executed heist film with just the right amount of comedy and romance. Perhaps it’s slightly more predictable than I’d like, but that might be the result of later films that borrowed from it, and got better exposure. IMDB has it slightly high at 7.2. I’d be inclined to put it more in the 6.5-7.0 range, depending on how you feel about older films.