Word: perfectable
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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GAMBIT. Michael Caine and Shirley Mac-Laine are paired as a burglar and his accomplice in this nonchalant comedy about "the perfect crime." Set in Hong Kong and the Middle East, the plot is a series of twists and turns that culminates in five possible endings, all incredible but still...
Chance to Get Away. It had to happen, says Pleasants, if only as an antidote to the dulling sameness of the note-perfect performances. A boldly outspoken theorist, Pleasants goes so far as to say that this straitjacket is so confining that some pop vocalists such as Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra, whose jazz improvisations are a direct counterpart of bel canto, are "technically better than most opera singers." The voice of Ella Fitzgerald, whom he regards as the prima donna of pop, "is so naturally placed that she can sing more in a week than most opera singers...
STEPHANIE: (calling from the top of the next staircase.) Boy, the sixth floor's perfect. Not a soul. Lots of little rooms...
...such things, it should be said that all is not rosy in Lester's old Rome. The climactic chariot race, for instance, goes into excess, both of slapstick and length, and it does not do to play any joke too long. But as Mostel says, none of us is perfect, and Lester here is about as close as anybody has a right to expect. The opening number promises "A Comedy Tonight." And there...
...Glifford as the servile slave ("I live to grovel") would steal the picture were it not for the fact that Mostel so overshadows everything. He becomes Mostel's accomplice in a far-fetched scheme when Mostel reveals he knows about his collection of pornographic pottery ("None of us is perfect"). Standing out among the numerous other good roles is Buster Keaton as the old Roman who's been searching for his long lost children and keeps running through the film at the oddest moments. His face is almost as comically expressive as Mostel's. When, not hearing correctly, he says...