Gambit – More Coen Brothers Magic

By Bennett Owen

Wow. Nice pair of…boots. In case you hadn’t noticed, that’s Cameron Diaz, turning heads in Heathrow courtesy a Tough Country tank, a pair of Daisy Dukes and little else.

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Yes, she’s a working girl, shooting a scene from GAMBIT, a remake of the classic 1966 comedy caper.

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The original starred Michael Caine and Shirley Maclaine…the new version puts Diaz alongside Colin Firth who plays an art thief planning to con a wealthy collector. He enlists a Texas steer roper (Diaz) to set up the swindle.  Diaz is a self-professed Texas Hold ‘Em fanatic…suppose that’s why she got the part?

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I’ve always been a fan of the original…will watch about anything Michael Caine is in…

and am generally skeptical of remakes…but with the Coen Brothers writing the screenplay, it will most likely get my money. And Colin Firth is truly the only actor alive today remotely capable of filling the mighty Michael Caine’s place. 

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From Blood Simple, to Fargo to True Grit, the Coen brothers continually capture the essential mystique of the western US.  My favorite line from Blood Simple:  “He gave me a little pearl-handled .38 for our first anniversary…I figured I’d better leave before I used it on him.”

Maureen O’Hara – Mrs. Duke

By Bennett Owen

She is the mainspring of my lifelong love of redheads.               

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At the very start of Quiet Man, when she looks out across that emerald field, all curls and fire and statuesque beauty – and we watch her fall instantly and incurably in love at her very first sighting of Sean Thornton as played by John Wayne. I’ve watched that scene at least 200 times since I was a youngster and every time, including last night, I wish I were the humbled champion walking up that lane. 

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John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara were giant on-screen personalities whose characters clashed with an unequaled fervor and passion. She was always a shrew to be tamed and yet we all knew, as she did, there was only one man alive up to the task…one man inspired, not daunted by her fierce pride and independence…a clash of wills and temperaments and magnetic attraction.

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And yet off-screen their friendship was quite different, warm, enriching and enduring…also the stuff of Hollywood legend.

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They starred in five pictures together, three of them westerns…Rio Grande, Big Jake and one of my favorite films of all time, McLintock. It features the famous and grandiose brawl with Mr. and Mrs. Duke dishing it out and taking it with the rest of them. It’s one of Ms. O’Hara’s favorite scenes:

"Audiences always rave about the fight sequence that takes place at the mine dump and ends in the mud. A total of forty-two cast members took part in the brawl, and nearly all of us ended up sliding down the bank into the mud pit below.” 

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Here it is in all its sidesplitting splendor.

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