For those of you older than I who remember watching the original
Gambit back in the early 1970s, you may recall dealer Elaine Stewart. Long before that, however, she was an actress, and one of her early movies,
A Slight Case of Larceny, is airing at 6:00 AM ET tomorrow (December 23) on TCM.
The slight plot involves Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken going into business as gas station owners, whose business is undercut by the owner of a chain of gas stations who opens one up across the street from them. They respond by tapping into the other station's gas tank to pilfer free gas so that they can undercut the other station. (Have fun watching the 1953-vintage gas prices.) Stewart plays the lovely attendant at the competing gas station, for whom Rooney takes a shine when he sees her earlier in the movie. Although the plot isn't much to speak of, it's an enjoyable enough movie, but one that you'll have to DVR since it's not on DVD.
(IMDb says that Stewart is still alive at the age of 81, and still married to Merrill Heatter.)
