The Wagers Of Cinema

Hollywood has dealt us some fascinating movies on the theme of gambling. Here’s ten of the most noteworthy.*THE CINCINNATI KID* (1965)Tired of small time triumphs, The Kid (Steve McQueen) persuades his gambling buddy The Shooter (Karl Malden) to let him sit in on a big game opposite New Orleans’ reigning poker supremo The Man (Edward G Robinson), but refuses shady offers to rig the outcome. A tense study of the steely wills of ruthless card players and their attendant hangers-on, it did for poker what The Hustler did for pool four years earlier.*LOST IN AMERICA* (1985)Disillusioned yuppies Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty sell up and hit the road, their “nest egg” safely ensconsed in a Winnebago. Stopping off in Vegas for one last night of luxury, Hagerty blows said nest egg at the roulette wheel while Brooks sleeps. In the most quietly, comically desperate scene in cinema history, former marketing man Brooks tries to convince the casino manager that it would be good publicity to hand back the nest egg. *THE DEER HUNTER* (1978)Bored Vietcong savages force captured American squaddies Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro to play Russian roulette in a bamboo cage above a swamp. One of the defining images of Seventies cinema, hilariously lampooned in college-set black comedy Dead Man’s Curve (1998) where keg-sucking frat boys stage their own variation, The Beer Hunter. Bet you’ve tried it yourself.*ROUNDERS* (1998)Hard-up law student Matt Damon, having lost his college loan to Russian card sharp John Malkovich (the preposterously-named Teddy KGB), returns to the poker table to help bail out childhood pal and ex-con Edward Norton. Director John Dahl’s low-key human drama is dripping with the familiar noir touches of his earlier work (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction), and there’s memorable support from John Turturro and Martin Landau.*THE QUEEN OF SPADES* (1948)Envious of his aristocratic comrades’ wealth, Russian soldier Anton Walbrook seeks out mysterious countess Edith Evans, who supposedly sold her soul to the devil for the secret of winning at cards. When the countess dies, she returns to haunt him in his dreams. A rarely shown screen version of Alexander Pushkin’s novel, its impressionistic visual flair and foreboding darkness were years ahead of its time.*BIG DEAL AT DODGE CITY* (1966)Upstanding and honest farmer Henry Fonda lays down his last few dollars in a high-stakes poker game and promptly collapses, unable to continue. Enter his equally straight-laced wife Joanne Woodward to take over his hand. “Gentleman,” she says, addressing the cigar-chomping high rollers, “how do you play this game?” Full of comic asides and folksy charm, the film is actually set in Laredo, prompting a title change in some territories to A Big Hand For The Little Lady.*GUYS AND DOLLS* (1955)Evergreen musical based on the writings of Damon Runyon, in which Frank Sinatra, while looking for a venue for his “Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game In New York”), bets rival Marlon Brando that he can’t woo uptight Salvation Army tambourine-basher Jean Simmons. Terrific fun, if you can endure Brando singing.*LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS* (1998)The most audaciously photographed card game in modern movies, Guy Ritchie dabbles in slow-mo, fast-frame and varying film stock, as lovable wideboy Nick Moran is taken to the cleaners by PH Moriarty’s vicious porn lord Hatchet Harry, with a little help from his mini spy cameras. Staging the action in a boxing ring to a soundtrack of The Castaways’ Liar Liar borders on genius.*LET IT RIDE* (1989)Trackaholic Richard Dreyfuss risks one last race day accumulator, against the wishes of long-suffering spouse Teri Garr (essentially reprising her Close Encounters character). Shot in real time, this is a frantic examination of gambling addiction, with nice turns from Jennifer Tilly as a gangster’s moll and Robbie Coltrane as a cynical, then sympathetic, bookie.*RAIN MAN* (1988)“You took my queen!” screams Tom Cruise. “There’s lots of ‘em, lots and lots of ‘em,” assures autistic Dustin Hoffman, as the Armani-suited siblings take the Caesar’s Palace blackjack table by storm. Following the film’s huge success, casinos the world over recorded a sharp increase in attempted card-counting scams.Got any favourites I might have missed...?