The Gambler and the Lady | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Patrick Jenkins Sam Newfield |
Written by | Sam Newfield |
Produced by | Anthony Hinds |
Starring | Dane Clark |
Cinematography | Walter J. Harvey |
Edited by | Maurice Rootes |
Music by | Ivor Slaney |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Lippert Pictures (US) Exclusive Films (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 72 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Gambler and the Lady is a 1952 British crime film directed by Patrick Jenkins and Sam Newfield and starring Dane Clark, Kathleen Byron and Naomi Chance. [1] It was made by Hammer Films. [2]
Four years before, American gambler Jim Forster was broke. He borrowed £1 from Maxie, proprietor of Maxie's Barn, and had a very lucky gambling streak. He continued to rise and now owns posh illegal casinos, a nightclub and other enterprises in London. He aspires to find acceptance amongst the British upper class, taking daily lessons in correct behaviour from Miss Minter.
One night, casino employee Jacko Spina reluctantly accepts a cheque from Lord Peter Willens for gambling losses. The cheque bounces, but Jim orders Jacko not to do anything about it. Jacko roughs up Willens anyway to try to collect the money. Willens comes to see Jim and informs him he will be paid in a week; Jim tells him he had nothing to do with Willens' beating. Afterwards, Jim fires Jacko.
Dave Davies, Jim's longtime friend and bookkeeper, warns him the Colonnas are in town. They were big-time gangsters in the United States until they were deported. Now they run casinos in Rome and Paris. Arturo Colonna offers to buy Jim's operation and pay him 10% to run things. He turns them down.
Meanwhile, Jim breaks up with his girlfriend Pat, a professional dancer at his nightclub, whom he has tired of. Later, he spots Willens and his friends celebrating the 21st birthday of Lady Jane Greer at his nightclub. He comes over, but is openly mocked by Greer and most of the party. The sole exception is Lady Susan Willens, Lord Willens' sister. She dances with him, and he invites her to a boxing match. (This is witnessed by Pat. She later starts drinking heavily and saying nasty things about Jim.) Jim sees more of Susan. Susan initially consider Jim just a friend, until a jealous Pat confronts her.
After Jim turns down Colonna a second time, his nightclub and two of his casinos are wrecked, but he remains defiant.
Peter Willens asks Susan to try to persuade Jim to invest in a gold mine which promoter Richard Farning claims is in need of funds to exploit a newly found deposit. Over the strenuous objections of Dave, Jim sells out to the Colonnas and liquidates the rest of his assets. However, the gold mine is soon revealed to be a scam. Jim, who has avoided liquor because it unleashes his vicious temper, starts drinking heavily.
Meanwhile, Jacko tips off the police to the gambling establishments, then lies to Arturo Colonna and tells him Jim is responsible for the police raids. When Angelo Colonna and a reluctant Jacko go to Jim's home, he is not there, but Dave is; Angelo unintentionally kills him. When Jim finds out, he seeks revenge. Pat follows him to the Colonnas. A shootout ensues. Jim is shot in the arm, but gets away and ends up in the street. Pat runs him down with her car. Susan and Jim's butler arrive; it is unclear whether Jim is dead or alive, but they take him home.
Atlantic City is a 1980 romantic crime film directed by Louis Malle from a screenplay by John Guare. It stars Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon in the leading roles, with a supporting cast featuring Kate Reid, Michel Piccoli, Robert Joy, Hollis McLaren, and Al Waxman. A co-production between French and Canadian companies filmed in late 1979, it was released in France and Germany in September 1980 and in the United States later that year by Paramount Pictures.
Max Everitt Rosenbloom was an American professional boxer, actor, and television personality. Nicknamed "Slapsie Maxie", he was inducted into The Ring's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1972, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1985, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993. He was sometimes billed as Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom for film appearances.
Against All Odds is a 1984 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges and James Woods alongside Jane Greer, Alex Karras, Richard Widmark and Dorian Harewood. The film is an adaptation of the 1946 novel Build My Gallows High by Daniel Mainwaring. The novel was previously adapted as Out of the Past (1947), a film in which Greer played the femme fatale. The film's plot is about an aging American football star who is hired by a mobster to find his girlfriend.
Frankie and Johnny is a 1966 American Western musical film starring Elvis Presley as a riverboat gambler. The role of "Frankie" was played by Donna Douglas from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series. The film reached #40 on the Variety weekly national box office list for 1966. The budget of the film was estimated at $4.5 million. The director was Frederick De Cordova, who in 1970 went on to become the director and producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Maximilian "Maxie" Zeus is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a minor enemy of Batman. He is depicted as a mentally ill former history professor who is obsessed with Greek mythology and believes himself to be the god Zeus, becoming a crime lord in Gotham City.
John McGuire was a film actor during the period from the 1930s to the 1950s. In many of his early films he was a leading man; however, later in his career he played bit parts. McGuire appeared in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935); Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936);The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936); Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), sometimes thought Hollywood's first film noir; The Invisible Ghost (1941); Sands of Iwo Jima (1949); and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950).
Hollywood or Bust is a 1956 American semi-musical comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis alongside Pat Crowley and Anita Ekberg. The picture was filmed from April 16 to June 19, 1956, and released on December 6, 1956, by Paramount Pictures, almost five months after the Martin and Lewis partnership split up.
Havana is a 1990 American drama film starring Robert Redford, Lena Olin, Alan Arkin and Raul Julia, directed by Sydney Pollack with music by Dave Grusin. The film's plot concerns Jack Weil (Redford), an American professional gambler who decides to visit Havana, Cuba to gamble in 1958 on the eve of the Cuban Revolution.
The Las Vegas Story is a 1952 American suspense film noir starring Jane Russell and Victor Mature, directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Robert Sparks and Howard Hughes with Samuel Bischoff as the executive producer.
Rise of the Footsoldier is a British gangster film franchise written and directed by Julian Gilbey, Will Gilbey, Ricci Harnett, Zackary Adler, Andrew Loveday and Nick Nevern, distributed by Optimum Releasing. The franchise and its first two films are based on true events featured in the autobiography of Inter City Firm hooligan turned gangster Carlton Leach before later films focus on the lives of drug dealers Pat Tate and Tony Tucker who were gunned down in the Rettendon murders in 1995.
Gambling Lady is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Archie Mayo, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and Pat O'Brien.
George Pastell was a Cypriot character actor in British films and television programmes. Sources vary as to whether his real name was Nino (IMDb) or George Pastellides (BFI). His marriage record gives his name as Georgiou Pastellides while his RADA record lists his name as George Pastel.
Lady Windermere's Fan is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It is based on Oscar Wilde's 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan which was first played in America by Julia Arthur as Lady Windermere and Maurice Barrymore as Lord Darlington. The film is being preserved by several archives. It was transferred onto 16mm film by Associated Artists Productions in the 1950s and shown on television. In 2002, Lady Windermere's Fan was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The Law and the Lady is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Edwin H. Knopf and starring Greer Garson, Michael Wilding and Fernando Lamas. It is not related to the Wilkie Collins novel The Law and the Lady. Very loosely based on the 1925 play The Last of Mrs. Cheyney by Frederick Lonsdale, the action is transferred to the turn of the century, the names are all changed, and the first half of the film shows the history of the two thieves. Previous film versions of the story, made in 1929, starring Norma Shearer, and 1937, starring Joan Crawford, retained the play's contemporary setting, included a crew of confederates, and opened with Mrs. Cheyney as an established figure in society. This film also ends differently from the play, with the partners in crime ending as romantic partners but going back to England to face the music for their very first swindle. In the play and in the two other films, Charles leaves and Mrs. Cheyney accepts Lord Dilling, who kisses her and declares: “That's the Last of Mrs. Cheyney!”
Framed is a 1975 American crime neo noir film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Joe Don Baker and Conny Van Dyke. It was the final film of Karlson's Hollywood career.
Smashing the Rackets is a 1938 American drama film directed by Lew Landers, written by Lionel Houser, and starring Chester Morris, Frances Mercer, Rita Johnson, Bruce Cabot and Edward Pawley. It was released on August 19, 1938, by RKO Pictures.
Paul "Skinny" D'Amato also known as "Mr. Atlantic City", was the owner of the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from the 1940s until the club burned down in 1973.
The Kid from Kokomo is a 1939 American comedy film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by Richard Macaulay and Jerry Wald. The film stars Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, Joan Blondell, May Robson, Jane Wyman and Stanley Fields. The film was released by Warner Bros. on May 23, 1939.
Leave it to Psmith, subtitled "A comedy of youth, love and misadventure", is a 1930 comedy play by Ian Hay and P. G. Wodehouse, based on the latter's 1923 novel of the same title. It premiered in London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 29 September 1930.