Directed by: Robert Altman
Produced by: Joseph Walsh, Robert Altman
Written by: Joseph Walsh, Starring George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann Prentiss, Gwen Welles
Music by: Phyllis Shotwell
Cinematography: Paul Lohmann
Editing by: O. Nicholas Brown, Lou Lombardo
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release date: August 7, 1974
Running time: 108 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English

California Split is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers. It was the first non-Cinerama movie to use eight-track stereo sound.

Plot

The film is less concerned with plot than behavior as a friendship develops between Bill Denny (George Segal) and Charlie Waters (Elliott Gould) over their mutual love of gambling. Charlie is a wisecracking joker and experienced gambler constantly looking for the next score. Initially, Bill isn’t as committed a gambler (he works at a magazine during the day) but he’s well on his way.

As the film progresses and the two men hang out more, Bill starts to become more addicted to the gambling lifestyle. He goes into debt to his bookie, Sparkie (Joseph Walsh). Eventually, Bill hocks some of his possessions to fund a trip to Reno, where Bill and Charlie pool their money to stake Bill in a poker game (where one of the players is former world champion “Amarillo Slim”, portraying himself). Bill wins $18,000, but doesn’t quit; he is convinced he is on a hot streak. He plays blackjack, then roulette and finally craps, winning more and more money, eventually cashing out $82,000.

But something happens at the craps table. When he finally stops, he is drained, almost apathetic. After they split their winnings, he tells Charlie he’s quitting and going home. Charlie doesn’t understand it, but sees that his friend means what he says, and they go their separate ways.

Cast

George Segal as Bill Denny
Elliott Gould as Charlie Waters
Ann Prentiss as Barbara Miller
Gwen Welles as Susan Peters
Edward Walsh as Lew
Joseph Walsh as Sparkie
Bert Remsen as Helen Brown
Jeff Goldblum as Lloyd Harris

Trivia

• In the bar scene where Charlie and Bill first share a drink, Charlie overhears a conversation during which a man wonders if the Knicks will win the NBA finals. Charlie butts in and says the Celtics are going all the way. Charlie’s prediction comes true, the Celtics were the NBA champions in 1974. Since the movie was filmed in early 1974 and the finals weren’t until June, Charlie really does pick the winner ahead of time.
• The original ending actually spilled outside the casino. Bill leaves Charlie and hails a cab when Charlie suddenly comes out and decides to go with him so as to prove that he can walk away from gambling. However, a couple of people climb out of the waiting cab and ask Charlie how the action is, and he is drawn right back in and thus Bill leaves alone.

The DVD

The film was released on DVD in 2004, but music rights problems forced Sony/Columbia to exclude almost three minutes of footage and make several soundtrack changes. The DVD is already out of print, leading to speculation that a re-release is imminent with the missing footage restored.

Links

• California Split at the Internet Movie Database
• California Split at Allmovie
• California Split at Rotten Tomatoes

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Directed by: Fielder Cook
Produced by: Fielder Cook
Written by: Sidney Carroll
Starring: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Paul Ford, Jason Robards, Burgess Meredith, Charles Bickford, Kevin McCarthy
Music by: David Raskin
Cinematography: Lee Garmes
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date: 1966
Running time: 95 minutes

A Big Hand for the Little Lady (released in the UK as Big Deal at Dodge City) is a 1966 western film, made by Eden Productions Inc. and released by Warner Bros. It was produced and directed by Fielder Cook from a screenplay by Sidney Carroll, adapted from their TV play Big Deal in Laredo which aired on the DuPont Show of the Week in 1962.

The film stars Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Paul Ford, and Jason Robards, with Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, and John Qualen. The original TV play starred Walter Matthau as Meredith.

Plot

The five richest men in the territory gather in Laredo for their annual high-stakes poker game. The high rollers let nothing get in the way of their yearly showdown. When undertaker Tropp calls for them in his horse-drawn hearse, cattleman Henry Drummond forces a postponement of his daughter’s wedding, while lawyer Otto Habershaw abandons his closing arguments in a trial, with his client’s life hanging in the balance. They are joined by Wilcox and Buford in the back room of Sam’s saloon, while the curious gather outside for occasional reports.

Settlers Meredith, his wife Mary, and their young son Jackie are passing through, on their way to purchase a farm near San Antonio, when a wheel on their wagon breaks. They wait at Sam’s while the local blacksmith repairs it. Meredith, a recovering gambler, learns of the big poker game and begs to sit in, “just to watch,” but Mary will not hear of it. However, while she is taking the wagon to the blacksmith, Habershaw invites Meredith into the back room. The newcomer buys into the game, eventually staking all of the family savings, meant to pay for a home.

The game builds to a climactic hand; the gamblers raise and re-raise until more than $20,000 is in the pot. Meredith, out of cash, is unable to call the latest raise. Under the strain, he collapses. The town physician, Joseph “Doc” Scully, is called to care for the stricken man. Barely conscious, Meredith signals for his wife to play out the hand.

Taking his seat, Mary asks, “How do you play this game?” The other players object loudly to playing with a woman, particularly one who does not know the game, but eventually give in. The situation is explained to her: if she cannot match the last raise (and any others that may follow), she will be out of the hand.

Despite the men’s protests, she leaves the room to borrow additional funds. With Jackie and four of the players trailing behind, Mary crosses the street and talks to the owner of the Cattle and Merchants’ Bank, C. P. Ballinger. After she shows him her hand, Ballinger assumes she is playing a practical joke. When he learns otherwise, he loans her $5,500 (at 6% interest) and makes a $5,000 raise for her. The other players, aware of Ballinger’s tightfisted, cautious nature, all reluctantly fold. Mary collects her sizable winnings and pays Ballinger back with interest. The game then breaks up.

The lady’s determination earns her the admiration of the men. Even Drummond, the most hard-hearted of the bunch, is so touched that, when he returns home to the waiting wedding ceremony, he talks privately to his weak-willed, prospective son-in-law, gives him some money, and orders him to run away and find himself a better wife than his daughter.

The denouement takes place in the gambling town of Black Creek, where it is revealed that Meredith, Mary, and even their “son” are confidence tricksters and expert card sharps. Together with Ballinger and Scully, they have perpetrated a scam on the five poker players, who had swindled the banker in a real estate deal sixteen years before. “Mary” is actually Ballinger’s girlfriend Ruby. She had promised him she would give up gambling after the caper, but it becomes clear that she had no such intent when she sits down to another poker game.

Cast

Henry Fonda as Meredith
Joanne Woodward as Mary
Jason Robards as Henry P.G. Drummond
Paul Ford as C.P. Ballinger
Charles Bickford as Benson Tropp
Burgess Meredith as Doc Joseph Scully
Kevin McCarthy as Otto Habershaw
Robert Middleton as Dennis Wilcox
John Qualen as Jesse Buford
Jean-Michel Michenaud as Jackie
James Berwick as Sam Rhine

Reception

Joanne Woodward was nominated for the Golden Laurel Award for Female Comedy Performance.^[1]

References

Links

• A Big Hand for the Little Lady at the Internet Movie Database
• A Big Hand for the Little Lady at Allmovie
• A Big Hand for the Little Lady at Rotten Tomatoes
• Original New York Times review

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Directed by: Harold French
Produced by: Harold French
Written by: Noel Langley (story), George Barraud, Nicholas Phipps, Lesley Storm
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons
Release date: May 31, 1949 (1949-05-31)
Running time: 70 minutes

Adam and Evelyne, released in the U.S. as Adam and Evelyn, is a 1949 romance film starring Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons. According to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, this suited the stars, as they were romantically involved at the time, despite their age difference. They married the next year.

Plot

When jockey Chris Kirby (Fred Johnson) is fatally injured in a horse race, he gets his best friend, gambler Adam Black (Stewart Granger), to promise to take care of his teenage daughter, Evelyne (Jean Simmons), who has been raised apart from her father. Unbeknownst to Adam, Evelyne had been led to believe that Adam is her father in correspondence between parent and child. Adam is unable to tell her the truth; his butler and friend Bill Murray (Edwin Styles) tries and fails as well. Finally, Adam’s sometime girlfriend Moira (Helen Cherry) breaks the news to the girl.

Adam sends Evelyne to an exclusive boarding school. When she has grown up, she reappears unexpectedly in his life. Because of the hatred she has for gambling, Adam does not reveal that he stages illegal gambling sessions; instead he tells her that he makes his money on the stock exchange. She begins casually dating Adam’s no-good brother Roddy (Raymond Young).

When Adam tells Moira that he is getting out of the business, she accuses him of being in love his “ward”. Roddy has his own grudge against his brother – Adam refuses to finance a shady deal – and the two of them tip off the police about Adam’s last operation. Roddy also brings Evelyne to see what Adam really does for a living.

Shocked, she quarrels with Adam and leaves. A kindly gambler, Colonel Bradley (Wilfred Hyde-White), gives her some sage advice and convinces her to reconcile with Adam.

Cast

• Stewart Granger as Adam Black
• Jean Simmons as Evelyne Kirby
• Edwin Styles as Bill Murray
• Raymond Young as Roddy Black
• Helen Cherry as Moira
• Beatrice Varley as Mrs. Parker, a gambler
• Joan Swinstead as Molly
• Wilfred Hyde-White as Colonel Bradley
• Fred Johnson as Chris Kirby
• Geoffrey Denton as Police Inspector Collins

Links

• Adam and Evelyne at the Internet Movie Database

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.