Directed by Daniel Mann
Produced by Jack Rose
Written by A. Rose (book), Jack Rose
Starring Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, Walter Matthau
Music by George Duning
Nita Talbot
Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg
Editing by Howard A. Smith
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) December 25, 1962
Running time 93 min.
Country U.S.A.
Language English

Who’s Got the Action? (1962) is a comedy film about a man suffering from an addiction to gambling starring Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, and Walter Matthau. The film was written by Alexander Rose and Jack Rose, and directed by Daniel Mann.

Plot

The gambling habit of lawyer Steve Flood (Dean Martin) is beginning to get on the nerves of his wife Melanie (Lana Turner), who initially suspects him of marital infidelity. When she learns about the gambling, Melanie talks Steve’s law partner Clint Morgan (Eddie Albert), an old flame, into helping her act as a fictitious horse race bookie offering unusually attractive terms to clients.

The plan is for Steve to lose enough money to permanently rid him of the betting habit, but it goes awry when he suddenly begins winning bets on a number of long-shot horses. Flood’s winning streak attracts the attention of two horse-playing judges, Boatwright (Paul Ford) and Fogel (John McGiver), who persuade Flood to place bets for them with his mysterious “bookie.” Melanie and Morgan are astounded when the judges begin winning large wagers as well.

The make-believe bookmaking activity arouses the ire of syndicate mobster Tony Gagoots (Walter Matthau), who is furious to know who’s “getting the action.” Gagoots’s mistress, a nightclub singer named Saturday Knight (Nita Talbot), happens to be the Floods’ next-door neighbor, and assists Melanie in raising cash for the gambling payoffs by purchasing various furnishings from the Floods’ apartment (using Gagoots’ ill-gotten money).

The source of the mysterious “bookmaking” is traced to the Floods’ apartment by Gagoots through an illegal telephone wiretap. He and a team of thugs descend upon the apartment, where they are surprised to find all the defecting gamblers assembled. They are thunderstruck when a coercive interrogation reveals that Melanie Flood is the “bookie” they have been seeking.

Steve Flood ultimately convinces Gagoots to forgive all of their gambling debts by arguing that only by marrying his mistress Saturday can he avoid the risk of incriminating testimony. In one stroke this fulfills Saturday’s long-sought goal, saves the Floods’ marriage, insulates Gagoots from future prosecution and clears Melanie’s $18,000 gambling payoff burden.

Evaluation

Who’s Got the Action? doesn’t rank as a landmark comedy, it is thoroughly entertaining and well worth seeing. The principal cast members (Martin, Turner, Albert) give creditable performances, but the film benefits much more from knockout performances by the supporting cast (Talbot, Matthau, Ford, McGiver, Glass, various others). The musical score is also excellent. Many of the scenes were filmed on location in Flood’s/Knight’s luxurious penthouse apartments in the historic Talmadge building on Los Angeles’ Wilshire Boulevard; much of the automobile driving shown runs up and down Wilshire. The pace of the action is very fast, with the gag lines (some good, some dull) coming every few seconds. An amusing sideline is the occasional views of Gagoots’ s huge, light-flashing Univac computer, which keeps track of the syndicate’s illegal bookmaking operations.

Movie Origins and Design

The storyline is based on the 1960 novel Four Horse Players Are Missing by Alexander Rose, who also plays a minor role in the film (“Mr. Goody”). This novel, in turn, was closely related to the book Little Miss Marker (1934) by Alexander Hall.

At the detail level, producer/script writer Jack Rose took many liberties to make use of the screen reputations of the cast members. For example, Dean Martin at the “Blue Slipper” night club maintains his boozer image by telling a waiter, “Pour scotch all over us”; in the film’s opening scene he grabs someone else’s cocktail on his way to the phone booth. Straight-laced John McGiver explains that he bets on horses only because “it annoys my wife.”

Matthau’s tour de force portrayal of mobster Tony Gagoots includes a parade of humorous cracks and incongruous actions (drinking from a glass of milk on his desk; biting loudly into apples; ordering his thugs to bring along the artillery “unless you object on religious grounds”; telling Mrs. Flood that he has a deal with Bennett Cerf – “He doesn’t take horse bets, I don’t publish books.”

Famous pin-up model June Wilkinson has no spoken lines, but appears in a bizarre scene in Judge Boatwright’s chambers as a young bride preparing to marry an octogenarian groom. One curious anomaly: Judges Boatwright and Fogel show up in person at a local horse racing track (Hollywood Park) to witness the running of an elderly mare named “Sadness”; this raises the question of why, if the judges could make it to the track, they did not place legal pari-mutuel wagers there instead of making illegal bets through Flood’s mysterious bookie (actually Mrs. Flood). The song performed by Nita Talbot at the night club (“The Lady’s In Love With You”) was of her own composition.

Cast

Dean Martin as Steve Flood
Lana Turner as Melanie Flood
Eddie Albert as Clint Morgan
Walter Matthau as Tony Gagouts
Paul Ford as Judge Boatwright
Nita Talbot as Saturday Knight
John McGiver as Judge Fogel
Jack Albertson as Hodges

Links

• Who’s Got the Action? at the Internet Movie Database
• Who’s Got the Action? at AllRovi

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

Directed by Karel Reisz
Written by James Toback
Starring James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton
Music by Jerry Fielding
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) October 1974 (USA)
Running time 111 min.
Language English

The Gambler is a 1974 movie starring James Caan, Lauren Hutton, and Paul Sorvino.

The film is loosely based on the short novel The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky^[1][2] and was filmed at a time when leading actor James Caan was battling his own addiction to cocaine. Caan was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.

Plot

Axel Freed is a New York City English professor with a gambling addiction that begins to spiral out of control. In the classroom, Freed inspires his college students with his interpretations of Dostoevsky. In his personal life, Axel has the affection of the beautiful Billie and the admiration of his family, including his mother Naomi, a doctor, and his grandfather, a wealthy businessman.

Unbeknownst to them, Axel’s reckless gambling on basketball games has left him with a huge debt. His bookie Hips likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he doesn’t pay up.

Axel’s descent into addiction requires him to extort a hefty $44,000 from his mortified mother to repay what he owes. He goes away with Billie to a casino where he makes a small fortune, only to blow it all again on basketball bets.

He takes out his anger on Billie, who doesn’t appreciate having loan sharks come to their apartment in the middle of the night. Expecting help from the grandfather who loves him, Axel gets nothing but the older man’s disappointment and disgust.

The only solution left is to lure one of his students, a basketball star, into accepting a bribe to deliberately shave points in a game so that Axel can pay off his debts. Having corrupted a previously innocent youth, Axel is so appalled by his own behavior that he masochistically confronts a dangerous man who leaves him with a bloody and permanent reminder of his actions.

Cast

James Caan as Axel Freed
Paul Sorvino as Hips
Lauren Hutton as Billie
Morris Carnovsky as A.R. Lowenthal
Jacqueline Brookes as Naomi Freed
Burt Young as Carmine

References

Links

• Rotten Tomatoes
• The Gambler at the Internet Movie Database

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.