Directed by George Marshall
Produced by Joe Pasternak, Written by Max Brand (novel Destry Rides Again), Felix Jackson (screenplay and story), Henry Myers, Gertrude Purcell
Starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Brian Donlevy
Music by Frank Skinner
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Editing by Milton Carruth
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) December 29, 1939 (U.S. release)
Running time 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Destry Rides Again (AKA The Man from Montana) (1939) is a western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr., and Una Merkel. The original Max Brand novel was translated into an “oater” with the town of Bottleneck set on a Hollywood sound stage. The movie was directed by George Marshall and is a remake of a 1932 version starring Tom Mix.

In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Plot

Saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy), the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town’s Sheriff, Keogh, killed when the Sheriff asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and “Frenchy” (Marlene Dietrich), his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The crooked town’s mayor, Hiram J. Slade (Samuel S. Hinds), who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), as the new sheriff, assuming that he’ll be easy to control and manipulate. But what the mayor doesn’t know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under the famous lawman, Tom Destry and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry, Jr. (James Stewart) to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.

Destry confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun in spite of demonstrating that he is an expert marksman. He still carries out the “letter of the law”, as deputy Sheriff, and wins over their respect. A final confrontation between Destry and Kent’s gang is inevitable, but “Frenchy” is won over by Destry and changes sides. A final gunfight ensues where Frenchy is killed in the crossfire, and the rule of law wins the day.

Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):^[1]

Songs

Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy performs the songs “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have” and “You’ve Got That Look”, written by Frank Loesser, set to music by Frederick Hollander, which have become classics.

Production

Famed Western writer Max Brand contributed the novel, Destry Rides Again, but the film also owes its origins to Brand’s serial “Twelve Peers”, published in a pulp-magazine. In the original work, Harrison (or “Harry”) Destry was not a pacifist. As filmed in 1932, with Tom Mix in the starring role, the central character differed in that Destry did wear six-guns in that version.

The film was James Stewart’s first western (he would not return to the genre until 1950, with Broken Arrow and Winchester 73), and was also notable for a ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel, which apparently caused a mild censorship problem at the time of release.^[2]

According to writer/director Peter Bogdanovich, Marlene Dietrich told him during an aircraft flight that she and James Stewart had an affair during shooting and that she became pregnant and had the baby surreptitiously aborted without telling Stewart.^[3]

Reception

Destry Rides Again was generally well accepted by the public, as well as critics. It was reviewed by Frank S. Nugent in the The New York Times, who noted that the film did not follow the usual Hollywood type-casting. On Dietrich’s role, he characterized, “It’s difficult to reconcile Miss Dietrich’s Frenchy, the cabaret girl of the Bloody Gulch Saloon, with the posed and posturing Dietrich we last saw in Mr. Lubitsch’s ‘Angel’.” Stewart’s contribution was similarly treated, “turning in an easy, likable, pleasantly humored performance.”^[4]

Other versions

• Universal Pictures released an earlier version, also titled Destry Rides Again (1932), directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Tom Mix and Zasu Pitts.^[5]
• An almost shot-for-shot remake of the 1939 production, Destry (1954), was also directed by George Marshall and stars Audie Murphy and Thomas Mitchell.
• A Broadway musical version of the story, Destry Rides Again, opened in New York at the Imperial Theater on April 23, 1959, and played 472 performances. Produced by David Merrick, the show had a book by Leonard Gershe, music and lyrics by Harold Rome, and starred Andy Griffith as Destry and Dolores Gray as Frenchy.
• ABC aired a short-lived television series in 1964, Destry, based on the first two films, starring John Gavin as the son of the movie’s title character.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Links

• Destry Rides Again at the Internet Movie Database
• Destry Rides Again at the TCM Movie Database
• Destry Rides Again at AllRovi
• Destry Rides Again at Rotten Tomatoes

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

Directed by Brewster MacWilliams
Produced by Robert Peters, Roy Winnick
Written by Brewster MacWilliams
Starring Frank Gorshin, Stanley DeSantis, Sam Anderson, Mike Genovese, Susan Traylor, Robert Dubac
Music by Colin Leese
Cinematography Arturo Smith
Release date(s) 1997
Running time 89 min.
Country US
Language English

After the Game is a 1997 film noir drama/mystery film starring Frank Gorshin, Stanley DeSantis, Sam Anderson, Mike Genovese, Susan Traylor, and Robert Dubac.

Directed by Brewster MacWilliams and produced by Robert Peters and Roy Winnick, the screenplay was written by Brewster MacWilliams.

The DVD, titled The Last Hand, was issued in 2004.

Synopsis

After the Game is a crime fiction murder mystery with a theme of “after the game of poker” and “after the game of life.” It deals with revenge, deceit, lust and greed, and explores karma and the afterlife.

Aging gambler Benny Walsh (played by Gorshin) dies in a suspicious car crash after the biggest poker win of his life. His son, Clyde (played by Dubac), comes to the Nevada town in search of answers. He discovers that each of his father’s gambling buddies had ample reason to see him dead.

Cast

Frank Gorshin as Benny Walsh
Stanley DeSantis as Frank Bertini
Sam Anderson as Jimmy Walsh
Mike Genovese as Sam Kowalski
Susan Traylor as Veronica Kowalski
Richard Lineback as Slim, the Bartender
Donna Eskra as Dolly
Robert Dubac as Clyde Walsh
Lou Rawls as Morgue Attendant
Daniel Zacapa as Detective Garcia
Hudson Leick as Grace

Links

• After the Game at the Internet Movie Database

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

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Directed by Leena Yadav
Produced by Ambika A. Hinduja
Screenplay by Leena Yadav, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Story by Leena Yadav, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Saira Mohan, Raima Sen, Shraddha Kapoor, Tinnu Anand, Mahesh Manjrekar
Music by Salim-Sulaiman
Cinematography Aseem Bajaj
Editing by Hughes Winborne, Kaushik Das
Distributed by Serendipity Films
Release date(s) February 26, 2010
Running time 140 mins.
Country India
Language Hindi

Teen Patti (Hindi: तीन पत्ती) is a 2010 Bollywood film directed by Leena Yadav who had previously directed the Sanjay Dutt-Aishwarya Rai starrer Shabd in 2005. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Raima Sen, Shraddha Kapoor^[1] and is produced by Ambika Hinduja under the banners Hinduja Ventures and Serendipity Films. The film is about a mathematics professor, played by Amitabh Bachchan, who is trying to write a thesis on probability and relates it to the Indian card game of Teen Patti.

Plot

The story begins with Venkat Subhramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan), a professor of mathematics, software engineering, and a genius, teaching math in his village to kids when a postman comes with a letter. The letter is from Perci Trachtenberg (Ben Kingsley), widely regarded as the world’s greatest living mathematician, who invites Venkat to a high rolling casino in London. Venkat tells Perci about an equation that could not only change the dialogue on mathematics forever, but one that has already left an indelible impression of guilt – for many painful reasons – on Venkat’s life. It is shown in the past that the reclusive genius Venkat has cracked a theory that could redefine the principles of probability and randomness. Venkat tries to use this experiment in a game called Teen Patti, (a poker game) which he plays on the internet. According to this experiment if a player playing Teen Patti knows all the 3 cards with one of the players (except him) he/she can guess the other cards with the rest of the players and therefore can guess who is going to win with the theory of probability.

Venkat succeeds on his theory and submits his report to the institute where he teaches but they reject his report. But Venkat is sure about his theory and wants to try out in reality with real players. So he talks with a younger professor Shantanu (R. Madhavan) about his theory and tells him to get three students to try out this experiment. Shantanu arranges three students- Sid (Siddharth Kher)- the college rockstar, Aparna or Apu (Shraddha Kapoor)- the studious geek who has a crush on Sid and Vikram or Vikku (Dhruv Ganesh)- the boy next door. They come together and start playing the game and Venkat’s theory like the last time proves to be successful. Venkat tells that after a few more games he’ll be sure to crack his equation and even be able to study it better. Shantanu tells him that he should try using his theory in the real world, where there are people who actually gamble and play Teen Patti i.e. in underground dens or ‘addas’.

Although Venkat has no interest in the money that could come from practicing his equation to crack Teen Patti, he eventually succumbs to Shantanu’s charismatic persuasion. Soon, with the help of his new students, they explore the addas (underground gambling dens) of wild Bombay. Later another student from the institute, Abbas (Vaibhav Talwar)- the rich spoiled brat joins the gang and arranges for them parties in casinos, private clubs etc. But what starts out as an experiment between a charismatic young professor and an eccentric older one soon descends into a game neither of them can control. The money they earn gets stolen; someone is blackmailing them; they get greedy about money and in the course of time they change into different people and even start betraying each other. The story tells that money is nothing but hunger; it leads to greed, deception, betrayals which have disastrous consequences in the end.

Cast

Amitabh Bachchan as Venkat Subramanium
Ben Kingsley as Perci Trachtenberg
R. Madhavan as Shantanu Biswas
Dhruv Ganesh as Bikram
Shraddha Kapoor as Aparna
Siddharth Kher as Sid
Vaibhav Talwar as Abbas
Saira Mohan as K.
Raima Sen
Ajay Devgan as Sunny
Jackie Shroff as Tony Milano
Mahesh Manjrekar as Dagdu
Ranjeet
Shakti Kapoor as Prem London
Tinnu Anand as Billu
Siddharth Shanghvi
Nonita Kalra
Bibhu Mohaptra
Eden Shyodhi
Rubina Khan as Sadasas
Maria Gopez as Dancer in Niyat Song

Production

The film is shot in India except for a few parts that in England, for which production designer Ayesha Punvani, created gambling dens (adda) in places like abandoned train yards, dockyards, abandoned factories, mills that have been shut down and an ice factory, and in all 80 sets were created ^[2]

Reception

Teen Patti had a poor opening, being beaten out by My Name Is Khan in the first place and Karthik Calling Karthik in the second place. Even Amitabh Bachchan’s appearance could not help the film to go on. The film was rated as a Box office disaster in its first week. The critical reception was extremely poor as well, receiving almost universally bad reviews. Well known film critic and author Anupama Chopra called it “a train wreck of a movie”.^[3]

References

Links

• Official website
• Teen Patti at the Internet Movie Database
• Teen Patti Reviews

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

Hip hop poker music video featuring Pro Hoe Zak, Raw, Alexander Neil and Holly Rae. The video also features poker pros Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan and Layne Flack.

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.