Top Ten Gambling Films.

The world of gambling, casinos and poker has been around in the film industry once the 1930's, the debut of such films was surely the film ‘Gambling Lady', which featured Barbara Stanwyck. The latest film in the long history of cinema is probably 21 or Casino Royale, the 007 film starring Daniel Craig.

The top ten presented here is a list of films, which have, in their own individual ways, depicted the world of the gambling community in an unusual and unprecedented way.

The list is not in order from best to worst, they are simply the ten greatest gambling films ever produced, according to me anyway, feel free to discuss whether you agree with this article in our forum, I would be interested to hear your opinions!!!

The Cincinnati Kid (1965):
Eric ‘the Kid' Stoner; played by Steve McQueen, whose adversary is Lancey Howard, an experienced veteran of gambling games, played by Edward Robinson. The two characters meet each other to do battle over a five card game, where the scrupulous dealer Shooter (played by Karl Malden) is pushed by Slade (played by Rip Torn), a player who was beaten by Howard, who subsequently cheats in order to help ‘The Kid' win against Howard.

The film is characteristic of films of that particular era, but the duel undertake at the end of the film is a timeless classic. In the final ‘The Kid' loses against Howard who is holding a flush.

A Big Hand For The Little Lady (1966):
Meredith (played by Henry Fonda) and Mary (played by Joanne Woodward) form a couple whop are drawn into a game of poker during a road trip to California. Meredith bets everything that the couple has, they have been saving up to buy a farm and so this is a huge amount of money to them, on the game.

However (and there is always a however!) Meredith has a heart attack during the game and his wife Mary has to take over, even though she has no idea how to play the game. Does she manage to escape the professional hustlers? Or do they lose everything? The ending may take you by surprise!!

Kaleidoscope (1966):
This is the story of Barney Lincoln (played by Warren Beatty), a card player who does not think it is beneath him to cheat at poker. The technique that the young playboy uses is to enter into a factory that manufactures playing cards used in the majority of large casinos, and to mark the moulds. The casinos, as predicted, use the cards. Naturally, Barney manages to win games wherever he plays.

When his girlfriend Angel McGinnis (played by Suzannah York) learns of his secret, her father, an inspector at Scotland Yard, also learns the secret, things become complicated. The inspector asks Barney to help him to capture a notorious criminal, Harry Dominion, in exchange for keeping the card scam a secret. But Dominion finds out about the men's plan to capture him. Barney and Harry have a confrontation via a game of poker, that plays like their lives.

Certain critics claim that the film is based on the first novel of Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, which has been released on DVD.... watch the films and see what you think?

The Sting (1973):
This film got the old Hollywood duo, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, as its protagonists, in two stings that are set to be the most important events of their lives. Having spotted Doyle Lonnegan (played by Robert Shaw), a top flight poker player, Henry Gondorf (Newman) and John Hooker (Redford), decide to manipulate him by adopting a very complex and very ingenious strategy that will force him to bet huge sums of money on rigged games. But are these games really rigged? And is it just the money they are after?..............this film will keep you on your toes.

The Gambler (1974):
James Caan is Axel Freed, a professor at the University of New York City, who also teaches, the Gambler of Dostoevsky, in his lessons. In spite of his knowledge of addictions linked to gambling and the usage of the works of Dostoevsky to intellectualise his weaknesses and tragic impulses, he has an addiction to gambling, which is nothing if not self-destructive.

This film represents a world that is as cruel and dark as the real one; a world of users, gamblers, bookmakers, and the men that are found there, and who are violent. The story is intense and realistic on its accounts of self-destructive behaviours, and as much unnerving as it is moving. There has not been a film before or since that conveys the intensity of gambling in quite the same way, the risks, the dangers and the loss of control that ruins the person to such a degree.

Casino (1995):
Based on a novel by Larry Shandling and Nicholas Pileggi, Casino was released in 19959 and was directed by the brilliant Martin Scorsese. Robert de Niro is Sam ‘Ace' Rothstein, a character based on Frank Rosenthal, who manages casinos in Las Vegas on behalf of the Mafia during the 70's, most notably; he is responsible for the Stardust Casino.

The mafia supports Rothstein with the work involved with managing the casino, which he will have to manage secretly since there are some legal issues that have arisen. Nicky Santoro, played by Joe Pesci, is an emissary of the mafia sent to watch over ‘Ace', but who ends up in a spot of bother himself. Sharon Stone is Ginger McKenna, an old and haggardly prostitute, but the apple of Rothstein's eyes, but who is secretly embroiled in an n affair with his procure, Lester Diamond, played by James Woods.

High Roller: The Story of Stu Ungar (1998):
Michael Imperioli (of the hit TV show The sopranos) reincarnates on the big screen, the spirit of the late Stu Ungar, who managed to win the World Series of Poker three times whilst he was alive. He amassed millions of dollars during his career, but not everything was smooth running for him, he lost it all at horse racing, and also to his addiction to drugs, he was found dead in his motel room in 1998, he died from an accidental overdose.

Imperioli manages to portray the complexities of Unger's personality in an exuberant style, showing his incredible gift at card games, be that poker, blackjack or rummy (his speciality).

The film depicts his life with his wife and those closest to him, and retraces his life from the beginnings, on the East Side of Manhattan, as a child prodigy, up to his embroilment in the murky world of downtown Las Vegas, into the professional poker circles, his addictions and finally his death.

Rounders (1998):
Matt Damon plays Kyle Mcdermott, a student in law in New York who finances his studies by playing poker. When this leads to him losing his means of living in a hand at $30, 000, he decides to pull out completely from playing poker, up until his old accomplice, Worm (played by Edward Norton) gets released from prison and who retrains him in new techniques and new pastimes.

The film is an atmospheric study of diverse personalities that you can encounter in the gambling world, up to the point where the two friends go head to head in a game of poker with Teddy KGB (played by John Malkovich) in a heart stopping game. The film inspired thousands of people to take up poker and could be one of the reasons that it so popularly took off during the late 1990's and one reason, why it is so popular today.

Croupier (1998):
Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred, a lonely writer who is lacking in inspiration who, in taking employment as a croupier in a casino, realises that that life could be the basis of a novel. Tensions come to the surface in the sentimental life of Jack, with his girlfriend Marion, played by Gina McKee, when he succumbs to the temptations offered by the gambling world. Jack realises that he is becoming the heroes in his novel, the immoral Jake.

This dark film gives an understanding of the gambling world that is very captivating; the life of a croupier depicts how casinos operate in real life, all via the re-telling of a poignant story.

The Cooler (2003):
This film is unique within those films that are based on gambling, because it does not recount the life of a gambler.

William H Macy is Bernie Lootz, a man who has a run of bad-luck that is insurmountable and that renders his chances of ever winning, at absolute zero. A casino, in Las Vegas, employs him to sit down next to the gamblers who are in full ascension, and winning loads of money, so that his bad-luck rubs off on them.

When he falls in love with Natalie (played by Maria Bello) a waitress in his casino, this begins his reversal of fortune. When the players begin to win when he is by their side, the owner of the casino, Shelly Kaplow (played with much panache by Alec Baldwin) intervenes and starts making Lootz's life a living hell...does that mark another reversal of fortune? Watch and see.............