Here\u2019s a movie that I can\u2019t decide if I love or hate.\u00a0 Steve McQueen is the too cool to have any facial expression Cincinnati Kid.\u00a0 He\u2019s a stud poker player in in New Orleans.\u00a0 His girlfriend is too cute for words farm girl Christian (played by Tuesday Weld) and his mentor is Shooter played by Karl Malden.\u00a0 Shooter is the man who arranges all the high-end poker matches and acts as the professional dealer.\u00a0 He\u2019s married to Melba, played way over the top by Ann Margaret as she slinks around in her underwear waiting for the Kid to betray his girlfriend and her husband and join her in bed.<\/p>\n
The climax of the movie is a high stakes poker match between the Kid and Lancey Howard played by Edward G. Robinson.\u00a0 Lancey is \u201cThe Man.\u201d\u00a0 If the Kid can beat him, he becomes the foremost stud poker player in his world and his future becomes assured.\u00a0 But a rich New Orleans gambler named Slade (played by Rip Torn) is stinging from a poker beating he took from Lancey and he extorts Shooter to throw the game to the Kid.\u00a0 Halfway through Cincinnati figures out he\u2019s being fed cards and because he wants to win the game himself, he forces Shooter out of the deal.\u00a0 And for good measure, during one of the breaks from poker, he beds Melba.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Christian picks exactly that moment to return from a visit to her parents and discovers Melba even less dressed than usual in Cincinnati\u2019s room.<\/p>\n
The end of the game comes in a hand that includes an ace high full house and a straight flush.\u00a0 Oh, come on!\u00a0 I\u2019ll let you watch the movie to see who ends up on top but I\u2019ll add that the Kid ends up getting the girl back (at least in one version of the movie).<\/p>\n
So why can\u2019t I figure out how I feel about the movie?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s a construct.\u00a0 It\u2019s like they put it together by recipe.\u00a0 Ultra-cool young gambler, Steve McQueen, check.\u00a0 Impossibly sweet, pretty blonde girl, Tuesday Weld, check.\u00a0 Cast of familiar, stereotyped character actors, check, check, check.\u00a0 Voluptuous, half naked girl throwing herself at star, Ann Margaret, check.\u00a0 Classy, golden age actor to lend some gravitas, Edward G. Robinson, checkmate.\u00a0 It\u2019s all by the numbers.\u00a0 They even lay on the New Orleans atmosphere with old time jazz players and even throw Cab Calloway in as one of the gamblers.\u00a0 It\u2019s just too much.<\/p>\n
But for whatever reason if I\u2019m in the mood to watch a spectacle I end up enjoying the movie.\u00a0 Edward G. Robinson is just too much fun to watch and listen to.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have that much to work with but he fills out the roll with style.\u00a0 We feel the aches and pains of the old man sitting hour after hour at the table playing against the younger man.\u00a0 His banter with Joan Blondell as the alternate dealer \u201cLady Fingers\u201d is amusing.\u00a0 Even the scene where the Kid meets Christian\u2019s back country family and shows them some card tricks is charming.\u00a0 What can I say?\u00a0 I like it.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a set up and I\u2019m the mark but it works.\u00a0 The critics said this was a copycat movie of Paul Newman\u2019s pool room film, \u201cThe Hustler.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019re probably right.\u00a0 But this is the less serious, less fraught version and I think it\u2019s more enjoyable.\u00a0 I\u2019ll recommend it with my remarks above as the qualifier.\u00a0 It\u2019s a contrived spectacle but that\u2019s what Hollywood makes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a movie that I can\u2019t decide if I love or hate.\u00a0 Steve McQueen is the too cool to have any facial expression Cincinnati Kid.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3175,1464,3176,43,38,1355,3177,2619,3174],"class_list":["post-15175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-ann-margaret","tag-edward-g-robinson","tag-karl-malden","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rip-torn","tag-steve-mcqueen","tag-tuesday-weld"],"yoast_head":"\n