The Big Town

The year is 1957 and in the small town of Rockport, Indiana a young man by the name of "J.C. Cullen" (Matt Dillon) dreams of making it big in Chicago by counting the odds and throwing dice. Even his mentor "Carl Hooker" (Don Francks) admits that he is the best craps shooter he has ever seen-and Hooker has seen some of the best. So with the encouragement of his good friend and a recommendation to a reputable sponsor by the name of "Ferguson Edwards" (Lee Grant) J.C. gets on the bus and heads out to the Windy City to try his luck. And it's here that he meets people who will make an indelible impression on him for the rest of his life. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I really liked this movie. Not only does it capture the timeframe rather well but it also included a solid cast with good performances by just about everybody involved with Diane Lane (as "Lorry Dane") and Tom Skerritt (as "Phil Carpenter") truly standing out. In short, I consider this to be an underrated picture and recommend it to viewers who might be interested in a film of this sort.

I was attracted to this movie when I looked at cast list, but after I watched it I must admit that I felt a bit disappointed. The main problem of this movie is that actors aren't capable of holding this movie on their back. Why? Because of bad script. Although Dillon, Lane and Jones try very hard to take this movie on another level, there is no innovative storytelling and the direction is too ordinary. So for Matt Dillon fans this is watchable movie, just like for admirers of beautiful Diane Lane. Legendary Tommy Lee Jones is always great but this is not movie for him; far below his level. So if you get hooked up by this great cast watch it but don't expect anything big or extraordinary. The only thing that you'll remember about this flick is Diane Lane scenes; rest of it is very forgettable.

Matt Dillon plays a hayseed crap shooter with unbeatable luck who, in late 1950s Chicago, joins a Windy City syndicate and falls hard for the femme fatale wife of an unscrupulous gambling boss. Despite some errors in casting this otherwise familiar urban crime story is, at least in presentation, a lot smarter than it may first appear. The relative youth of the two leads is fatally inconsistent with the very grown up crime and passion scenario, but director Ben Bolt wisely underplays the neo-Noir mood by refusing to rely on the trendy smoke-and-strobe-light pyrotechnics so common in modern thrillers. The gritty urban setting is instead recreated in all its cheap romantic glamour, and the script has its arcane gambling slang down pat, but the film is something of an anachronism in today's over-hyped market: a competent (if minor) drama, made thirty years too late.

With a deliberately sparse-pulpy title, THE BIG TOWN is set during the 1950's... 1957 to be exact... and Dillon really looks the part, a kind of throwback B&W-suited actor even in this neo noir's neon green and pink tinged color scheme, playing a young lucky dice player who miraculously hits the right numbers each and every time, giving the movie a sort of unintentional TWILIGHT ZONE science-fiction vibe, or something delving into fantasy...

And for a vehicle so otherwise grounded and somewhat cliche, predictable and even mainstream, that's alright since Matt's urgency (and the film's suspense) doesn't rely on winning but surviving the pool of gambling hoodlum sharks who, from Tommy Lee Jones as an underground backroom dealer to a mysterious backstory Tom Skerritt, are out to (or seem out to) stop the endless and bizarre winning streak...

The best scenes are during the first half when, starting with having been discovered and weened by local gambling mechanic Don Francks, everything is breezy and easy since all the characters are developed as much as can be (including an expository introducing-the-city David Marshall Green) - not always through dialogue but their sly manipulation to the sport of gambling, and thinking on their toes...

Yet THE BIG TOWN is mostly known for being the third and final film Dillon starred alongside his RUMBLE FISH ingenue Diane Lane, which began most famously with THE OUTSIDERS, the only one they're not romantically involved... although her character finds his scoundrel rebel wild and attractive ("I might fall in love with him")...

Much more grown up in looks and attitude, and seeming far more both an aesthetic and genre-period connection to Francis Ford Coppola's uninspired THE COTTON CLUB than the S. E. Hinton adaptations, Lane provides a sexy, borderline sinister Femme Fatale as Jones's stripper trophy girl...

Without the usual 11th hour gunfire, her danger exists on who she's cheating on while Matt could be throwing away the perfect girl in Suzy Amis -- proving twenty-nine years after the demise of the Crime Genre that Film Noir good girls always have to weather hell before getting what they deserve, and getting who deserves them...

A slow middle's made up for during the finale where Dillon must succeed with slightly more odds added on -- very similar to the more lightweight early-60's-set-comedy, THE FLAMINGO KID, in which he had to win everything with the skill of the game -- cards there, and craps here...

In either game, be it skill or chance... which is chance here pretending to merit skill... Matt Dillon, a minimalist actor to begin with, has the kind of poker face expressions that helps the suspense build without a lot of action...

He's an actor that's been in a some good, great and downright terrible films, but he's usually good no matter. Even when he seems a bit slow to the punch and lethargic, like happens on occasion here, or too streetwise and stubborn to stretch beyond particular tough guy roles, he's got range within limitations...

In BIG TOWN, it's a steady gaze across a long green table. And hell, maybe he'd have worked in COLOR OF MONEY if that other Outsider backed out.

Considering the big name cast and lavish production I expected a lot more of this film. The acting for the most part is great, although the story they have to work with is mediocre at best. However the film still warrants watching because of the acting and the stars and some and up and coming young talent.