Cincinnati Kid

Five-card stud isn't played much anymore, but it's played for something like 30 hours in the final hour of "The Cincinnati Kid," a 1965 film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Malden, Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld, and Joan Blondell.

McQueen is The Cincinnati Kid, a rounder, someone who looks for poker action in various towns, and Robinson is a long-time champion, also a rounder. There were no casinos in those days, the '30s. The story takes place in New Orleans.

Robinson, as Lancey Howard, has made a few enemies in his day, notably Slater (Rip Torn, who in these '60s films reminds me of Bradford Dillman). Slater is determined that when Howard hits town, he loses to The Kid. Toward that effort, he bribes one of the dealers, Shooter (Karl Malden). The two men finally meet in a poker game, one which has breaks - you can't play nonstop for 30 hours. During one of the breaks, The Kid tells Shooter that he knows the deal is rigged and insists on a clean game, saying that he doesn't need help to win.

Subplots concern Melba, Shooter's gorgeous wife (Ann-Margret) who is after The Kid, and The Kid's romance with a local girl (Weld).

The poker game is great. It's tense and exciting, although the hands are statistically nearly impossible to appear in the same game.

McQueen does a lot with a little - a look, a stare, a smile, He was a master of subtle acting, plus he has natural presence and sexiness. He died way too soon. The versatile Robinson, who could be a down-low crook or a mogul, is charming and elegant here.

The location, the period, and the dialogue lend themselves to the atmosphere created. And the cast is terrific -- Joan Blondell as a replacement dealer, Jack Weston as a fellow player, Torn as the angry Slater, Ann-Margret in top form in looks and sex appeal, Malden as the frustrated Shooter - all are excellent.

Considered one of the best, if not the best poker movie of all time. It's also a wonderful example of how "action" can take place without car chases and bombs going off.

Blah blah blah is the feelings I get when I see comments about this being McQueen's answer to The Hustler, the Newman film is firmly ensconced in the hall of classics and rightly so, but this is a different animal that stands up on its own two feet as a great film regardless of comparisons of leading men or films they respectively delivered.

"It's a pleasure to meet someone who understands that to the true gambler, money is never an end in itself, it's simply a tool, as a language is to thought"

Steve McQueen is The Cincinnati Kid of the title, a young man who has an enviable reputation as the pretender to the throne of the king stud poker player. Standing in his way of claiming the crown is the holder of said crown, Lancey "The Man" Howard (a wonderfully sedate yet dominant Edward G. Robinson), both men are in New Orleans for the big showdown across the card table.

The film does suffer slightly from a meandering script, though, because you can't help feeling that there is so much more to these characters that needed fleshing out before the big tense showdown arises. However, the cast and director manage to stere the film home with a glorious final third. Suspense and drama start to boil to the surface, the tight knit editing bringing claustrophobic clarity to the enormity of the game.

McQueen is perfect here, cocky and cool in equal measure, yet still infusing the role with stoic heart and honest endearment. Tuesday Weld & Ann-Margret are playing second fiddle in the acting stakes to a delightful turn from Joan Blondell (a little under used though), but both Weld and Margret bring their respective girls' traits to life, with Margret positively smouldering with femme fatale sex appeal.

Karl Malden is solid and safe, whilst Rip Torn gives an acting lesson in dialogue driven menace. Yet in all honesty it's director Norman Jewison who has the trump card here. Once the game commences, even those who know nothing about a good game of poker are firmly watching every frame, such is the intense way that Jewison has brought the finale together.

No cop outs here, a film about egos, ambitions and personal satisfaction is gloriously laid out for a very enjoyable viewing experience. 8/10

A movie that shows the world of gamblers and card players should be elegant, claustrophobic, decadent, sexy an full of suspense. In 'The Cincinnati Kid' these are mixed in the most delicious way. Set in New Orleans, during the Depression the film tells the story of 'Cincinnati Kid', who wants to be the best card player in the world. He has the opportunity when the best ones get together in New Orleans for a marathon-lenght poker party. It's obvious that the final party would be between The Kid and Lancey Howard (very cool: Edward G. Robinson). It's a fine classic like almost all Steve McQueen-movies. McQueen is the king of cools and the supporting cast is good too. Tuesday Weld is pretty but Ann-Margret is the most seductive chick in town. The cock-fight scene and the final poker party is fantastically photographed and wonderfully edited (by Hal Ashby, who later directed the 'Coming Home'). And the music! Lalo Schifrin is a master and Ray Charles' song is simply fantastic and fits to the set and mood of the movie. The ending is unusual and unpredictable, but in my opinion it's very fair. Norman Jewison must have been liked his actors very much. The only flaw is the women hair-style. But it's an usual thing mostly in the films from the 60s (like 'Doctor Zhivago'). Although it's regarded as a classic, the wide audience don't recognize and respect it - 'You just not ready for me, yet.'

Well, I've always enjoyed poker; Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson are two of my all- time favorite actors and I thought Tuesday Weld and Ann-Margaret were two of the most beautiful women in their day.....so why don't I love this movie?

Don't get me wrong: I like it, but I should have liked it a whole lot more. It's a bit too slow, for one thing, becoming more like a soap opera in parts and the movie drags for much too long. The story doesn't have much spark until the poker showdown at the end of the movie. That ending is an excellent one, too, but one has to wait too long to get there.

Robinson is good to watch, as he almost always was in his great acting career. He plays the only classy person in the film.

Watching this late in December of 2009 on some high-def equipment, I discovered how beautifully-filmed this movie appears.

What has stuck with me all these years, since I saw it in the theater in 1965, wasn't the story but the title song by Ray Charles. I have never been able to get "The Cincinnati Kid" song out of my head.

Edward G. Robinson as Lancey Howard has been King of the Poker Players for a good long time. But as that eminent American philosopher Ric Flair says, "to be the man, you got to beat the man." And there's a kid from Cincinnati played by Steve McQueen who thinks he can do it.

McQueen's up for a fair and square game, but Robinson's developed a bad enemy in Rip Torn. Torn is this rich hotshot who thinks he's good, but he gets in a game with Robinson who guts Torn good and proper. No markers for Torn, he's rich enough to write out a check and pay it up front. But Torn's looking to get even and he ain't too squeamish about what he has to do.

The action of The Cincinnati Kid takes place over a three day period in New Orleans and in the French Quarter which was left fairly intact after Hurricane Katrina. It's fitting and proper the story location should be there, a city with a rich gambling tradition.

There's a couple of nice women's parts, kind of a coming of age for two young actresses who played virginal teenagers up to then, Tuesday Weld and Ann-Margret. Ann-Margret is the nymphomaniac wife of dealer Karl Malden, the Nathan Detroit of the piece. After The Cincinnati Kid, Ann-Margret never played innocents again.

Torn is a slick and malevolent villain who tries to compromise Karl Malden in his quest for vengeance against Robinson. Malden has a great part as a man who's caught by the short hairs.

Originally Spencer Tracy was to do the Lancey Howard role, but according to The Films of Steve McQueen, Tracy thought his role subordinate to McQueen's and bowed out. Other sources have said it was health reasons. Probably both are true. Anyway Robinson is a wily and wise old soul who goes to the poker table like most of us go to the office, to work.

This is one of Steve McQueen's four or five best screen roles, he's an ultimate rebel hero here. He's got what it takes to win, but he'll win it on his own terms.

This film is always called The Hustler at a card table. Like The Hustler, the last climatic scene of the poker showdown with McQueen and Robinson crackles with tension. Who's going to pull it out.

Don't think you can guess the outcome and all its ramifications. Not by a jugful