Jogando com a Vida

As a Bette Midler fan it is difficult for me to dislike anything associated with her, but even with my fan loyalty, it is too much for me to sit through this movie.

The plot involves a triangle between Bette as a show girl and aspiring actress, her husband, a heavy drinking gambler with no steady job, and a young Vegas dealer. The premise lies in the gambler's ability to win every hand dealt to him by the young dealer, providing him with a steady income and causing the young dealer to lose his jobs and move from casino to casino. The young dealer calls the gambler a "jinx" giving us a title.

From this very strained premise (the movie loses any chance of credibility from the start) the plot moves from boring, to awkward, to outrageous, as in "What the heck is going on?" With a lame plot, poor acting by most of the cast, and no characters the audience feels sympathy for, the only thing this film has going for it is Bette's energy. She really pours her heart into her role, as if she feels like she can make this film great by her efforts alone. But even the Divine Mrs. M. can save this film, I am sad to say.

Harold,(Rip Torn) a professional gambler, and his girlfriend Bonita,(Bette Midler) a lounge singer, follow Willie,(Ken Wahl)a young blackjack dealer, around the Reno Tahoe area. Harold has a jinx on Willie and can't lose with him. Bonita and Willie meet and fall for each other and plot to do away with Harold and collect on his life insurance. Thats when the movie gets really good, do not quite understand the negative comments of this movie. fun for all I moved to the Reno area a few months after its filming and finally watched the movie years later its one of my favorites

Harold leaves a scavenger hunt for Bonita to find so she would'not be left flat after he dies For years I have used the same scavenger hunt for my kids

loads of fun!

Don Siegel couldn't have directed this abomination. He must've given it to a new assistant director. I read that this movie bombed at the box office and almost ended Bette Midler's film career before it began, and I can believe it. This has to be one of the worst movies I've ever watched, and I did watch to the bitter end. I kept thinking surely something -- anything -- would happen to turn it around. But nothing turned it around. I hated every character, especially the absurd Ken Wahl character. The plot is absolutely stupid. There are too many things that are unbelievable to even list. The acting is awful. Bette Midler seemed to fluctuate between too cute, too melodramatic, and too weird. The "treature hunt" at the end is utter nonsense, including the painfully horrible and pointless scene with Jack Elam. This isn't a movie, it's a jumbled worthless mess. I'd give it a minus 100 if I could. Note to IMDb -- "must've" and "I've" are contractions, don't you people know English? These are not "spelling mistakes" you morons!

Rip Torn is a professional gambler who's made a decent living at it for years, but over the past year this man's income has skyrocketed because he's found a patsy. Seems like he's got the hoodoo sign on blackjack dealer Ken Wahl which causes him to clean up when he plays his table. The casino bosses notice it too as Wahl moves from job to job, but always Torn catches up to him.

Scouting the way is Bette Midler who is Torn's abused spouse, a lounge singer and somehow Wahl just never notices he happens to be working with her always. I guess the dealers and the entertainment really do move in different universes.

But when casino boss Val Avery says to do something underhanded to Torn, Wahl mounts a campaign to go after Bette. With his looks, Bette's needs and Torn's attitude, this one is an easy campaign. After that Midler gets Wahl involved in a plot to murder Torn and run away with Bette and the loot he's stashed. At this point the plot starts to resemble Billy Crystal's and Danny DeVito's efforts to Throw Momma From The Train.

It all works out, but just not quite the way they expected.

This film was the last one of director Don Siegel who started out back in the Hollywood Studio days. Not too many folks can claim to have directed Ronald Reagan and Bette Midler in their careers. This was Siegel's only venture into comedy albeit black comedy, he just didn't have the touch required for this film. His film with Ronald Reagan was not a high point of Siegel's career either.

Bette's best working alone which for about 20 minutes she does as Mr. Torn sends her on a treasure hunt. It'a almost a comic version of Clint Eastwood being sent all over San Francisco by Andy Robinson to deliver ransom in Dirty Harry. Which was also a Siegel film.

Fans of Bette Midler will like Jinxed however.

No one wears Levis better than Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova. Like most baseball players, I think Ken has / had great legs. Wiseguy provided us some hot above the towel views but in this utterly stupid movie, you will get a below the towel shot. Ken's calves do not disappoint. Add a comment if you might know where I might catch a glimpse of his thighs.