The Gambler and the Lady

The Gambler and the Lady is directed by Patrick Jenkins and Sam Newfield, the latter of which also writing the screenplay. It stars Dane Clark, Kathleen Byron, Naomi Chance, Meredith Edwards, Anthony Forwood and Eric Pohlmann. Music is by Ivor Stanley and cinematography by Walter J. Harvey.

Clark plays Jim Forster, an ex-con and reformed alcoholic who is trying to climb the social ladder by way of his thriving gambling business. But all that is threatened when new gangsters on the scene want in on the action. Not only that but he also has a jealous ex-girlfriend to contend with just as he meets and falls for the blue blooded Lady Susan Willens (Chance).

On the page it sounds terrific, a real chance for some noir nirvana, while the opening to the film is a cracker, with a moody night time cobbled street scene punctured by a hit and run collision. Yet the piece never rises above the routine crime thriller that it is, while visually it's flat and uninteresting.

Out of Hammer Film Productions, there's an attempt at class distinction to drive the narrative forward, but it never really develops into something resembling dramatic worth. A shame because Jim Forster is an interesting enough character, he has done time for manslaughter, has anger issues but now he hates the rough stuff, even admonishing his staff for handing out bumps to bad debtors. And the women love him as well. Yet it's all so lethargically played that come the finale, the culmination of the dangled carrot at the beginning, you will struggle to care anyway. 5/10

After he is apparently shot and hit by a car, we meet shady Dane Clark (as Jim Forster). An American in London, Mr. Clark operates a successful gambling casino. Clark served three years in prison because he got "crazy drunk" and beat a man to death. He would like to be accepted in polite society, but Clark still has a temper. He also talks like a Warner Brothers movie gangster, which doesn't help in "manners school." Clark decides to end his affair with common nightclub dancer Kathleen Byron (as Pat) and get intimate with classy socialite Naomi Chance (as Susan Willens). Underworld types give Clark a hard time...

Writer Sam Newfield delivers some interesting characters here, especially upper-crust Anthony Forwood (as Peter Willens), who could be a con-man, and mean-looking henchman Meredith Edwards (as Dave Davies), who has a devilish haircut. Still, the production is weak. The women should be more interesting, but are late and sketchy. It would have been nice to see more of both Ms. Byron and Ms. Chance. Byron could easily have been in more of the early scenes, to establish her upfront as Clark's precarious moll. The opening turns out to be a teaser; later in the film, we get see who wanted Clark dead. Sadly, you may not care.

***** The Gambler and the Lady (12/26/52) Sam Newfield ~ Dane Clark, Naomi Chance, Anthony Forwood, Meredith Edwards

There's plenty of crime in this Lippert picture. It opens with a well shot killing that is not clear till well into the movie. Dane Clark is the star. He was a staple of film noir. Here, we also see him in a top hat!

Yes, the subject is more class than crime. Clark is the gambler of the tile. (The female title character doesn't appear till almost half an hour into the movie.) He's an American but he wants to fit in in England. He's taking lessons in deportment from a caricature of a British lady.

He has a Scottish pal (Meredith Edwards) who is put forward as his butler. He longs to become accepted by nobility.

The supporting cast is good. The woman he falls for is not particularly charismatic but she's attractive. The more conventionally low-life types are plausible.

The dialog contains a lot of blatant exposition: "It's hard to believe that X years ago I was in Y with Z and while A B were ..."

It's well shot and holds the attention. But it's nothing to write (back) home about.

There were lots of movies like "The Gambler and the Lady" back in the '50s: low-budget British noir-like films, sometimes detective stories, starring an American second or third-stringer, with the rest of the cast British. Often they're quite entertaining.

"The Gambler and the Lady" is one such film from 1952, produced by Hammer Film, and stars Dane Clark, Kathleen Byron, Naomi Chance, and Anthony Forwood. Forwood, by the way, was a very handsome man who was married to Glynis Johns and then became Dirk Bogarde's partner and manager for 30-plus years.

Clark plays Jim Forster, an American running an illegal gambling houses in England. The story is told in flashback - when the film begins, we see Forster being hit by a car.

Forster, a little rough around the edges, is a social climber, and in fact is taking lessons in social niceties so he can rub elbows with the mucky-mucks. He is dating a dancer at his club, Pat (Byron), who seems to want to get more serious than Forster. One night, she loses her temper at him and he walks out and won't have anything to do with her again.

At his club, he meets Lady Willens (Chance), and though her brother (Forwood) who bounced a check at Forster's club is against him, she starts to see him. Pat becomes jealous and attempts to warn her off.

That's on the personal end. On the professional end, some thug-types want to take over his clubs. When Lady Willens' father talks about a mining deal that promises to be lucrative, Forster thinks he's found a way into the social strata and out of illegal gambling.

Dane Clark had a very prolific 45-year career which, once the '50s hit, was mostly in television. He started out in films as an ersatz John Garfield but never hit those heights. He is well cast in this. Naomi Chance was effective and beautiful as the society woman; she did a lot of this type of movie during her career. The patrician-looking Kathleen Byron (who appeared in "Saving Private Ryan") made a good shrew. Interestingly, all of the lead actors had long, very active careers.

Hammer Films are low budget, yes, but they usually are atmospheric, as this one was, and entertaining. They attempted to copy the American films done by, say, RKO in the '40s, and while not entirely successful, you may enjoy this one.

Like many European films of the 1950s and 60s, the folks who made "The Gambler and the Lady" imported an American star to give the film more box office power. While Dane Clark was not a huge name in Hollywood, he was very recognizable back in 1952 and already had a reputation as an excellent tough-guy in films.

The film begins with Clark owning a successful gambling house in England. You soon learn that he's trying hard to fit in with society but this is difficult, at times, for him since he is, down deep, a tough palooka. Time and again, he needs to fight the impulse to slug people as it will undo all the culture and refinement he's been adopting since relocating to this country. Now, after meeting a woman of high breeding, he has dreams of selling out and becoming respectable. This need is so strong that for once in his life, he makes himself very vulnerable. What happens next? See this nifty little film for yourself.

So why did I describe this film as being 'noir-ish'? Well, it has many of the qualities you find in an example of film noir--such as the dame, great tough-guy dialog, a downbeat ending and a hero who has a shady past. But, it also lacks the great lighting and camera-work you'd expect to see in American or French noir--making it, perhaps, noir-lite! This is not a complaint--just an observation about the film's style. But, it IS very good for a low-budget B movie--short, well-paced and full of nice acting. Well worth seeing.