Review

by Michael C

A slick genre piece

Thoroughly entertaining gambler's flick has Steve McQueen well-cast as a stud-poker player involved in a sweat-inducing winner-take-all poker tournament in New Orleans. Edward G. Robinson is the card-playing master who is Steve's main competition and Tuesday Weld is Steve's innocent squeeze. Great acting fuses a screenplay that seems cobbled together from different styles. It's hard-boiled at times, cartoony pulp at others. Ann-Margret is mostly used for visual flair or as a punchline (while doing a jigsaw puzzle, she files down the pieces to make them fit at whim), but she's still quite a presence on the screen. Weld is very lovely, and the sequence where Steve shows up at her parents' house and does card-tricks is a little miracle of film-making: perfect writing, directing and acting all coming together wonderfully. Flaws and all, a slick genre piece and well-worth the viewing.