Die Haie von Las Vegas

The ravages of his final illness were clearly demonstrable when Rock Hudson stars in The Vegas Strip Wars. Hudson plays a man of Las Vegas whose partners first toast him and then knife him in the back.

But Hudson is a man of brains and talent and someone that people like and trust. Something that his former partner Madison Mason just cannot understand.

After getting knifed by Mason and bought out of The Desert Inn, Hudson fronts another syndicate looking to buy into the Tropicana Club which is near bankrupt. He succeeds in making a go of it, but he's still squeezed very hard. In the end Hudson falls back on the skills that first brought him to Las Vegas.

Years before Martin Scorsese made Casino which I consider to be the ultimate film about Las Vegas, Sharon Stone got to co-star in The Vegas Strip War with Rock Hudson. She's much younger here and not been around the block as much as her character in Casino. Still she scores well in a part that has here in a May/September romance with Hudson.

Stealing every scene that he's in is James Earl Jones doing a riotous takeoff of Don King. Part of Hudson's plan is to land a heavyweight championship bout for his gambling palace. Jones is funny, but he's also very shrewd.

Even the sight of a gaunt and clearly ill Hudson won't prevent you from enjoying The Vegas Strip Wars.