Dermot Walsh jumps into the cab next to Glynis Johns. He's a professional gambler whose mark thinks it's more than just luck. He decides Miss Johns is his lucky charm and hires her to be so, seemingly unaware she's in love with him. Things are wonderful for a while -- except for Walsh showing no more than professional interest in her. Then his luck turns, and resentful fellow gambler Charles Goldner starts to put the squeeze on.
I've been in love with Miss Johns -- who is scheduled to celebrate her 100th birthday six months after I write this -- for many years, for her ladylike demeanor and creaky voice for many a decade, so it's a pleasure to watch her in this movie, released when she was 26. At the same time, she seems a little too naive, even as she fully admits it in character. Walsh is a creature of superstitions that border on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and while the movie's view of the seemingly glamorous world in which he operates is suavely realized, real professional gamblers don't make their money against other professionals; they they make it off people who aren't that good at the games they play. I'm old enough to have sat in on bridge games against the professionals, and paid them handsomely for the 'lessons.'
Still, the movie is handsomely realized by director Gordon Parry, in a sort of Gainsborough-in-modern-dress sort of way. Keep an eye open and you'll spot Helen Haye, John Stuart, Michael Hornden, and even Diana Dors in an uncredited bit.
