Gambler's Choice is the kind of movie where halfway through, you're trying to guess how it's going to end. Why? Because the plot is so familiar and you've already wracked your brains trying to remember how it ended when Cagney and O'Brien and Gable and Powell and them were in it. –No, Gambler's Choice is not especially original; perhaps oddly, it's still quite watchable.
Three childhood friends are reunited after many years apart: Chester Morris has grown up to become a charismatic but crooked casino owner; Russell Hayden is an honest cop in a city of corruption; and Nancy Kelly is the nightclub singer who loves them both. Which one will she eventually choose? and what will happen when Lucky and Blackie—er, Hayden and Morris—inevitably clash?
Of the supporting cast, Sheldon Leonard as the rival casino owner looks most like he's enjoying himself, but his is only one of several familiar faces (Tom Dugan, Lloyd Corrigan, even Lyle Talbot). Morris does well in the second half but seems somehow unnatural in the early going. Hayden is okay but isn't given a lot to do that's really interesting. Kelly could also have been more interesting; again, there's not a lot that she does or says that remotely surprises. The performances are all fine, but the actors just aren't given much to work with.
So it's corny and unoriginal, but hand it to the filmmakers for trying. Halfway through the picture, there's a scene where the three main characters gaze out a window over the growing city. "There it is, Mike," says Morris. "Little old New York
.And it's all ours. Just like we dreamed about when we were kids." --A film that's strictly a quickie with no ambition doesn't pause for philosophical musings, corny or not. It's brief, but just for an instant there you get the feel of that epic moment that "big" movies shoot for.
The last fifteen minutes—when things really start popping—are exciting, even tense, and satisfying. I was glad I stuck around to find out what happens.
Funny scene: the horseless carriage chase. Even in 1911, apparently, you sometimes needed to lose someone following your auto in his own.