The Gambler

Name: Kenny Rogers as The Gambler
Genre: Western
Released: 1980-04-08
Duration: 1 h 34 min
Rating: 6.3
Cast: Kenny Rogers, Christine Belford, Bruce Boxleitner

Original title: Kenny Rogers as The Gambler

TV Movie
1980
Not Rated
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

Western

The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
- 1 win & 3 nominations total

Trivia
The opening scene, where Kenny Rogers is riding his horse, is Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas NV.

Goofs
After the initial poker game with Brady, Billy goes outside. Billy, under a sign that says El Paso, Texas, asks the station master when the train will be leaving. The station master peers around Billy at an arriving stage coach. Behind the stage is a saguaro forest. BUT saguaros ONLY grow in the Sonoran Desert, which is in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, some 300 miles from El Paso, Texas.

Quotes
Brady Hawkes: I've gambled a lotta towns. I've read a lotta faces. Gambling can take hold of a man. You gotta be able to walk away from it.
Billy Montana: I done pretty good so far. I've been around.
Brady Hawkes: But not along enought to see what I've seen. Kid, I've seen cowboys gamble their saddles, loggers a winter's wages. Seen men put up the deeds to their homes and their businesses and their futures. Seen those same men blow their brains out after losing everything they own.
Billy Montana: And heaven on Earth is a Mississippi riverboat.
[laughs]

Connections
Featured in A&E Biography: Kenny Rogers (2020)

Soundtracks
The Gambler
Written by Don Schlitz
Performed by Kenny Rogers
Courtesy of Liberty/United Records, Inc.
Published by Writers Night Music Administrator, Audiogram, Inc.

User reviews17

Review

Featured review

9/10

Enjoyable made-for-TV Western

"The Gambler" is a made-for-TV Western-movie, directed by Dick Lowry in 1980.

Basic plot: Brady Hawkes (played by Kenny Rogers) is a famous poker player everybody wants to play against. On his trip to New Orleans, he gets to know about his son, who asks him in a letter to help him and his mother. Together with Billy Montana (played by Bruce Boxleitner), an avid poker gamer and a gunman, they are on the way to Hawkes' own problems; including an old enemy of Hawkes sending three assassins against him...

I just finished watching this on VHS before writing this review, this because I actually enjoyed this Western-movie. The storytelling was good, and music artist Kenny Rogers does a great performance as the famous gambler who does things with honesty. Bruce Boxleitner also does a great job as a gambler, but also a gunman.

The old VHS edition I have was released in Norway by former video distributor VIP Scandinavia AS/MDC Video during the 80s, and was rated 16. According the the video cover, this film was the most popular feature being shown on TV in USA in 1980.

For a conclusion, I wish to recommend anybody who enjoys TV-movies or Westerns to watch this movie at least once. My overall rating: 9/10.