The Lady Gambles

This is one of the best films about the madness of gambling. As a former compulsive gambler, I can really relate to this film. The only other film about gambling addiction that could be better is The Great Sinner starring Gregory Peck. I don't like to tell the plot on my reviews, and I won't now either. Barbara Stanwyk does an incredible job as a woman that gets obsessed gambling. When she describes how it's a "good tired" after a night of gambling( after she wins) and how Stephen McNally describes the good tired even after you lose. Both logics are so true. Stanwyks performance is brilliant as a lunatic gambler. If you're a gambler or an ex over the top gambler, you'll enjoy this film.

It is very evident that Barbara Stanwyck was able to adapt to any sort of role or character in each of her pictures. In this one, she plays a businessman's wife who becomes addicted to gambling after a trip to Las Vegas. This isn't a bad character study, and probably one of the earliest ones dealing with this sort of obsession. It is also interesting to see how the Vegas strip looked in over 50 years ago. A young, unknown Tony Curtis has a cameo as a bell boy.

There were three primary reasons for wanting to see 'The Lady Gambles'. The biggest one being the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, despite her filmography being hit and miss her performances were a lot more consistent and helped make the misses just about watchable. Two being my love of classic film. And the final one being the subject, it is always worth addressing any kind of addiction on film and that is including gambling (big at the time and still a big problem now).

Despite the potential, 'The Lady Gambles' doesn't completely live up to it. It starts off very well and had all the makings of a great film, but the second half or so is less good or compelling with the very late stages feeling like a different film. 'The Lady Gambles' is definitely worth the look and Stanwyck, as expected, makes things a lot better than it had a right to be, but this was an interesting and heavily flawed affair as an overall whole.

Stanwyck is the best thing about 'The Lady Gambles', she did steely and vulnerable better than a lot of actresses at that time and to this day long after her death she remains one of the best ever at those. Both of those can be seen to intense and moving effect and she really does give it everything she's got. The other acting standout is the genuinely intimidating Stephen McNally, goodness does that man have a menacing presence here and the drama does really come alive with him. Enough of the direction is competent.

It is a well shot film and Frank Skinner's music avoids being overly-melodramatic and is not sugary. 'The Lady Gambles' starts off very well with an intriguing and suitably tense first half, that has edge and one does care about how things are going to go.

Which is why it was a shame that to me 'The Lady Gambles' wasn't as compelling later on, where the film became rather predictable and lacked the tension it should have had. Where the dialogue can be on the soapy side and it gets very melodramatic.

As does Robert Preston's performance, which does get too over the top, and his character is too naive that one wants to give him a shake and scream "wake up" in his face. The ending is very corny and far too soft for the subject, like the film had run out of ideas or something.

Concluding, worth seeing for Stanwyck but could have been more. 6/10

Barbara Stanwyck is surely one of the greatest actresses ever in motion pictures but THE LADY GAMBLES is one of her lesser works despite a sincere, empathic performance by the star. This movie seems to want to be the gambling version of THE LOST WEEKEND but it's more like the lost 100 minutes , the time the viewer wastes watching this picture. Even the charismatic Stanwyck can't prevent this heavy-handed drama from being a chore to watch.

Stanwyck stars as the wife of newspaper journalist Robert Preston. They are in Las Vegas while he covers a story. Stanwyck decides to try to do an article herself on the gambling scene but her somewhat indiscreet camera work catches the eye of casino manager Stephen McNally who decides to let her play with valueless chips so she can be at the tables for her research. Trouble is Stanwyck finds she likes the tables a little too much and when McNally decides to put a plug in the playing for nothing, she dives into Preston's expense account and loses it all in a night. McNally, clearly attracted to Stanwyck from first sight, gives her $50 to play with out of pity after she has even hawked her expensive Swiss camera and being the good player she is Stanwyck actually wins her money back. But the lure of the tables is too strong and she keeps going back. And back. And losing. Ultimately destroying her marriage, she eventually joins forces with McNally in some of his questionably legal activities and later hits earthier lows in pursuit of lady luck where one seedy guy after another tells her to "kiss 'em for me baby" as she rolls the dice.

The movie is told in flashback as Stanwyck is hospitalized having been beat up by gamblers when she is caught dealing in a back alley crap game with loaded dice. Estranged husband Preston rushes to her side and tells the doctor the whole sad story.

The usually dependable Preston is one of the weakest links in the film; his character is alternately a milquetoast and a control freak but is at all times presented as Stanwyck's prince charming. Preston's performance is no help either, his rather theatrical delivery seems inappropriate for this attempt at "slice of life" drama; worse, in an amazingly unwise decision he speaks to the doctor in anguished troubled tones and then his narration over the past scenes is spoken with enthusiasm and dramatic flair! Stephen McNally fares much better as the intimidating Vegas big shot, his scenes with Stanwyck have considerable bite and are the film's highlight.

The worst thing about the film is the jaw-dropping pop psychology that attempts to explain away Stanwyck's gambling. It's because of her possessive older sister Edith Barrett!!! With her mother dying during childbirth, Stanwyck was "raised" by older (eight years, although Barrett was actually just six months older than Stanwyck) sister who has never let Barbara forget the sacrifices in her personal life she has made for her. Hero Preston seems frankly as controlling but since he is her husband, presumably that's OK with the screenwriters. The sister-is-the-root theory is interesting considering (A) Preston is hostile to the sister and her relationship with Barbara long before the gambling starts, (B) the gambling doesn't even start until Stanwyck is clearly into her thirties and (C) the sister is no where around to cause anxiety when most of the gambling binges occur!! But then what can you expect of reason from a film where a doctor attempts reverse psychology, encouraging a patient on a building ledge to jump!!

Barbara Stanwyck is always worth watching, her progression from dabbler to desperate is quite credible but even her solid work here can't save a movie that plays like a 1940's version of a 1970's half-baked "social issue" TV movie. Two stars going in opposite directions are also in the cast: newcomer Tony Curtis has an early bit part as a bellhop and 30's leading man Leif Erickson can be seen in a small role as one of McNally's questionable cohorts. Is this picture worth checking out? Well, it's your gamble.

Robert Preston (David) tracks down his wife Barbara Stanwyck (Joan) in hospital after she has been beaten up. He pleas with John Hoyt (Dr Rojac) to let her go home with him after she has been treated rather than hand her over to the police where she has several outstanding charges. In flashback, we watch the story of her descent into gambling addiction after a visit to Las Vegas.

The film is interesting to watch for the location settings. I actually bought it specifically for the Las Vegas setting as it is where I got married earlier this year and I wanted to make a comparison with 1949. The story was incidental. As it turns out, the story is OK if predictable. Stanwyck carries the film with good support from gangster Stephen McNally (Mr Corrigan). Robert Preston changes his tune during the course of the film as he swings from rejecting her to accepting her while the role of Stanwyck's sister Edith Barrett (Ruth) is pretty annoying and some sentimental pop psychology is dragged into the proceedings.

I'm sure that the inspiration behind the Las Vegas section of the film was Bugsy Siegel and his Flamingo Hotel which paved the way for the notoriety of the Strip. The main body of the film is set in the Pelican Hotel (a bit similar?) and McNally has an interest in a horse racing scam just as Bugsy did.

The film ends in a disappointingly corny way after a funny moment when John Hoyt shows us what to say to someone when they are about to jump off a window ledge. I dare you to try it some day! As for the film's climax, we have to hopefully imagine that everything will go downhill again once they return to Vegas and hit the casinos.