An American western directed and produced by Fielder Cook, starring Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Burgess Meredith, Charles Bickford and Kevin McCarthy.
A family stop at a saloon/hotel where a high stakes poker game is happening. The husband has quit gambling, but insists on watching. He joins the game and bets all of his money before having health problems. His wife decides to step in and play for him.
So cool. The plot was not very complex, but held my attention well. Casting and acting was good and all of the dialogue fit. I liked the casting of Burgess Meredith because I think he's a good actor and recognize him as Satan from The Twilight Zone episode, Printer's Devil. Filmed in Technicolor, it looked good to me. All other film elements aside, this was about the surprise ending. I won't spoil it because you should watch it. I rate it good.
An American drama directed by Fielder Cook, starring Robin Williams, Jerry Stiller and John Fielder.
A salesman loses his job and goes to New York City to find work. He has trouble communicating with his father and is scammed by a sleazy gambler.
Most film plots start even, take a down turn and then rise like -\/ this one was just \ down all the way. Not much actually happened, but there were some interesting things to note. My favorite scene was Robin Williams escorting the gambler's friend across a street. The man was resisting all the way while they were in traffic (image), but took right off as soon as he got to the other side. Casting is another point to mention. Jerry Stiller (Frank Costanza from Seinfeld) was the gambler and John Fielder (Piglet from Winnie the Pooh) was the clerk at the hotel desk. The version that I watched was in 4:3 aspect ratio and I suspect it was a "pan and scan" job from a 16:9 original. This would negate much of the camera composition and explain clipped credits at the beginning. At least I could hear all of the dialogue. I rate this tolerable because it was just not worth watching.
