"The Cincinnati Kid" and "The Hustler"

Before leaving the subject of movies about smoke filled rooms and the games that used to be played in them (until the anti-smoking Nazis really got going), and returning to the serious subject of the anti-American Associated Press and Korea (see Sunday's entry, which will be the source of further entries all week), I want to mention two movies. 

 

Yes, the "Bret Maverick" movie was a poker movie that happened to feature a political campaign just like the PHONY one being run by Barack "World" Obama (see Saturday's entry).  However, the BEST poker movie is totally about poker and the character it takes to play it, while the best POOL (pocket billiards) movie is about character using pool as the vehicle.

 

"The Cincinnati Kid" (rating 91) is the best poker movie I have ever seen, with Steve McQueen (playing the title character)  and Edward G. Robinson.  Steve McQueen, of course, is about the coolest actor who ever lived, or at least played "cool" better than anybody this side of James Dean (who had too much of a dark side to be "cool" in the Steve McQueen sense, although there is a school were that dark brooding is "cool").  This is most evident in "The Great Escape" (rating 100), but McQueen is darn good as the brash kid trying to dethrone the old master in "The Cincinnati Kid".

 

The old pro is Edward G. Robinson--not really "cool", but simply one of the best actors who ever lived.  He is the perfect antagonist for the brash McQueen  You get the bonus of Ann-Margret playing "sexy" about as well as it can be done.  With her, of course, as with Marilyn Monroe, you get the feeling that not much acting is involved (which may mean she is pretty good). 

 

"The Hustler" (rating 99), with Paul Newman, is the best movie about pool ever made--although it is only nominally about pool  "The Hustler" Is about "character", and the pain involved in getting it, as Paul Newman suffers the pain necessary to treat pool as only a game--making Newman finally ready to take on "Minnesota Fats" (Jackie Gleason--good as usual) for the title of the "best" pool player alive (as Steve McQueen was taking on Edward G. Robinson for the same title in poker).

 

Now you might argue that neither movie has much competition.  There are not many movies, at least of which I am aware, really revolving around poker or pool.  Still, these are darn good movies, where it is hardly necessary to know much about poker or pool to like the movies.  The movies are really about what it takes to get to the top in almost anything--including the question of whether it is worth it.

 

in the poker area, "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" is worth mentioning.  It is really a movie where nothing is quite what it seems, as a woman takes over a poker hand from her stricken husband.  The reactions of the poker players not involved in the deceptions at the heart of the plot are more impressive than the clever plot twists themselves.  The rating is "only" 69 (well worth seeing), because the movie relies so much on its "cleverness" that a real emotional core is not there.  Still, it is clever, and the characters NOT involved directly in the plot twists (Jackson Robards, for example) come across as real. 

 

Tomorrow, back to the despicable AP and Korea.  Could not stomach it today.  At times the AP, and AOL, actually make me sick.