Hollywood has made use of gambling and cards, especially poker to add flavor to a number of movies in the last century. But which movies have actually done this well. I am not talking about contrived trite stupidity (House of Games, Honeymoon in Vegas, Maverick). I am talking about movie movies, where the card playing – specifically the poker playing – looks good:
1950’s “The Gunfighter:” Not only one of the best Western movies ever but with two great poker scenes that border on the hysterically comic. The first is when two old coots fighting after a poker dispute and a third coot says, “I’ve seen better fights…in a prayer meeting. The second is when a new man walks in, and the coots try to persuade him to join the Omaha game and he says, “II wouldn’t sit in this game with cards I made myself.” Now you know why I only play Texas….
1965’s “The Cincinnati Kid:” Arguably the most famous of poker movies, but the finale, with the Kid bungling that hand of cards cripples the movie, it still has one line that underscores what poker is all about, when Steve McQueen says, “That’s what it’s all about, doing the wrong thing at the right time.”
1966’s Kaleidoscope: Pre-Bonnie and Clyde Warren Beatty film, it’s obscure and not well known the plot is a little bit… simple but the head-up no-limit poker game with switched cards showcases some fantastic movie poker logic ever.
1966’s “A Big Hand for the Little Lady:” Seems like the 1960s was a good decade for poker movies. If you can suspend your disbelief for a playing walking across the street with her cards in the middle of the hand, you should enjoy this movie and its fine cast of actors. The title says it all: It is about a poker game and the climax is “a big hand for the little lady.”
1973’s “The Sting:” If you are going to cheat, you need to be a better cheater than Paul Newman who hustles Robert Shaw beautifully during the train’s poker game. Cheating aside, this movie shows just how seriously people take poker, hiding it beneath a veneer of civility and politeness.
1974’s “California Split:” The only movie to ever show the day-to-day grind of the sleep-till-noon plays poker for a living type. Sure the ending leaves you going “what the hell?” and the sound is messed up, but you won’t find another movie where a World Series of Poker champion (Amarillo Slim) has a featured role.
1990’s “Run:” One of the few movies where we actually get to see a rare filmed record of a player tipping a dealer, and someone actually having to wave off second hand smoke. What happened to the good old days when we could smoke and play card? At least we are not forced in to playing “Gestapo Poker.” This is one of the best Poker movies, ever.
While there may be more of them in regional category, these are universally liked.