What is the plot - in one sentence? It’s the 1930s, and we follow a talented young gambler (Steven McQueen, 'the Kid') as he comes up against a talented older gambler (Edward G. Robinson, 'the Man.')
I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The Kid goes out of his way not to cheat, but ends up losing all his money, and getting into debt, after an improbable hand beats him.
What is the meaning of the title? He’s referred to as ‘Kid’ throughout, and while Cincinnati is mentioned, it isn’t mentioned much. This is weird, as most of the movie takes place in New Orleans, and the kid is never outright named the Cincinatti Kid.
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| Here's Ann-Margaret,complete with her famous 'mouse pointer nose', and the villain of the piece, a creepy guy that it took me most of the movie to realise was Rip Torn. |
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Ann-Margaret, a year off being married to Elvis, is now married to Karl Maldon. She goads him to slap her, but he doesn’t, which is a HUGE win for femininity from a mid-1960s movie. Let’s ignore how Rip Torn treats everyone, including his family, and focus on the positives of the movie...
As for not ageing well, it’s a period piece, and it features a pretty unpleasant cock fight. For the record: Steve McQueen slaps a cock around to goad it. I think this cockfight scene was left out of a lot of versions of the movie. It didn't add much, to be honest.
Any thoughts? I was very happy that this was about a poker game, instead of a Western movie, which I was expecting from the movies title. This was offset by the fact that I care so little for Poker in real life. I am also well aware of how unlikely the last pair of hands that were in the game were, too, but to give us a bleak ending I realised that it's important to ignore the laws of probability.
Would you recommend this? There’s a really good cast here, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Maldon, Steve McQueen, Ann-Margaret, and Joan Blondell. Joan, whom I had, by chance, just seen in The Gold Diggers of 1933, and it was interesting to note that she has the same face in those two movies, while her body had shifted in 30 years. They play pretty well and it kind of flew by, despite the fact that there was an hour before any real poker playing kicked off. I liked it, but I’m not sure that I’ll rush back to watch it again.
Final thoughts? Ann-Margaret is a very attractive woman, and I understand why Steve McQueen went for her and not that weird-looking child he was in love with. It was an age inappropriate looking relationship, though they end up together in the end. Watching this on HD, you see that Steve McQueen is grizzled and handsome, but looks older than he is, which makes the VERY young looking love interest that he has a little more creepy than it should be.
A shoe-shine boy bothers Steve McQueen throughout the movie, and by playing games with him, we see that The Kid's luck has changed. However, is Poker just luck? I have played a bit and yes.
Despite the movie being in New Orleans, there’s not that much music: there’s a musical funeral at the beginning, a small shot in a nightclub, but otherwise the rest of the movie is tense silence on the music front. It makes a violin solo right at the end very jarring – is it the only music that’s not diagetic to the movie? I think so.
Anyway, that's enough of this, want more? go here, I said
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