This film is perhaps to long but it kind of is a Western with a theme that would be used later on and much more effectively in "The Sting". While this movie has a great cast with Joanne Woodward, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards particularly effective, the script could have been so much better if it had been developed more with the characters. It does have poker in mind, and the bluff in particular as themes.
What the film does not do is develop the story line better. In The Sting, all of the characters are carefully developed and even though you have it all in front of you what is going down, there is enough else going on that you still enjoy the actual deception and get a feeling for the characters. This film has some great characters and even though the story tries to hide what is going on, it sort of tips it's hand.
Robards here plays a pretty good heavy, but it is never explained why he is one of 4 guys who all get played by Fonda in the game. What is really not making much sense is how all the players at the table all have a good enough hand to stay in until the end. Poker just does not work that way. It is hard to swallow all of them staying in for huge money. The poker game in The Sting makes more sense with 2 players surviving for the big pot, and everyone else dropping out.
Even though the viewer is not told a lot about the minor characters in the cast until after the game, it becomes too easy to suspect there are other motivations for everyone before the big bluff happens. This story was first done as a television production and then was expanded here into a movie. While the results are good, they are not perfect. Some great support here from Burgess Meredith and Charles Bickford among others.
I feel this is an actors school sort of film. There are some great lessons for method acting from a great cast, but the film falls just a little short of being a great one. Think if the director had been better about how they paced the film, which at times it seems to stop in its tracks or winds up a bit slow, it would have been better.
What the film does not do is develop the story line better. In The Sting, all of the characters are carefully developed and even though you have it all in front of you what is going down, there is enough else going on that you still enjoy the actual deception and get a feeling for the characters. This film has some great characters and even though the story tries to hide what is going on, it sort of tips it's hand.
Robards here plays a pretty good heavy, but it is never explained why he is one of 4 guys who all get played by Fonda in the game. What is really not making much sense is how all the players at the table all have a good enough hand to stay in until the end. Poker just does not work that way. It is hard to swallow all of them staying in for huge money. The poker game in The Sting makes more sense with 2 players surviving for the big pot, and everyone else dropping out.
Even though the viewer is not told a lot about the minor characters in the cast until after the game, it becomes too easy to suspect there are other motivations for everyone before the big bluff happens. This story was first done as a television production and then was expanded here into a movie. While the results are good, they are not perfect. Some great support here from Burgess Meredith and Charles Bickford among others.
I feel this is an actors school sort of film. There are some great lessons for method acting from a great cast, but the film falls just a little short of being a great one. Think if the director had been better about how they paced the film, which at times it seems to stop in its tracks or winds up a bit slow, it would have been better.