The Cincinnati Kid

Back to Steve McQueen....

The Cincinnati Kid can be viewed as the attempt to do for poker what The Hustler did for pool. The plot and characters are similar, but The Hustler was far more serious and deep. The Cincinnati Kid is lighter fare, with the characterizations not as sharp and the overall effect fairly flat.

Released in 1965, it was directed by Norman Jewison, who considered it is first dramatic film. It was his initial team-up with Hal Ashby, who would edit several of his films and would later be a first-rank director on his own. Both of them acquit themselves well, with the camera moving around brilliantly and the edits quick and at times breathtaking. Where this film lays down is the script, by Ring Lardner Jr. and Terry Southern. At the end of the day, the story is a big so-what.

McQueen is the Kid in question, the best stud poker player in depression-era New Orleans. We don't know much about him--presumably he's from Cincinnati--except that he has a girlfriend, Tuesday Weld, who feels that he doesn't need her enough so she goes back to the country to her parents. The Kid's best pal is Shooter (Karl Malden), who was once a great player but now is a dealer and arranger of games. Shooter is married to Anne-Margret, who has a wandering eye, especially for McQueen.

The action is set in motion by the arrival of Edward G. Robinson, who is acknowledged as the country's best player. His resemblance to Jackie Gleason's Minnesota Fats of The Hustler is almost embarrassing, but Robinson gives a good performance none-the-less. Also in the cast is Rip Torn as a rich guy who gets gutted by Robinson in a game and thus bets on McQueen to beat him, and he's paid off Malden, who will be the dealer, to make sure McQueen wins.

The rest of the film, almost half, is the game. If you like watching poker on TV, this should be catnip for you (and a DVD commentary is offered by professional poker player Phil Gordon). Even if you're not interested in cards the suspense is pretty thick, and Jewison makes it interesting. I'm always suspicious of the patter that goes on in movie card games, though. Do players really refer to queens as "ladies," and keep up all the cliches throughout the many hours of a game? I would think most poker games for high stakes have very little chatter.

Speaking of The Hustler, it's interesting to compare McQueen and Paul Newman. Both had similar careers, though McQueen did die quite young, at 50, in 1980. They both came from the New York theater, and both were fond of going very fast in vehicles. But though McQueen became a big star, he never achieved the kind of respect that Newman attained. As I watch more of McQueen's films I'll try to figure out why.