film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
Ted Tetzlaff
Dale H. "Ted" Tetzlaff (3 June 1903, Los Angeles, California – 7 January 1995, Sausalito, California) was an Academy Award-nominated Hollywood cinematographer active in the 1930s and 1940s.
Career
Tetzlaff was particularly favored by the ...
and starring
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
William Bendix
William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...
.
Plot
A gangster, Joe Farrow, kills a man after a game of craps. He then offers gambler Marc Fury $50,000 if he will take the rap and stand trial. Farrow tries to renege on the money, so Fury steals a ledger with information that could put Farrow behind bars. While being pursued, Fury slips the ledger into the possession of an immigration social worker, Lynn Warren.
Subsequently, Fury is acquitted but immigration officers arrest him, take him to Ellis Island and threaten to deport him; neither he nor his parents ever become naturalized citizens. Fury tracks down Lynn Warren and, though the two are drawn romantically to each other, she does not believe his desire to remain in America is well-placed.
Farrow's gunman comes looking for Fury, but ultimately double-crosses his boss. When Fury offers the $50,000 to a family that longs desperately to remain in America, Lynn begins to trust him.
Cast
*
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
William Bendix
William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...
as Joe Farrow
* Zachary Charles as Willie (as Zachary A. Charles)
*
Basil Ruysdael
Basil Spaulding Millspaugh (July 24, 1878 – October 10, 1960), known as Basil Ruysdael, was an American actor and opera singer.
Early life
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, as Basil Spaulding Millspaugh, Ruysdael was the son of Dr and Mrs Char ...
as Judge Ravinek
*
Donald Randolph
Donald Randolph (January 5, 1906 – March 16, 1993) was a film, television, and radio actor. The actor, who appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Topaz'' (1969), acted in dozens of radio dramas, television programs and over thirty films.
Randolph ...
as Lloyd Crane
*
Damian O'Flynn
Damian O'Flynn (January 29, 1907 – August 8, 1982) was an Irish-American actor of film and television originally from Boston, Massachusetts.
Biography
O'Flynn made his screen debut in ''Marked Woman'' (1937), after which he was a freelance pl ...
Ann Doran
Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, possibly best known as the mother of Jim Stark ( James Dean) in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955). She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and ser ...
as Della
*
Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley ( Zellman; November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress with a distinctive voice and a diverse body of work. She played Oliver Douglas's mother, Eunice Douglas, on the CBS sitcom ''Green Acres'' (1965–1969) ...
as Mrs. Livingston
*
Gloria Winters
Gloria Winters (November 28, 1931 – August 14, 2010) was an actress most remembered for having portrayed the well-mannered Nephew and niece, niece, Penny King, in the 1950s – 1960s United States, American Television show#Seasons/series, ...
as B.J. Warren
*
Don Haggerty
Don Haggerty (July 3, 1914 – August 19, 1988) was an American actor of film and television.
Early life and education
Before he began appearing in films in 1947, Haggerty was a Brown University athlete and served in the United States Army f ...
as Sharky
Production
The story was originally called ''Mr Whiskas''. It was purchased by RKO in 1947 and scheduled in 1948 as a vehicle for
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
, who had a contract with RKO to make one film a year. However the project was postponed to enable Mature to make ''Easy Living''. In July 1949 it was announced he would make ''Mr Whiskas'' next. Warren Duff was to write and produce.
In late 1949 the project was renamed ''Alias Mike Fury''. Mature refused to make the movie and was put on suspension by Fox. The script was rewritten and Mature ended up making the film, which was retitled ''Gambling House''. Filming started February 1950.
Reception
When first released, critic
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
panned the film. He wrote, "Don't look for very rich pickings in R. K. O.'s ''Gambling House'', a run-of-the-mill melodrama that came to the Mayfair on Saturday. Your chances for solid satisfaction from this tale of a crook who goes straight after meeting a decent young lady are about as good as they would be from a fixed wheel ... Put it down as claptrap and the performance of Mr. Mature as another demonstration of an actor doing the best he can with a bad role. Miss Moore is entirely incidental and William Bendix is mulishly mean as the tough and deceitful rascal who crosses up Mr. Mature. To say any more about it might tend to incriminate somebody."Crowther, Bosley ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', film review, March 19, 1951. Accessed: July 27, 2013.