Poll : 04 November - 17 November 2009

Analysis

The winner, by a large margin, was the 1995 Scorsese gem Casino. As the gamblers love to say, "who didn't know that?" It was an obvious choice, but a worthy one. There weren't a lot of gambling scenes in this one, but the overall depiction of the gambling world of that time was too good to ignore.

Runner-up, The Sting, on the other hand, was full of gambling, even if the focal subject was the con itself. The train scene in which Newman "cheats better" than Robert Shaw is pure artistry, and the depiction of the wire-dependent underground horse-betting shop is strong. Third was Rounders, a good poker movie that certainly had at least a little to do with poker's big boom. Fourth was The Hustler, which spun a great gambling yarn using pool as its vehicle. The ever-present "Other" took the 5th spot -- check out the feedback below.

Of interest in the also-rans, Anthony Curtis chose the little-known and hard to find California Split as his favorite. Anthony also says that when he posed the best-gambling-film question to Bob Stupak years ago, Bob quickly cited A Big Hand for the Little Lady, insisting it caught gambling's essence better than any other. (Just click the links to find these titles at ShopLVA.com and click on "Gift Ideas" for others.

• "Owning Mahowny (2003) R -- Quiet and unassuming Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an assistant bank manager with a penchant for gambling and a talent for embezzling, may seem the unlikeliest of men to rise up against two of the most powerful financial institutions around: the bank and the casino. But that he does … to some degree of success. This crime thriller also stars Minnie Driver and John Hurt." [Ed: Yes, we forgot this one. Good call by a few of you for reminding us.]
• "The best movie is Jinxed."
• "What, no Ocean's Eleven or Vegas Vacation on the list? OK, Ocean's is more about the heist than gambling. But, A Big Hand for the Little Lady gets my vote, and thanks for having it on your list. It wasn't easy to snub Casino either, but A Big Hand is one terrifically entertaining story with an A-list cast and clever plot twist." [Ed: Yes, a lot of people queried the Ocean's omissions, but although we'd call them (especially the original Eleven) great Vegas movies, we agree that they're more appropriately pegged in the heist category.}
• "There no doubt that Cincinnati Kid Edward G. Would make Phil Hellmuth wet his pants in a poker game. And Ann Margaret would make any loser glad to be alive."
• "My vote is for Looking To Get Out, a1982 film by Hal Ashby starring Jon Voight, Ann-Margret, Burt Young, and the film debut of seven-year-old (at the time) Angelina Jolie - Voight's dauughter. Many shots of old-time Vegas, inside and outside of the casinos, both on The Strip and downtown. Your typical gambler loses a lot of money in New York and decides to go to Vegas and devise a scheme to win it all back, only to have the mob follow him and put on the heat. He has a plan, but his "partner" has an even better plan..."
• "I can almost guarantee you Rounders will win, but my favorite is a movie called Hard Eight. Gambling, or leveraging the comps system, is a focus of the movie, but it is a very serious drama with a lot of tough luck and make- you-think moments. It came out in 1996 and had lots of good actors - John C Reilly, Phillip Baker Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Good stuff!" [Ed: Another goodie that we missed. Thanks!]
• "I picked The Cooler with William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, and Maria Bello. While supposedly set in Las Vegas, the film was actually filmed in that town up north." [Ed: A few people picked this, but its omission was deliberate on our part, due to the bogus concept on which it was based. However, the current writer was making docus back then and got hired to go interview the cast, which was fun. William H. Macy was absolutely charming but I was told to stay clear of Alec Baldwin, who was in "temperamental" mode, being at the height of his break-up with Kim Bassinger. I laid low, but he heard I was on the set, sought me out, and was equally charming (although he wouldn't give the interview that I was there for). A fun experience.]
• "The only movie I have ever seen an entire theater (including me) stand up and applaud the ending was The Sting. The true meaning of entertainment.