ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

elvircorhodzic THE CINCINNATI KID is a drama film that shows us, in an interesting way, the sharpness and the ability of poker game during the Great Depression. It's simple, to be the best, you have to beat the best. However, everything has its price. Of course, the culmination of the story is in the final duel.Eric, nicknamed "The Kid", is a crackerjack New Orleans stud poker player. Tired and frustrated due a result of the Great Depression he decides to challenge "The Man", the reigning poker champ, who is in town for a private game. The Kid's friend "Shooter" cautions him of the danger of playing poker with the big champion. A cruel rich man Slade begins to take an interest in their poker game...Mr. Jewison take us from one to another incident in the story. All characters are in a certain conflict with itself. They have to prove... something. That is the biggest advantage of this one-way street. An authentic scenery and sharp dialogues very well correspond to a red-hot atmosphere of a scam and love.Steve McQueen as Eric "The Kid" Stoner is a charismatic character who wants to prove that he is the best poker player in the region. Edward G. Robinson as Lancey "The Man" Howard is an unobtrusive and deadly champion who keeps an ace in his sleeve for the very end. Karl Malden as "Shooter" is unsure in both games. Tuesday Weld as Christian Rudd is a beauty from the inside, who is somewhat lost in these relations. Ann-Margret as Melba is a kind of problem without which a shifty game does not make sense. Rip Torn as Slade is a rich man who wants to destroy the best on the table at any cost. Joan Blondell as "Lady Fingers" is a kind of consciousness that breaks the monotony of the table.One of the protagonists must to stop cheating and illusion, because love and poker are still gentlemen's games.

bandw (Spoilers!) Steve McQueen plays Eric Stoner (the Cincinnati Kid), a young professional poker player. The Kid wants to be "the man," i.e. the best player in the country. Currently that person is Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson). As soon as you have this setup you know that the movie has to end with a big showdown, and all else is back-story.There is the obligatory romance between Stoner and Christian (Tuesday Weld). I did not find any chemistry between McQueen and Weld; there is little psychological depth to the relationship. Christian's pondering on the "do you love poker more than you love me" theme is exploited, but hardly of any consequence. You know the answer.Some side stories are developed. There is Stoner's friend Shooter (Karl Malden), a player who went up against the man and lost and is now relegated to dealing and just getting by. The relationship between Shooter and is wife Melba (Ann-Margaret) is more interesting than that of Stoner and Christian--they seem so mismatched in age and attractiveness that you want to know more about them. (Spoiler) But everything is just window dressing leading to the final match. Any such match is usually determined by a few crucial hands, or a single one as here. A straight flush comes up in only one hand in 72202 in five card stud, so it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that Howard would get such a hand, but would he make substantial bets on the hope of getting such? A full house comes up once in 694 hands, so the odds of a full house and a straight flush being dealt on the same hand are remote. But there had to be a dramatic climax.The setting is supposed to be 1930s New Orleans, but I thought the period detail was a little weak. McQueen looks more 1960s than 1930s. The opening scene of the parade and a later scene in a jazz bar were the two most enjoyable scenes in the movie for me.After having seen "The Hustler" with its psychological complexity, strong character development, and brilliant performances, I was insulted by "The Cincinnati Kid." Pretty much any of the poker programs on TV are more exciting to watch than the poker seen in this movie. Contemporary viewers will find five card stud particularly lacking in spectator appeal (and player appeal as far as that goes). Five card stud has not been an event in The World Series of Poker since 1974.I am surprised that there was not a sequel to this where Stoner regroups and comes back to beat Howard.

Robert J. Maxwell A remarkably effective film was released in the early 60s. A young hot shot gambler with a cute nickname arrives in town to challenge the reigning king of the game, an older professional with another nickname. Before the final combat, we get to know the youngster's back story, his skill at the game, his growing reputation, his love life, and the weaknesses in his character, such as his infidelity to friends. The story is original and packs a hell of a wallop.The name of the movie is "The Hustler." It stars Paul Newman as Fast Eddie and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. "The Cincinatti Kid" is an etiolated imitation -- not bad, just not innovative and not nearly as neatly drawn as its model.Here, Steve McQueen, the quintessence of cool, is The Cincinatti Kid, challenger, and Edward G. Robinson is Lancey Howard, the shrewdly bearded ice sculpture who knows all the tricks. I guess, when you think about it, "Lancy" isn't much of a nickname. I shouldn't have said the king had a nickname. However, as if to make up for Robinson's lack of a street moniker -- although, to be sure, "Lancey", although a genuine name, is far from prosaic -- all the other main characters seem to sport them. Let's see. Karl Malden is Shooter, Joan Blondell is Ladyfingers, Jack Weston is Pig, and I think there were a few others. Yes, former orchestra leader and performance artist Cab Calloway is Yeller, and he's terrific as one of the gamesters. He doesn't look nearly as old as he ought to."The Cincinnati Kid" follows the basic plot trajectory of "The Hustler" but is set in the not-too-distant past and, lamentably, doesn't really capture the genius loci. It's identifiably New Orleans of the 1930s. If we didn't already know it, we'd figure it out from the amiable pop tunes that we hear in the background. "The Hustler" gave us a more accessible crummy New York City of the late 50s. The settings weren't merely atmospheric, as here. We got to know them on a first-name basis: Piper Laurie's shabby apartment; the depressing, vacant early-morning Greyhound bus station; the unashamed bars with names like "Cavanaugh's" and "Corcoran's" and "The Pine Tavern"; and, most of all, the vast and magnificently threadbare pool room where Newman and Gleason play pool for money and sovereignty."Shoot pool, Fast Eddy," says Minnesota Fats. "Let's play stud poker," says Lancey Howard.The settings for the final confrontation are similar. The two champs go at it, surrounded by a dozen enthralled onlookers, many of them trading bets. But as a game, pool beats poker. Poker is a game that blends luck and strategy. Pool combines a bit of strategy with a lot of physical skill -- and physical skill involves action. Visually it's much more interesting to see pool balls zipping and clacking around on the table. The contestants can talk, trade remarks, insult or compliment each other. In poker, the point is to say and do nothing that would give away your hand or your intentions, and with McQueen on one side of the table and the stone-faced Robinson on the other, we're reduced to hearing one or another party say something like, "Okay, you take it." Or "Jack to the tens." On top of that, in "The Cincinnati Kid" the poor onlookers have no reason to applaud a particularly skillful move, as they did in "The Hustler," and they are also compelled to explain to the audience in whispers just what's going on at the card table. ("He's going for the flush. He's going for the FLUSH.") It all comes out a little amateurish.It isn't a terrible film when considered by itself. The performances are up to snuff -- although "The Hustler" contains what is certainly one of Paul Newman's best -- and Edward G. Robinson is fine, as are Ann-Margaret and Tuesday Weld, in an entirely different way. Weld is stuck in the role of the Good Girl Who Waits, while Ann-Margaret is given a Southern accent and a bosom that, if ever released, would devastate the countryside.

didi-5 Steve McQueen, an underrated actor in his lifetime who was actually quite subtle and gifted as his films now confirm, is an up-and-coming poker player, The Kid, cocky and sure of himself, smitten by Ann Margret's sexy purring miss, and led into the lion's den - a game against Lancey Howard (The Man - a showy and assured performance from Edward G Robinson) - by Shooter, a crooked card sharp (Karl Malden).Mainly a poker film, that's where all the scenes of tension lie. But in McQueen's scenes with Ann Margret, the bad girl, and Tuesday Weld, the good girl, we see a fleeting glimpse of what goes on behind the gambling man's straight face. And I love the ending.A good cast, including Joan Blondell, Rip Torn, and Cab Calloway, a sharp script, good direction and memorable music make The Cincinatti Kid a keeper.