I finally got around to watching the Cincinnati Kid, and it was well worth it. The story is basically about a young talent challening an old master over who will be top dog, but there's a lot more to it than that. I think this movie is a minor masterpiece, with two provisos: (1) there's a lot of time spent on poker scenes, and you have to know something about the rules and strategies of five card stud to appreciate it; (2) if special effects, car chases, creative bloodletting, or explicit sex scenes are are what turn you on, you won't find them here. Basically a low-budget film (except for the A-list cast), the film has beautiful writing (as one would hope, with Ring Lardner and Terry Sothern), beautiful camera work (thanks to unfairly unsung Phillip Lathrop), and perfect pacing (from director Norman Jewison). Edward G. Robinson is wonderful, as always; Steve McQueen plays his usual role as well as he ever did; and Tuesday Weld reminds us why she's considered one of the finest actresses of her generation. It seems like every important character has his or her own subplot, and you are never sure how it will all be resolved until the end.

Those into gambling and strong card playing must have loved this film. The rest of us probably did not.Steve McQueen in the up and coming card shark who is in New Orleans to play Lancy Howard, Edward G. Robinson, who I thought looked as though he was bored with the entire project. I know that others would say that Robinson projected a gambler's bluffing face.Ann Margret is her usual suggestive type, married to Karl Malden, as probably a marriage of convenience. Tuesday Weld is along for the ride, and as the girlfriend of McQueen, projects as if she is ready to return to Dobie Gillis on television.Then there is Joan Blondell as Lady Fingers, an old card hand dealer who is morbid and whose time has come and gone.Then young child always challenging McQueen represents someone ready to take your place, no matter how far that shall be.Don't really deal yourself into this one.

Made in the mid sixties this is a throwback to the forties where it was de riguer to have large casts and plentiful sub plots. In the manner of say Gable and Tracey it is the males who predominate with the females taking second place and it is salutary to note that Joan Blondell, who came to prominence in the thirties as the wise-cracking friend of the leading lady, leaves the two 'modern' leading ladies, Ann-Margret and Tuesday Weld, dead in the water. Similarly Eddie Robinson, himself a survivor from the thirties dominates even such a fine actor as Karl Malden, a product of the forties. Much has been written here about the game of poker and how it is treated (or allegedly mistreated) in the movie but the poker in The Cincinatti Kid is as metaphorical as the pool in The Hustler, both are merely pegs on which to hang morality tales. In my opinion both do pretty well.

I had heard of this movie, but only just saw it tonight on TV in Tokyo (interspersed with the most hideous, God-awful commercials that you could remotely imagine). I always liked Steve McQueen, even more so since I met him when I was 13 and he was so nice to me, a real gentleman. So, I looked forward to seeing this movie with great pleasure.As the plot has been discussed here often, I'll just give my impressions.Steve McQueen had the most devastatingly beautiful blue eyes I believe I've ever seen on a man, and, for the most part, they were lit within an inch of their stone cold beauty for the majority of the film. You could just sit and watch his eyes for two hours and be mesmerized. But most of us need more... and I'm not sure this movie offers that. We learn that the "Kid" (Mcqueen) is really named "Eric" -- although we don't find that out until he backtracks through his life to go check in on his girlfriend Christian (Tuesday Weld). Yes, she was called "Christian" and sometimes "Christie." And she doesn't seem to have any other life whatsoever except to exist for the "Kid." This was sad, that such a pretty young woman would hang her star on a man who was going nowhere fast.What was consistently distracting about this film was everyone calling Mcqueen "Kid." Although he was only about 35 years old when he made this film, he looked much, much older and calling him "Kid" seemed bizarre.Certain scenes, such as the cock-fighting scene (please get your minds out of the gutter) were totally gratuitous and did absolutely nothing to further the story, but did make all of the characters seem absolutely heinous.The most interesting person in the film was Ann-Margret, who stars as "Melba"--obviously the hottest girl in town. She was at the peak of her beauty and sexuality and she goes for every moment, including a scene where she's hardly wearing anything and she reaches for an apple and takes a big juicy bite out of it. She oozes sensuality and knows it and flaunts it. But she too seems to serve absolutely no purpose except as a cock-tease (now you can put your minds in the gutter) and, inexplicably, as Karl Malden's gal pal... except, if you had a gal pal with creamy white jugs spilling out of tight tops, you wouldn't ignore her the way Karl does. But then, Melba calls "Shooter" (Karl's character) a loser-- which he most definitely is. And Karl! Come on, there is no way in hell that I can believe that 1) Karl would play someone called "Shooter," 2) that he had a reputation for being "honest" --in the gambling business?--, and 3) that he could possibly allow the Kid to overpower him (considering that Karl was bigger than Steve) and throw him against a door. I didn't buy his character for one moment. The most interesting moment in the film is when Rip Torn as "Slade," who obviously is a wealthy white Southerner who's got his fingers in a lot of dirty pies, is in bed with a black (female, of course) prostitute, and, after he finishes his phone call, she tries to snuggle with him, and he says, "Don't touch me!" -- it's all the more interesting when we meet his real wife, Midge Ware, who is the picture of Southern hospitality, and his two fake kids, one who looks like she could be his daughter, the other who looks like some blonde boy chosen from an adoption agency, and who is forced to wear some girlish pink pajamas (unless the boy was a girl--and, if so, she looked miserable and unhappy for her two minutes on screen).It's fun to see familiar faces: Joan Blondell, Edward G. Robinson, Jack Weston, and the "story" is easy to follow, since there are constant "announcements" throughout the film to make clear we know what is or what might happen. But after they took their third break during the marathon poker game, I thought to myself, "You know what? Maybe I'll hit the 'john' (as Joan called it) and get myself something to eat and then go to sleep, too! The only action in the movie comes near the beginning when one of the men the Kid is playing with accuses him of having marked cards. This results in the Kid escaping from a bathroom window and somehow being close enough to a train transfer track that he can jump on the train, walk along the side of it, and jump off on the other side. It's actually a great scene... but after that, there ain't no action, unless you call the Kid swatting Melba's ass "action." There are several moments in the film, especially during the bathtub scene with Tuesday, where Steve seems like he forgot his lines and he actually looks away from Tuesday and for a split second it seems like he's looking at a cue card so he knows what to say next. This is a fun movie if you have absolutely nothing to do some night and you want to see what some of the greats looked like. Yeah, there are some fun shots of all the eyes being lit just so as they watch the final round of the poker game, and it's fun to see Edward G all dressed up in the fiercest purple smoking jacket I've ever seen, but other than Steve's blue eyes and Ann- Margret's incredibly sexy bust and creamy white skin and sexy vibe, you aren't missing much.