Steve McQueen is the young upstart poker player, Edward G. Robinson an old master, Karl Malden is their friend and dealer, Ann Margret his flirtatious girlfriend, and Tuesday Weld is McQueen's. It's a fantastic cast – McQueen oozes cool, it's special to see Robinson at age 72 deliver a very good performance, Malden plays 'conflicted' well when he's pressured to fix the match, Margret is sexy and has a way of speaking with her eyes, and Weld is incredibly cute but also nuanced. To top it off, Joan Blondell is the backup dealer, and while her role and performance aren't amazing, it's very nice to see her and Robinson together again nearly three decades after 1936's 'Bullets or Ballots'.New Orleans is a fantastic setting and director Norman Jewison makes good use of it. I have to say, I was not all that jazzed about the scene with the cock fight, which is cruel. And, he's less effective in making the movie feel as though it's in the 1930's, but maybe that doesn't matter. The poker talk at the tables is pretty authentic, but I always find it amusing that the 5-card stud hands shown routinely in movies are extremely rare. The ending comes as a jolt and seems abrupt, but perhaps that's because I was thinking how interesting it would have been if it was revealed that Robinson was engaged in a nefarious fix with Blondell. As it is, the movie is about integrity and dignity, even in what may seem to be an unlikely place, amongst gamblers. Cheating, and accusations of cheating, are shown more than once to be signs of weakness, whereas real skill is cool and confident, and there is mutual respect between McQueen and Robinson's characters. How interesting that McQueen falters on the relationship side by being seduced by Margret, though even then he doesn't deny it or make excuses. It may be a little clichéd and it may have borrowed its theme from 'The Hustler', but it's an engaging, interesting film.

I was reminded of Paul Newman's The Hustler while watching The Cincinnati Kid. The film is a meditation on American masculinity. The temptations of celebrity. The fickle nature of women. And how in the end, the system always wins. Innocence always loses out.The huge star cast was very impressive. McQueen was at his understated best. Karl Malden plays a henpecked husband to Ann Margret's sexpot wife. Tuesday Weld is the voice of reason (as an adherent to Christianity) who competes with Margaret's wantonness. Edward.G.Robinson is the experienced man who is bound to teach the young upstart a lesson or two.The technicolor visuals were a pleasure to look at. Lalo Schifrin's score made a huge impact on how I perceived this film. I did not love it. But I am glad I watched it.

Somewhere I read that at the heart of it, deep down in their souls, all hard core gamblers really want to lose…that they enjoy the pain and angst. Personally, I think that's complete bullshit. But "The Cincinnati Kid" is a profile of a stud playing expert, one Eric Stoner, played by Steve McQueen in one of his most memorable roles. By 1965 McQueen had become a screen superstar, following the release of "The Great Escape" in 63 and he would have about a 10 year run of top notch dramatic classics that would also include "Nevada Smith" "The Sand Pebbles" "Bullitt" and "Papillion" among some other solid offerings. In TCK McQueen is paired with screen legend Edward G. Robinson, who is brilliant as "the Man" Lancey Howard, regarded as the top stud poker player of his era. Their characters are similar to their real life personas…McQueen, like the Kid was an up and coming superstar while Robinson, like Lancey was now entering the twilight of a brilliant career, but not ready to step aside yet.TCK has a superb cast. Karl Malden is Shooter, the Kids mentor and seemingly only real friend. Ann Margaret plays his incredibly hot wife Melba, a complete slut and gold digger. She's one of those women men can't resist, even though they know she will only cause trouble and Ann is at her absolute sexiest in this role. Tuesday Weld turns in a surprisingly strong performance as the Kid's girlfriend Christian, who has moved to New Orleans from a farm in rural La. She and McQueen are in love but they both know that his top priority in life is stud poker. Speaking of which, the marathon poker game which is at the heart of this movie is done superbly. Also credit director Norman Jewison for keeping this moving at a steady clip, 102 minutes. I could easily see where other directors could have stretched this out to well over 2 hours, give us a lot of back story about McQueen's character. But we get virtually none-the Kid really had nothing except his ability to play poker. Whether he and Christian have any future together after the game is left for the audience to speculate.

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.