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The Gambler and the Lady (1952)
Topic Started: Jan 30 2012, 06:06 PM (272 Views)
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm still pouring through early Hammer releases. Don't make a big deal out of it. After the misfire of Lady in the Fog, this one's a good one. It was written and directed by Sam Newfield, but somebody named Patrick Jenkins was given a co-director's credit (his sole directing credit ever) because Newfield was an American and was restricted by British law from directing another film right after directing that Lady in the Fog picture I just mentioned. He should've let Patrick have the credit on the last one, I tell ya.

Anyway, Dane Clark beat a man to death in a bar fight, so after doing a stretch in the pen he heads to England, where he runs a swank nightclub and some gambling dens, hires a comic butler (one of the other characters in the film actually points out how charming it is that Dane has a comic butler), an old bat to give him British elocution lessons, and a sweet girlfriend. Clark is intent on breaking into the upper crust, see, but some Chicago mobsters (led by Austrian actor Eric Pohlmann, who has a German-British accent and struggles to sound Italian) want to elbow in on him so he sells the business, goes legit, invests in an off-shore gold mine or some such thing, and romances the lovely Lady Susan (Naomi Chance, much to his not-so-sweet-after-all girlfriend's dismay. Eventually, he's set up for a hit by the guy who always played the Egyptian High Priest in Hammer Mummy movies, and who looks naked here without a fez. Violence ensues.

This is a good little movie, and the opening scene - a dark alley, gun shots, screaming tires, Dane Clark stumbling into the gutter - is quintessential noir filmmaking. I liked this one a lot. It's on VCI's Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Vol. 3, paired with Heat Wave starring Hillary Brooke.
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