Atlantic City is back on

Almost at the beginning of this blog, I watched the TCM premiere of Atlantic City, a movie that I wanted to do a full-length post on but didn't because it's out of print on DVD. It's still out of print, although you can apparently see it via Amazon's streaming service. Anyhow, it's also going to be on TCM again tonight, I think for the first time in 11 years, overnight at 2:00 AM.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the movie since the last TCM showing, so you're only going to get a briefer synopsis here. It's 1980 Atlantic City, NJ, so the era when the city was in decline and they were trying to use the casinos to bring it back to life. Burt Lancaster plays Lou, a former low-level gangster who has fallen on hard times, earning extra money as a sort of gigolo to an older lady. Across the way in his apartment building he can see Sally (Susan Sarandon), who is trying to improve her lot in life by learning how to be a blackjack dealer.

Sally's estranged boyfriend shows up, and he's learned of a drug-running scheme; more specifically, he's learned where a stash is going to be dropped for somebody to pick up. So he picks up the drugs himself and figures he'll make a killing dealing them. As we saw in Stakeout on Dope Street or even Wait Until Dark, that's a really brilliant idea. The higher-up bad guys come after Sally's boyfriend, putting Sally in danger. Lou realizes he's got a chance to help Sally, and relive some of his old glory.

I remember really enjoying the movie, so I'm happy to see it back on for everybody else to get a chance to catch it.