The Cincinnati Kid

Last weekend I mentioned having watched The Cincinnati Kid off a TCM airing and that there was a Joe McDoakes short afterwards that I blogged about. Well now it's time for the feature.

Steve McQueen is the titular Kid, a professional gambler named Stoner originally from Cincinnati but now in 1930s New Orleans. He's one of the best poker players out there, to the point that lesser players think he's cheating. He's got a girlfriend in the form of Christian (Tuesday Weld) who came from a farm a few hours away and wants the Kid to settle down. He's also got a good friend in Shooter (Karl Malden) who is known as a fair dealer. Shooter has a wife in Melba (Ann-Margret) who wants him to settle down, and is also friendly with Christian.

The Cincinnati Kid is one of the best poker players out there, but not yet the best. That honor has gone to Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson), who travels the country fleecing rich people out of their money, and every now and then getting into epic poker matches. Here in New Orleans he's fleecing Slade (Rip Torn). Unsurprisingly, word gets out that both Lancey and the Kid are in town, so the obvious thing to do is to set up a game between the two of them.

It eventually happens, but there are some complications first. One is that Christian has finally reached the breaking point, and decided to go back to her family, forcing the Kid to go looking for her. More worrying, though, is the betting that's going on around the match. Slade has decided to put a bunch of money down on the Kid, and wants to make certain he can collect on that wager. Both the Kid and Lancey agree that Shooter is a fair dealer, with Lady Fingers (Joan Blondell) to come in as a relief dealer. Slade, having that bet on the Kid, and more importantly a marker on Shooter, decides to tell shooter that he's going to help the Kid to win. And to sweeten the pot, Shooter's going to have more money on the Kid. And if that's not enough of a problem for Shooter, he's going to find out that Melba has taken a bit of a liking to the Kid when they spend some time together.

Eventually we get to the game, which doesn't start off as being just between the Kid and Lancey, but has other players. Of course, those players drop out one by one, leaving only the Kid and Lancey at the climax. As you can probably guess, the Kid finds out that Shooter has been asked to cheat, something the Kid does not want at all, while Christian returns just in time to discover that Melba had been seeing the Kid.

The Cincinnati Kid is another of those movies that's very well made, although it didn't really feel to me as though it was breaking any new ground. Everybody gives a solid, professional performance, and the story is more than adequate. In short, it's a nice little bit of entertainment, and another movie that I can definitely recommend if you want something undemanding.