The Cincinatti Kid (1965)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Eric "The Kid" Stoner	Steve McQueen
Lancey "The Man" Howard	Edward G. Robinson
Melba	Ann-Margret	½
Shooter	Karl Malden
Christian Rudd	Tuesday Weld	½
Lady Fingers	Joan Blondell	½
Slade	Rip Torn	½
Pig	Jack Weston

Review

Steve McQueen rose to the challenge of playing an up-and-coming poker player nicknamed "The Kid" who sets out to dethrone "The Man" (Edward G. Robinson) as the city's top player in 1930s New Orleans. The film takes its subject matter seriously and gives a truthful depiction of many of the characteristics and mechanisms of stud poker, particularly in the patiently paced decisive game. The battle of wits and endurance between McQueen and Robinson has got a crude lyrical quality to it. The same cannot be said of the vapid romantic subplots involving Tuesday Weld as Christian Rudd and particularly Ann-Margret as the stylized seductress Melba. She and some of the film's ambient scenes are disappointingly directed by Norman Jewison and appear dated and anachronistic in retrospect. Luckily, Karl Malden, Rip Torn and Jack Weston spice things up and add a little verve on our way to the big showdown. Hal Ashby edited, Lalo Schifrin provided an unremarkable score.