Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, February 8, 2019

THE CINCINNATI KID (1965)

The game is Stud Poker rather than Pool, but in most ways THE CINCINNATI KID is THE HUSTLER-Lite. And maybe all the better for it, dropping the heavy-lifting & gravitas. With Steve McQueen & Edward G. Robinson in for Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason as New Kid on the Block out to beat the Smooth Past-Master, the charisma factor is (if anything) possibly stronger, with a storyline that doesn’t mythologize so strenuously.* Typical of the mid-‘60s, period detail never quite convinces as the 1930s: hair, makeup & attitude the main culprits. But the St. Louis locations & atmosphere are nicely caught by lenser Philip Lathrop, especially exteriors, and it’s very well dialogued & structured by scripters Ring Lardner Jr. & Terry Southern, camouflaging a pretty small story. (Though does Ann-Margret really have to snack on an apple so we know she’s temptation personified? Bad girl to loyal Tuesday Weld.) Most of all, this is the first film where you can feel director Norman Jewison starting to show some real personality along with steady control. So much so that the big climax can still make you jump even if you know what’s coming.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *A third main character, George C. Scott’s controlling manager, is changed into Rip Torn’s far more conventional rich loser out for revenge.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above THE HUSTLER.

No comments: