You know what I think, Willie? I think I’m the fall guy.
Wow. If ever there were an epitome of film noir dialogue, it’s that line from the otherwise ordinary 1951 Gambling House.
The story is a about the amiable small-time crook Marc Fury (Victor Mature who, for the promise of 50 grand, has taken the fall for a murder committed by the really bad crime lord Joe Farrow (William Bendix). Fury is now out of jail, Farrow wants to kill him instead of paying off and the authorities want to deport Fury. Fortunately, Fury meets an immigration social worker Lynn Warren (Terry Moore).
The actors do their best, but Gambling House is pretty pedestrian except for the witty patter, which some of the most entertaining in film noir.
- Marc Fury: You know all about me don’t you?
- Lynn Warren: I majored in psychology…abnormal psychology. We covered you in the first semester.
- Marc Fury: I’m not talking to you. You’re Farrow’s shyster. You’d pick up his spit if he told you to.
- Marc Fury: I wonder what an old fashioned spanking would do for you.
- Lynn Warren: It wouldn’t do anything for me, but it might restore your shaken ego.
- Marc Fury: Either you pay off or I’m gonna take it from you, Joe. And if you try to stop me, you’re gonna end up in an alley somewhere with the cats lickin’ ya.
Who wrote this stuff? The Erwin Gelsey story was adapted by Allen Rivkin (Kid Glove Killer, Dead Reckoning, Tension, Battle Circus) and the otherwise undistinguished Marvin Borowsky. But the great writer-director Sam Fuller got the chance to perk up the script as an uncredited contract writer, I’m guessing that’s where the snap, crackle and pop comes from.
Immigration and deportation are major themes in Gambling House, which is very sympathetic toward immigrants.
In 1951, Mature was already a noir veteran (I Wake Up Screaming, Kiss of Death), although he was still, often shirtless, in plenty of swashbucklers and sword-and-sandal epics. One of Mature’s gifts was that he was always innately sympathetic, despite his being almost obnoxiously handsome.
Because she was playing a social worker (a designation that movie studios treated as unfairly as they did spinsters and librarians), the filmmakers tried to frump up Terry Moore, but she is still adorable and can crack wise with the best of them. Bendix bites enthusiastically into his baddie role. And there’s an appearance by the archetypal hard, buxom blonde, Cleo Moore.
Gambling House’s director, Ted Tetzlaff, was a cinematographer who only got B-material to direct.
Oddly, the original title of the project was Mr. Whiskas – who would go see THAT title?
Gambling House is not available to stream. I watched it on Turner Classic Movies.
