My wife thought it was "boring" and she usually has good taste in movies, and almost anything set in New Orleans. But I think, and this sounds crazy, she may have been put off by my "Oh my God, Ann-Margaret is so damn hot" running commentary. She's gets like that.
Ann-M's physical attributes aside, I thought the movie was 'Good' (7/10), but not Great. The performances were better than the, by now, predictable script. The card playing scenes were tense and exciting.
The 'set in the 30s' look was all but ignored. The hotel rooms looked like river boats. Robinson wore a caveat, Malden looked like The Music Man, Torn looked he owned a Plantation and McQueen was ready to jump over the nearest barbed-wire fence. The rest of the men looked "in period". The women's window shopping fashions looked like late 50s. Except for Joan Blondel, who dressed in rags.
Too many of the secondary characters were too well known from 60s TV, better to have gone with unknowns.
Also, this movie may have benefited by being shot in B/W.
These things stopped it from being 'Very Good' (8/10).
One last thing I didn't understand. The marathon game was wonderfully done. But the last hand?
"Ooops, sorry Kid, you lose. I had a more impossible hand than you had. Your girl's downstairs. The End."
Besides the super-hotness of Ann-Margaret, I think I just talked myself into agreeing with the OP.
"Ooops! The End" -- I didn't see that one comin' . . .
Please use the elevator, the stairs are currently stuck between floors
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