The Gamble (1965)
What is the most you have ever lost on a hand of poker? A couple hundred dollars? A car? The deed to your home? Well in the film “The Gamble” a man who cannot resist the allure of games of chance manages to toss his son into the pot and come out of it one kid short. Arguably though, the real loser here is the son who was lost in a hasty wager.
This Carlo Vanzina film is set in the romantic, Italian city of Venice. Mathew Modine plays the son of wealthy father who has sacrificed the family fortune on the alter of his personal gambling addiction. The evil countess, played by Faye Dunaway, looks upon this man’s son with lust in her eyes, and concludes that he must be hers. Knowing the man’s weakness for games of chance, the countess lures him into a wager where the man’s own son is the prize. Once he has been lost to the countess, Mathew Modine’s character flees from the imminent slavery. On the road he is joined by Jennifer Beals and a romance is struck up between them.
Matthew Modine is convincing as a swashbuckler in old Italy. One would wonder why he is actually running from being the love slave of Faye Dunaway, but the movie would be rather short if not for that element. With Jennifer Beals in the mix the whole thing becomes rather entertaining and holds the interest of the viewer very well.
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