From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- From Out In The Be-Bop 1950s Class Struggle-British Version-The Hammer Film Noir Collection- “The Gambler And The Lady”

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for the Hammer Film Noir Collection production of The Gambler And The Lady.

DVD Review

The Gambler and The Lady, starring Dane Clark, Hammer Productions, 1952

Not all noirs are created equal as the film under review ample demonstrates. Some film like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice stand out as A-One crime noir classics. This one is a very B film, very B British noir and as a very B Hammer Film Noir production. Why? Well, mostly it is the plot line. An ex-pat up-from-cheap street American gangster winds up nursing his wounds (after some American jail time) by controlling some sideline gambling action in London in the 1950s to keep him (and his “staff”) in coffee and cakes. Along the way he tries to meet the British equivalent of the “better sort” (today’s 1%, I guess) and seriously attempts to gain entry into that rather closed and cloistered society (just ask Queen Elizabeth who took up that heavy burden the year this film was born).

Naturally in a time when the royalty of England were not enthralled by gangsters, particularly from America or from continental Europe (unlike in the 1930s with their compadres Hitler, Mussolini and Mosley) this second- rate hood Jim (played by Dane Clark) from cheap street (who can’t even tell the lobster fork from the salad fork, jesus, the guy is hopeless) is persona non grata. Well, except to a more democratic sort of lady (Lady, excuse me), and who happens to double as the on again, off again love interest for said second-rate gambler.

Of course in the gambling world as in the mainstream of capitalism the push for market share is relentless. Our boy runs up against a cartel that wishes to “take-over” his business. And they are not particular whether it is over his dead body or not. Add a scorned woman (his dancer ex-girlfriend) that he dumps unceremoniously for Lady Grey or whatever her name was and this guy is in over his head. Jim best go back to safe America where the gangsters are learning business administration at Harvard and places like that.

The real problem with this one though is that part about our boy practically begging to get into high society in Labor-bound 1950s England. Now if it was today, even here in America, with the hoopla over various royal entourages from the queen on down to the grandkids I could see it. But back in the 1950s when we cherished a thing called the American Revolution a little more and English royalty less the lash-up with American ex-pat gamblers doesn’t work. No way, no way at all.