Dealing with The Cincinnati Kid

 Last spring I was honored toappear on Kelsy Norman’s podcast, Speeding Bullitt, which deals with allthings Steve McQueen. Though  I don’tpretend to be a McQueen expert, I was invited to speak about my book on TheGraduate, because of Steve McQueen’s unlikely reaction to seeing DustinHoffman catapulted into stardom via his hang-dog portrayal of BenjaminBraddock. (Five years later McQueen and Hoffman starred together in Papillon.It was not a match made in heaven.)   [https://www.speedingbullitt.com/ ]  

 Like the rest of the world,I’ve seen a fair share of Steve McQueen films, including The MagnificentSeven, The Thomas Crown Affair, and of course Bullitt. ButI’d never seen The Cincinnati Kid (1965) until yesterday, when I pluckeda DVD off a library shelf. No motorcycles here, but otherwise it contains afair sampling of what McQueen is all about: stoicism, machismo, a glint ofhumor, a fierce determination to come out on top. And, underneath, a small hintof potential for tenderness.   

 The Cincinnati Kid is about high-stakes poker players trying to best oneanother in New Orleans. I’ve seen the film compared to The Hustler (1961)if you swap McQueen for Paul Newman and a desk of Bicycle cards for a pool cue.I’m hardly a poker player, and can’t tell a full house from a straight flush, soit was hardly easy for me to appreciate the subtleties of the on-screen game.But what really set my mind buzzing was the film’s supporting cast, whichseemed to encompass the whole history of Hollywood.

 In The Cincinnati Kid(with McQueen of course playing the title role), the kid’s #1 card-playingnemesis is Lancey “The Man” Howard, played with panache by none other thanEdward G. Robinson. Robinson, who’d starred as a Capone-like crime boss in LittleCaesar back in 1931, was then 72, near the end of a long and distinguishedcareer. (His last film was Soylent Green, filmed just before he died in1973). I won’t soon forget Robinson’s dignity as well as the deep, resonantvoice he brought to this film. Caught somewhere in the middle is another cardplayer, Shooter, played by the great character actor, Karl Malden. Malden hadwon a Supporting Actor Oscar for A Streetcar Named Desire and wasnominated for another for On the Waterfront.

 Among the additional playersat the table during the Big Game are Jack Weston as Pig, Cab Calloway asYeller, and Jeff Corey as Hoban. Weston is a familiar face, a specialist inplaying nebbish-y roles. Calloway, mostly known as a singer and band-leader,once ruled the airwaves with his “Minnie the Moocher,” though he doesn’t singhere. Corey, blacklisted during the HUAC years, was later famous throughoutHollywood as an acting coach whose students included some of the industry’sbiggest names. And the sinister card shark determined to take down his rivalsby any means necessary was portrayed by one of Hollywood’s most sinister badguys, Rip Torn.

 Then there are the women.Pretty blonde Tuesday Weld was about 22, near the beginning of an up-and-downcareer, when she played the Kid’s main squeeze, the loving and innocentChristian. Ann-Margret, not long after her breakout role in Bye Bye Birdie (1963)but long before her Oscar-nominated performance in Carnal Knowledge (1971)is the sultry, dangerous Melba, a vamp if there ever was one. But for me one bigthrill was the presence of former-cutie Joan Blondell, who’d made her screendebut back in 1930. Her part isn’t large, but as a dealer nicknamed LadyFingers she’s a pleasure to watch flipping those cards.