Tonight's Movie: The Mississippi Gambler (1953) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review
THE MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER (1953), starring my favorite actor, Tyrone Power, is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.Power plays Mark Fallon, an honest riverboat gambler in 1850s Louisiana.
Mark and his friend Kansas John Polly (John McIntire) have ups and downs as they save to build their own New Orleans gambling palace.
Mark, meanwhile, falls for Angelique Dureau (Piper Laurie), but she resists a relationship; meanwhile lovely Ann (Julie Adams, billed Julia) falls for Mark, but he sees her only as a friend.
Revisiting this film was a great pleasure, and I was struck anew by Power's onscreen charisma. There are many other greats who were also wonderful onscreen, but Power had something else again. Every line reading or glance is nuanced, compelling, and totally real. He breathes life into what could have a less interesting or sympathetic character in other hands.
I've recently seen a couple reviews of this film by people who didn't care for it, but reading their reviews I felt like we watched different movies. Perhaps they don't like Southern romantic melodrama? THE MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER is a very high quality example of same, with the man I consider the movies' greatest star. I'm happy to recommend it.
Kino Lorber's Blu-ray is a new 2K master. I noted that there were some blue streaks in a dance scene, similar to what I remembered from the Universal Vault DVD, but they are transitory; I assume they are flaws inherent to the material. Consequently this isn't the very highest quality Blu-ray, but it's certainly lovely through most of the film and I would think as good a print as we're likely to see at this point.
THE MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER was directed by Rudolph Mate and filmed by Irving Glassberg. The story and screenplay of this 99-minute film were by Seton I. Miller.
Blu-ray extras consist of the trailer; a gallery of four additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a commentary track by Toby Roan.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.
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posted by Laura @ 8:50 PM
4 Comments:
I'm such a big fan of the movie. Read your old review again and have to say, I wish Mark had seen the light and in the end decided in favor of Ann. She behaved like an adult, was emotionally mature, not frigid and frankly I find Julie Adams a lot more beautiful than Piper Laurie.
But I'll ignore that and just enjoy the movie.
No one sees The Mississippi Gambler as a lower-rent take on Rhett Butler. Piper, for different neurotic reasons, is Scarlett. The scenario is not the same, but the women responding to Power in the dance scene plays out as the one in Gone With The Wind. Yes? Or is that just my vibe?
Oh, huh, I rather think I saw this once, years and years ago. On AMC when I was in college in the early 2000s or something. I had forgotten all about it, but it feels very familiar. Interesting! I do like Tyrone Power a lot, so I may have to get my hands on a copy.
I saw this movie first as a child and developed a crush on Tyrone Power. Recently I bought this Blu-ray DVD and realized little Judy had excellent taste. It’s a thoroughly entertaining movie that hits all the buttons. Tyrone reminded me of what made him a huge star, he’s gorgeous and charismatic. The plot is thin but makes up for it with lovely costumes on beautiful ladies, dashing men fighting on colorful gambling boats, jealousy and revenge all wrapped up in beautiful Technicolor. It’s a delightful but fun way to spend a night!
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