Gambler's Choice

CinemaSerfJun 2022

3.0

This is quite an enjoyable story about an "Hadley" (Chester Morris) who runs a fancy gambling joint. He manages to fix the local council election and get his decent, honourable, childhood pal "Mike" (Russell Hayden) made captain of the local precinct. "Chappie" (Sheldon Leonard), meantime, owns a rival establishment and puts out a contract on "Hadley". He survives, OK, but a policeman is killed and this forces his erstwhile buddy to mobilise the force to raid all the casinos in their "Tenderloin" locale. The ruthless "Hadley" soon flexes his muscle and "Mike" is soon demoted, and on traffic detail in some backwater. That is, until he is recruited by a special prosecutor and charged with breaking up these seedy operations - and the battle lines are drawn. Mary Kelly provides their (shared) love interest adequately enough, but she and the romantic elements feature but sparingly in this otherwise pretty decent crime thriller with just enough action and a few twists and turns to keep it interesting. It's got some nice old motor cars too.