DEJA VIEW: REMADE: THE GAMBLER (1974)

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Kenny Rogers fans, hold your horses. We know you’re chomping at the bit, but this week as Episode 3 of Season 18 Déjà View’s remake season, we’re covering a stallion of a different color, that being the James Caan-starring, sex-pest written, Czech-born Brit directed Seventies classic THE GAMBLER (1974).   

Semiautobiographical and originally drafted as a novel, James Toback’s first produced work follows the downward spiral of Axel Freed (Caan), its titular gambler, as a bad night’s debt has him burn bridges with his mother, girlfriend, idolized furniture baron grandfather, bookie bestie, and all-star student athlete as the literature professor spirals to a 1970’s cinematic freeze-frame ending. Small roles filled by the big soled shoes of Paul Savino (Bruce Willis character’s dad in Moonlighting) as the bookie; Burt Young (Rocky’s brother-in-law Paulie in the Rocky franchise) as a collector for a loan shark; M. Emmet Walsh (the uncle in The Odd Life of Timothy Green) as a rando gambler at a bar in Las Vegas; and James Woods (Meryl Streep’s artist husband in NBC’s 1978 Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss miniseries) as a bank clerk when Professor Freed convinces his doctor-mom to pay off his debt.   

This week host Kenny not Rogers recites standup bits from The Monkey (aka London Lee), host “I am Ryan” learns that not all female doctors are nurses, and host Thomas makes sure Mission Impossible lore and Quentin Tarantino enter the chat.   

Next week The Gambler gets a new vibe and face with an emaciated Mark Wahlberg.   

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I .
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Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias