"Any Number Can Play" (1949) is a spot-the-character-actor festival. Shown recently on TCM, I came in late, after the opening credits, and knowing nothing about the film, I had a ball picking out character actors I knew or thought I knew.
The leads, to be sure, are enough of a draw. Clark Gable is a the owner of a gambling house, who spends too much time at work, and whose attacks of angina point to stress and serious heart trouble if he doesn't take it easy.
There's not a lot of action; it's a quiet movie, an interesting study of a man not only feeling his age but feeling his mortality, along with a lot of brief side glimpses at the desperation of addicted gamblers and the nature of life as being one big gamble.
Unfortunately Alexis Smith doesn't get to stretch her acting muscles much in this film, except for one very lovely scene. Gable rumages among the junk in the cellar of their mansion looking for a set of old fishing flies for a long-postponed vacation his doctor says he should take or else. Alexis leads him off to a side room in the cellar she has fixed up for herself. She calls it a memory room.
It is a small hideway, a looking almost like a camping cottage. There are a few pieces of mismatched old furnature, a phonograph, a baby's wooden highchair, and an old double bed that had been theirs in the small apartment they had when they were first married. All the items are from the early years of their marriage, including the box of fishing flies Gable wants.
Knowing nothing about this film, and missing the opening credits, Mary Astor pulling on the arm of a slot machine was only one happy surprise. The rest of the movie became an Easter egg hunt for familiar faces.
Frank Morgan has a great role as an aggressive gambler, a rival and enemy to Gable, who intends to clean him out. Morgan is a far cry from his normal jovial roles. He's menacing, snide, sarcastic, but ultimately respecting Gable for playing the game of life as hard as he does. Mr. Morgan died only two months after "Any Number Can Play" was released.
Marjorie Rambeau is the town rich lady with an earthy love of gambling. Edgar Buchanan is one of the patrons, but I don't think he had any lines. We just see him looking tense at the poker table from time to time. ("Hey! It's Edgar Buchanan!")
Caleb Peterson is the simple-minded bar guy, who we sense is another one of Gable's charity cases. We caught a brief glimpse of Mr. Peterson as the African-American veteran who helped move the heavy plane engine at the beginning of "The Best Years of Our Lives."
That's William Edmunds as the men's room attendant - remember Mr. Martini from "It's a Wonderful Life"?
That photo in Gable's office of his son as a little boy -that's not a young Darryl Hickman. That's a young Scotty Becket. You recognize him right off, and it threw me. I spent the rest of the movie wondering when Scotty Becket would show up
Barbara Billingsly is supposed to be a gambler, too, but I didn't see her anywhere. Instead, I saw a couple people who weren't there. I thought I recognized one fellow as Leon Belasco, and another as Regis Toomey, at least from profile - but IMDb doesn't list them in the credits.
I got so hung up on hunting for character actors at that point, I was starting to see things.
17 comments:
Omigosh, and there's Richard Rober next to William Conrad! I usually recognize his voice before his face.
I saw I had missed the beginning of this picture so filed it away in my mind for another time. You make me wish I hadn't shown such restraint.
And Richard Rober. Usually if I miss the beginning I bail out, too. It's just the roster of familiar faces like cameos in a class reunion that pulled me into taping the rest of it.
I really enjoyed reading this. It's one of Gable's quieter roles, but it's a good little movie. I have never thought Alexis Smith had great chemistry with him at all, but I suppose that part of the point was that they were older and their marriage was lacking the spark it once had. It's interesting to see Gable play the father of a teenager; he did not play a father often.
Welcome, DearMrGable, and thank you. I agree it's an interesting departure for Gable. Another thought I forgot to mention: the angina scenes are rather uncomfortable to watch when you recall he died of a real heart attack some 11 years later.
So glad I recorded this! I thought I'd seen it some time ago but none of this is familiar at all. I'll watch anything with Judge Hardy as the town drunk! Shoot, who am I kidding, I'll watch anything with Lewis Stone, period. Frank Morgan looks pretty happy there, that's a shame about the timing of this one for him.
With luck, Cliff, you recorded it from the beginning. If so, you'll have to fill us in on what happened those first 15 minutes or so. Thanks so much for stopping by.
Jacqueline, I was lucky enough to catch this from the beginning, and really liked it -- I don't think I had ever seen it before, at least no more than pieces of it. Gable was striking in it, older or not, which men are allowed to do in Hollywood, not women...a real bone to pick for me. I had to laugh at your assessment: "...he must also have slipped the cameraman a buck or two because in several scenes he is shown facing the camera and we see only the back of the person talking to him. This happens most glaringly with Mary Astor, who plays much of their one scene together with her back to us. Mary Astor, of all people." That is a very surprising thing to be able to do to Astor, who was no shrinking violet herself as a screen presence!
Like you, I thought Alexis was kind of under-used except for that sweet scene in the memory room. That was such a sad little piece of this woman's mind.
Great post, Jacqueline!
Thanks, Becky. I also kind of thought Wendell Corey's role would be larger, but they fooled me. Where did Gable's first symptoms occur? When I came in, Leon Ames was just leaving his office.
As I remember, it wasn't long before the doctor came to his office. I think it was just one time that he showed the pain in his face. I was on the phone for a minute or two into the movie, trying to get a long-winded friend to hang up!
Now, see, I would have shouted, "I can't talk now! Clark Gable's having angina!" And then hung up.
This is not only a great film but one that is based on real people. The town is Milwaukee and the relationship between father and son is colored by the boy's homosexuality. It is also about that same young man's loving relationship with his father. Based on a book that is out there somewhere. And the real life boy, now an old man of coure, may well be alive.
I've never read the book, and don't know much about author Edward Harris Heth, except that his story was supposed to be at least partly autobiographical.
I love this film. Great cast, though I hate seeing Audrey Totter so totally wasted. All Audrey seemed to do was stand around with a glass in one hand and cigarette in the other.
I thought Alexis Smith did well ,playing a woman whom I 'm sure was meant to be older than Alexis who was probably about 30 at the time.
Great to see Mary Astor though,again, what a small role. And Marjorie Rambeau is always a joy.
It could have been a play, with the only sets the gambling club and Gable's house.
An unusual role for Gable and he was convincing.
Vienna, I agree that Audrey Totter was wasted. So many great leads and character actors that none of them get much focus. I also thought Alexis Smith did well in her role. She usually played "older" in her films, but here she's old enough to have a grown son. It would have been interesting, I think, to film the whole movie in the gambling house, sort of like Rick's in "Casablanca".
Vienna, I agree that Audrey Totter was wasted. So many great leads and character actors that none of them get much focus. I also thought Alexis Smith did well in her role. She usually played "older" in her films, but here she's old enough to have a grown son. It would have been interesting, I think, to film the whole movie in the gambling house, sort of like Rick's in "Casablanca".
I understand that Edward Harris Heth passed some time ago. Possibly in the sixties.
I must disagree with the false statement that Mary Astor plays much of her scene with Gable with her back to the camera. While she does play a portion of that scene with her back to the camera, for most of it she's full-faced, or in her famously stunning profile. There are also some very beautiful closeups of her. A revisit to the movie will verify my point.
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