The Mississippi Gambler | |
---|---|
Directed by | Rudolph Maté |
Produced by | Ted Richmond |
Written by | Seton I. Miller |
Starring |
Tyrone Power Piper Laurie Julie Adams |
Music by | Frank Skinner |
Cinematography | Irving Glassberg |
Edited by | Edward Curtiss |
Production
company |
Universal Pictures
|
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $5 million |
The Mississippi Gambler is a 1953 American Technicolor Western adventure film directed by Rudolph Maté. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording (Leslie I. Carey).
This film was the third Universal Studios film to bear this title--though with a different plot each time, The Mississippi Gambler (1929), Mississippi Gambler (1943).
On a riverboat, Mark Fallon (Tyrone Power) impresses fellow gambler Kansas John Polly (John McIntire), who takes him under his wing. The advice includes being wary of the rich and dishonest F. Montague Caldwell (Ralph Dumke), who is caught cheating by Mark in a poker game.
Mark makes the acquaintance of attractive Angelique Dureau (Piper Laurie) and her brother, Laurent (John Baer), who gets in over his head at cards, losing not only all his money to Mark but a priceless necklace belonging to Angelique. She angrily declines when Mark offers to give it back.
Caldwell and his men plot an ambush, but Kansas John is able to help Mark get away to New Orleans safely. There he meets the father of Angelique and Laurent, the sophisticated Edmond Dureau (Paul Cavanagh), who is impressed by Mark and wishes his daughter would feel differently toward him. Angelique instead weds a banker, George Elwood (Ron Randell).
Mark builds a successful casino. He and Edmond also give a helpful hand to Ann Conant (Julie Adams), the sister of an unlucky gambler who committed suicide. Laurent falls for Ann, but she is smitten with Mark. A duel is demanded, resulting in Laurent dishonorably firing prematurely. He misses, then has his life spared when Mark refuses to shoot back.