The Mississippi Gambler
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Rudolph Maté
Tyrone Power
Piper Laurie
Julia Adams
John Mcintire
Paul Cavanagh
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Gambler Mark Fallon arrives in antebellum Mississippi and immediately meets Kansas John Polly, an expert cardsharp who, despite feigning inadequacy, fails to dupe Mark. Polly is even more impressed when he hears Mark's plan to become an honest gambler, and points out wealthy F. Montague Caldwell as an example of the crooked competition Mark will soon face. Mark is more intrigued, however, by lovely Angelique Dureau, who races into town with her brother Laurent and responds to Mark's attempts to help control her thoroughbreds by reproaching him angrily. That night, Mark joins a poker game with Laurent and Caldwell, and, after insisting on a clean deck of cards, wins so much money that Laurent must pay him with Angelique's heirloom necklace. Caldwell warns him that the next time he accuses him of playing with marked cards he might fall overboard by "accident," but Mark remains unintimidated. When Mark spots Angelique in town the next day, he attempts to return her necklace, but she refuses it. Soon after, Polly learns that Caldwell and his friends are planning to assault Mark, and spirits him onto a ship bound for New Orleans. Caldwell's henchmen quickly jump on deck and attack, but Mark fends them off long enough to jump off the boat with Polly. Within a few days they reach New Orleans, a city Mark loves. At a fencing club, his expertise attracts the attention of Edmond Dureau, the club's most accomplished jouster. Mark reveals to Edmond that he is a gambler who has provoked the ire of Edmond's son and daughter, but Edmond, who admired Mark's father, invites him to his home. There, Angelique continues to refuse the marriage proposals of banker George Elwood, and also spurns Mark. When he notices a portrait of her mother, who died in childbirth, which depicts her wearing the heirloom necklace, he gives the piece back to Edmond. Realizing that Mark is in love with Angelique, Edmond arranges to "bump into" her that night while they are with two beautiful women. She tries to hide her jealousy, but cannot. At the governor's ball held later that week, Mark tricks Angelique into dancing with him by asking her in front of the governor. On the dance floor, he informs her that although he knows she loves him, she must come to him of her own will. Over the next months, Mark earns money gambling to build his own restaurant and casino. One poker game is joined by Julian Conant, who bets badly and, after losing all his money, immediately shoots himself. Mark insists on notifying Julian's sister Ann, a sweet young woman who is now alone in the world. He and Polly help her through the next days, secretly funneling money into her account. As soon as Laurent sees Ann in town, he falls deeply in love with her, but when he proposes marriage, she admits that she loves Mark. He reveals Mark's feelings for Angelique, but she replies that she expects no reward for her love, and Laurent stalks out, enraged. That night, he drunkenly challenges Mark to a duel. Angelique soon hears that Mark has chosen pistols instead of swords, and visits his room to thank him. When he kisses her and accuses her of avoiding men because she is haunted by her mother's death, she runs out angrily. During the duel, Laurent shoots before the countdown is finished. Although Mark is permitted one free shot, he throws his pistols down. Humiliated, Edmond asks Laurent to leave his home, and is crushed when Angelique goes with him. Within days, Angelique is planning her marriage to George and protecting Laurent, who has been socially shunned. Saddened by both events, she visits Edmond, who welcomes her. He then visits Mark to urge him to stop the wedding, but agrees with the gambler that Angelique does not yet know herself well enough to marry happily. Days after the wedding, Laurent has disappeared and George is concerned about Angelique's distant manner. One day, Edmond hears a man refer to Ann as Mark's mistress and challenges him to a duel, which he loses. The same night, Laurent shows up in town and attacks Mark at a bar. They tussle, and Laurent dies, falling upon his own knife. When Mark visits Edmond's deathbed to relay the sad news, Edmond requests that Mark watch over Angelique. Soon after, Mark's financier friends reveal that they are pulling their money out of George's bank, potentially ruining it, because he spends too liberally. George will not listen to Mark's warnings, but when the bank fails, he disappears with the remaining monies, including Mark's. Mark now must resume his riverboat gambling to make more money, and although Ann lets him go gracefully, she breaks down after he leaves. Meanwhile, Angelique's marriage is quickly annulled, and she is compelled to move back into her father's house. There, while looking at her mother's portrait, she hears Mark's words in her head. She races to Mark's riverboat and, just before it sails off, jumps on board and into his arms. When she tries to explain, he kisses her before she can speak.
Director
Rudolph Maté
Cast
Tyrone Power
Piper Laurie
Julia Adams
John Mcintire
Paul Cavanagh
John Baer
Ron Randell
Ralph Dumke
Robert Warwick
William Reynolds
Guy Williams
Hugh Beaumont
King Donovan
Gwyneth Verdon
Al Wyatt
Dale Van Sickel
Michael Dale
Bert Lebaron
Dennis Weaver
Andre Charlot
Marcel De La Brosse
John Eldredge
Tyler Mcvey
William Vedder
Frank Wilcox
Larry Thor
Dick Rich
Bill Walker
George Eldredge
Dayton Lummis
Roy Engel
Edward Earle
Rolfe Sedan
Saul Martell
Harry Mendoza
Maya Van Horn
Tony Hughes
Franklin Parker
Gayne Sullivan
Michael Granger
Jeff Sayre
James Gray
Fred Cavens
Albert Cavens
Fred Berest
Lyle Clark
George Hamilton
Ernest Anderson
David Newell
Carl Andre
James Adamson
Le Roi Antienne
Paul Bradley
Jeanne Thompson
Valerie Jackson
Judy Hatula
Jeri Miller
Anita Ekberg
Renate Huy
Ruth Hampton
Jackie Loughery
Dorothy Bruce
Angela Stevens
Alan Dexter
Michael Cisney
Dick Ryan
Joey Ray
Wally Walker
John O'connor
Paul Kruger
Robert Strong
Jack Del Rio
Alex Sharp
Eduardo Cansino Jr.
Paul Weber
Dick Farmer
Buddy Roosevelt
Paul Power
Murray Steckler
Jon Sheppod
Larry Williams
Hart Wayne
Crew
Hal Belfer
Leslie I. Carey
Albert Cavens
Fred Cavens
Edward Curtiss
Mack D'agostino
Richard De Weese
William Fritzsche
Russell A. Gausman
Irving Glassberg
Alexander Golitzen
Marshall Green
Joan Hathaway
Julia Heron
Harry Mendoza
Seton I. Miller
Ted Richmond
Richard Riedel
John F. Sherwood
Frank Skinner
Joan St. Oegger
Bill Thomas
Gwyneth Verdon
Bud Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Sound
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Universal press materials identify Albert and Fred Cavens, the film's fencing technical advisors, as father and son. According to a July 1952 Hollywood Reporter news item, seven Miss Universe contestants, including Anita Ekberg in her feature film debut, were cast as "Guests." Noted dancer and choreographer Gwen Verdon, who was known as Gwyneth early in her career, received onscreen credit for the first time as the choreographer of The Mississippi Gambler.
This film marked Tyrone Powers' first freelance role after serving out a long-term contract with Twentieth-Century Fox. Acccording to modern sources, despite the fact that Powers was suspended from Fox for refusing to accept roles in period pieces, he agreed to appear in The Mississippi Gambler after producers offered him a percentage of the profits for his work in the film. Modern sources confirm that he received a salary of $250,000 and half of the net profits, resulting in earnings of over $1 million. On March 1, 1954, Power reprised his role of "Mark Fallon" in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast, which co-starred Powers' wife, Linda Christian, as "Angelique Dureau." Modern sources include Jack Perrin and George Bruggeman in the cast and credit David Sharpe with stunts and appearing as Powers' double in the fight scene.
The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound (Leslie I. Carey and Richard De Weese. Although Universal had previously used the title The Mississippi Gambler for both a 1929 film and a 1942 picture, neither is related to this film.
