WEIRDLAND: Roulette scenes in noir films - roulette games

Monday, November 15, 2010

Roulette scenes in noir films - roulette games

"Casablanca" the 1943 film which won the Oscar for Best Picture, starred by Paul Henried, Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. The film garnered eight Academy Award® nominations and won three Oscar statuettes including Best Picture.

Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine uses a rigged roulette wheel to help people win using a 22 Black bet in "Casablanca".
One of the most famous (albeit fictional) roulette games in history took place in Rick's Café Americain in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1942. For one lucky young couple, the roulette wheel provided the ticket to freedom.

The Background
For many refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, Casablanca was a way station on the way to Lisbon, Portugal, and thence to America. To get from Casablanca to Lisbon, however, one needed an exit visa, which was not easy to obtain. One way to obtain an exit visa was to purchase one on the black market. Another way — a method available to attractive young women only — was to engage in sexual intercourse with the corrupt and lascivious chief of police, Captain Renault.
One of the popular nightspots in Casablanca was Rick's Café Americain. Rick, portrayed by the inimitable Humphrey Bogart, liked to present himself as a man who was tough, cynical, and emotionless, a man who "stuck his neck out for nobody." The back room of Rick's Café Americain was a gambling room, featuring a roulette wheel.

The Desperate Refugees
In the Café, Rick is approached by Annina, an attractive young woman who seeks his advice. Annina explains the she and her husband, Jan, have been married only eight weeks, that they have come from Bulgaria, a place where "a devil has the people by the throat," and that they are desperate to get to America, but they do not have enough money for exit visas. She mentions that Jan is trying to win the money at the roulette table, but he is losing.
Alluding to — without explicitly stating — the lascivious offer by Captain Renault to provide an exit visa in return for sexual favors, she turns to Rick: "Oh, Monsieur, you are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the whole world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?"Rick's laconic reply: "Nobody ever loved me that much." He cynically advises her to "return to Bulgaria" and with an apparent heart of stone, he terminates the conversation: "Everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out. You'll excuse me."
The Roulette Game: Rick goes into the gambling room in the back of the Café and finds Jan sitting at the roulette table, down to his last three chips, looking despondent. Rick stands behind Jan and asks, "Have you tried 22 tonight?" Then, a little louder, this time for the benefit of the croupier: "I said 22." Jan puts his last three chips on 22, the croupier spins the roulette wheel, and — lo and behold! — 22 wins.After the croupier pushes a pile of chips onto 22, Rick tells Jan: "Leave it there." The croupier spins the wheel and — wonder of wonders! — 22 wins again. The croupier shoves another huge pile of chips onto 22. Rick growls at Jan: "Cash it in and don't come back."

"A Lucky Guy"
It is obvious to everyone in the room that Rick had rigged the roulette game so that Jan and Annina could obtain the money for their exit visas. Rick, however, still feigning the heart of stone, will have none of it. When Annina tries to thank him, he brushes her off and says, "He's just a lucky guy."
Of course, Rick meant that Jan was lucky to win at roulette. But perhaps he meant that Jan was a lucky guy to have a partner who loved him as much as Annina did. Ambiguity is part of the beauty of "Casablanca."
Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre in "Casablanca" (1942)

"A Gesture to Love": The only loser in the whole episode (besides Rick himself, who, after all, had given away a large sum of his own money) was Captain Renault, who had been cheated out of his erotic encounter with Annina. He accuses Rick of being "a rank sentimentalist" and demands: "Why do you interfere with my little romances?"
Rick responds: "Put it down as a gesture to love." And so we see how the great game of roulette has enabled one young couple to escape from tyranny and begin a new life of love and freedom.
Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault): Rick, there are many exit visas sold in this café, but we know that you've never sold one. That is the reason we permit you to remain open.
Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine): Oh? I thought it was because I let you win at roulette.
Bogart is approached by a young Bulgarian woman. We know that she is young because Bogart complains that she is too young to be in the bar. She is desperate for her husband and herself to get transit papers to get out of Casablanca. She does not need the papers which Rick has. Any papers will do, but she needs money to buy them. They are poor and her husband has been gambling at the roulette wheel in a desperate effort to win enough money to buy the papers. His effort has failed, as he has lost his money. So, in the next scene, we are surprised to see Rick lead her to the roulette table, and tell her husband to bet all of his remaining money on the number 22. Number 22 wins, and now Rick tells him to bet his entire winnings on 22 again. Number 22 wins again, and now the Bulgarian couple have enough money to buy transit papers.
We can see that the roulette wheel is rigged. Rick owns the casino and somehow he knew that the number 22 was going to come up twice. The real question now is why did Rick help the Bulgarian couple. Many people are trying to leave Casablanca. Ingrid Bergman does the same thing. She makes love to Rick, but what is the reason? Does she really love him, or does she do it only to get the transit papers?
We supposedly find out in the final scenes to the movie. The airplane is ready to fly. Only two people can leave. Bergman is assured of her seat on the plane. She is going and one of the two men are going with her. Who will it be? Will it be her husband, Laszlo, played by Paul Henreid? Or, will it be Bogart? Source: www.anusha.com

Lizabeth Scott as 'Dusty' Chandler and Humphrey Bogart as Capt. 'Rip' Murdock in "Dead Reckoning" (1947)

-Perhaps you'd like to try a little roulette. It's not wise to tell you, but the house is having a streak of bad luck.
Rip Murdock: -Mrs. Chandler doesn't feel like gambling.
Dusty Chandler: -Oh, I'm all right, really I am. I'd like to.
-You too, sir?Rip Murdock: -I'll just watch. Roulette wheels have a way of running over me. (voice off) I was walking into something. We were going to gamble, win or lose. He hadn't asked her to, he'd told her, she had to. It was an order, but why? I didn't like the feeling I had about her. The way I wanted to put my hand on her arm. The way I kept smelling that jasmine in her hair.-Make your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Make your bets.
Rip Murdock: It won't work, Dusty. You got the right numbers in the wrong game.
-Number 4, black. Nothing on 4.Rip Murdock: -She lost fast and heavy. Maybe it was her way of easing off the pain of Johnny. But I suspected there was more to it. I decided to find out.
Dusty Chandler: -Please, Rip, I'm 16,000 ahead. Bother you?
Rip Murdock: -It's your money.
-A solid winning every now and then is the best advertising for any casino.
Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in "The Big Sleep" (1946) directed by Howard Hawks.

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