660. Atlantic City (1980)

Running Time: 104 minutes
Directed By: Louis Malle
Written By: John Guare
Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Kate Reid, Robert Joy, Hollis McLaren
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MALLE HAT TRICK: PART TWO OF THREE

Coming to the second of three pars in my "Malle Hat Trick", we follow Louis Malle from France to the U.S., as he explores the gambling capital of the east coast - Atlantic City.

The film centers around Lou Pascal (Lancaster), a longtime resident of Atlantic City and an aging, retired numbers runner for the mob. Nowadays Low spends his days living in his crumby apartment, taking care of his downstairs neighbor and best friend's widow, Mrs. Pinza (Reid) and gazing into the apartment of Sally Matthews (Sarandon), admiring her from afar. Meanwhile, Sally is working at an Atlantic City casino with dreams of making it to Monte Carlo as a croupier. She's taken by surprise when her estranged husband, Dave (Joy) returns to town, along with her sister, whom he ran off with.  Dave is back in town because he stumbled upon a sizable amount of dope and hopes to be able to sell it in Atlantic City. Through a series of coincidental events, Dave meets up with Lou and sees an opportunity to use the old man to help him make the deal. Trouble is, the dope doesn't belong to Dave, it belongs to the mob and when they finally track down Dave in Atlantic City, they pay him back with a knife in the belly and a toe tag. By this time, Lou is already in possession of all the goods and suddenly, due to the death of Dave, he has an in with Sally. Lou suddenly finds himself back in the saddle again, with a fresh racket and courting the lovely Sally Matthews.

The thing I appreciated most about "Atlantic City" is that, much like the character he portrays, Burt Lancaster is given one last shot at the big time. Sure, it wasn't his last movie, but it was kind of his one last hurrah before slipping away into the sunset. And while I'm on the subject of Lancaster, can I say that this is, hands down, my favorite performance of his from THE BOOK, thus far. I liked the character of Lou Pascal better than J.J. Hunsecker (Sweet Smell of Success), The Swede (The Killers) and Sgt. Warden (From Here to Eternity). He was just so charming in this movie and it was really hard not to love his character. Everyone else did a fine job too, although I can say that I'm not the biggest Susan Sarandon fan in the world, even though she is easy on the eyes. This film was quite different than the previous Louis Malle offering, not as deep and very hard to categorize, something THE BOOK makes note of.

Despite my liking for Lancaster's performance, I'm really not sure this film made that much of an impact on me. It was good, but it wasn't great - a problem that ails a lot of the films from the book of "must see" titles. It was perfectly acceptable and I don't even have a beef with it being nominated for Best Picture at the 54th Academy Awards, but I'm just not sure it really deserved inclusion in THE BOOK. Although, there have been countless other films that definitely didn't deserve it and at least I can kind of see why it was included.

RATING: 6.5/10  I COULD HAVE gone as high as a '7', but we'll play it safe and hold it back a notch. Next up: "Au revoir, les enfants".

MOVIES WATCHED: 553
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 448

October 16, 2012  1:08pm