Movie |
Gambling | Professor
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Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama | 1975 | James
According to James Toback, before his screenplay was accepted at Paramount Pictures, and was making the rounds with actors, Peter Boyle was first interested in playing the lead. Robert De Niro lobbied hard for the role, to the point where De Niro started to dress like the writer. Toback pressured director Karel Reisz to meet with De Niro. After meeting him, Reisz said that he would not, and could not consider De Niro for the role, and if Toback kept insisting, he would not be allowed to collaborate on the film further.
In real life, when a gambler owes a huge amount of money to a bookie, they are not allowed to bet with any other bookie until the outstanding debt is either settled or substantially paid down. The bookie would spread the word around town to "freeze" or "shut them out".
A loose adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novella "The Gambler".
James Caan hated Karel Reisz and said he would never work with him again.
One of James Caan's favorites of his own films.
"Hips: Forty-four thousand dollars, Axel. It ain't just numbers."
"Hips: [following the big college basketball game, in which Spencer Lewis has shaved points for the Mafia to pay off Axel's gambling debt] ... Okay, we're in the clear. In fact, you might just have a couple of favors coming your way. Axel Freed: How's that? What do you mean? Hips: What are you, naive? This Lewis kid's got maybe a year or two left before he makes the NBA. You think my friends are gonna let him just slip through their fingers, after a night like this? Axel Freed: He did it for ME. He won't do it again. Hips: Ah, quit lying to yourself. Once you ain't a virgin no more, you're a whore till you die."
