The Gambler is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Hutton. Caan's performance was widely lauded and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Axel Freed is an English professor in New York City with a gambling addiction that begins to spiral out of control. In the classroom, Freed inspires his college students with his interpretations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. In his personal life, Axel has the affection of the beautiful Billie and the admiration of his family, including his mother, Naomi, who is a doctor, and his grandfather, a wealthy businessman.

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Axel's gambling has left him with a huge debt. His bookie, a mafioso known as Hips, likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he does not pay it soon. When Billie, having been informed by Axel that he owes $44,000, questions the wisdom of her associating with him, Axel confidently tells her she loves his life's dangers, including "the possibility of blood".

After obtaining the $44,000 from his disapproving mother, Axel goes with Billie to Las Vegas and gambles it into a small fortune, only to lose back his last $50,000 on a last-second, incredibly-lucky shot in a Lakers game.

Watching the game from the stands with three of the mob's bookmakers, Axel is saved by the bribed player's final-minutes' point-shaving, which enables the team to win by only 6 and thus not cover an 8-point spread. Nixing a night of post-game celebration with Hips, Axel wanders off into a neighboring black ghetto, as Hips warns him the place is a "jungle."

At a ghetto bar, Axel meets a prostitute, and they go to an upstairs room of a hotel. Threatened by her pimp after refusing to pay her when she refuses to take off all her clothes, Axel eggs the pimp to cut him with his switchblade. The pimp, thinking Axel crazy, backs off, and Axel repeatedly punches him, knocks him to the floor, and kicks him over and over. Frantic, the prostitute picks up the fallen blade and slashes Axel across the face.

The film was the first produced screenplay by James Toback. Toback had worked as an English lecturer at the City College of New York and had a gambling problem. He originally wrote The Gambler as a semi-autobiographical novel but halfway through started envisioning it as a film and turned it into a screenplay.

Toback completed it in 1972 and showed it to his friend Lucy Saroyan, who introduced Toback to Robert De Niro. Toback became enthused about the possibility of De Niro playing the lead. He showed the script to his literary agent who gave it to Mike Medavoy who attached director Karel Reisz. Reisz did not want to use De Niro and cast James Caan instead.[2]

"Caan became a great Axel Freed, although obviously different from the character De Niro would have created", wrote Toback later.[2] It was filmed at a time when leading actor James Caan was battling his own addiction to cocaine. Caan says the film is one of his favorites. "It's not easy to make people care about a guy who steals from his mother to pay gambling debts."[3]

In August 2011, Paramount Pictures announced a remake of the 1974 film The Gambler with the original producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Intended as a new directorial project for Martin Scorsese, it was reported that Leonardo DiCaprio was attached as the star and William Monahan would write the screenplay.[18]

When constructing stories about troubled and flawed characters, it can be difficult to portray them in a way that leaves the audience sympathetic, but not accidentally glorifying their faults. After all, stories are exciting - people watch them to be taken to another world, to see life through another person's eyes and engage with the world in a new way. In doing so, it becomes easy, usually by design, to empathize with the characters, especially the protagonist, and from that empathy often comes respect or even admiration.

It would be extremely easy to do a version of The Gambler that hits all of those same basic plot beats, including the ostensible message of how devastating Freed's addiction is to him and the people around him, while accidentally glorifying Freed in the process. High stakes gambling is exciting, after all, with its huge exchanges of cash, intense highs, and terrible lows. And, of course, winning feels good, whether you're doing it yourself or watching someone else. Usually we want to see the hero of our movies win, whether they be superheroes or underdogs. We're practically wired to expect that, since that's just how a typical movie goes.

As if made to prove this point, the 2014 remake of The Gambler starring Mark Wahlberg does exactly this. It has all the familiar tones and beats from the original film, but the 2014 movie frames Wahlberg's equivalent character, Jim Bennett, in a totally different way. Bennett gambles in cool, dark underground casinos. His nonchalance about his situation comes off as cool and collected, making it clear that Bennett even understands how dire his situation is.

The third act of both films takes place prominently at an important college basketball game that the protagonist hopes to fix in his favor. In the 2014 film, it is shot like a modern fight scene, with lights and colors filling the screen, directing your eyes to the action and completely distracting from what a low point Bennett is at to be manipulating one of his students to be helping him illegally bet and win on college ball. And when the film ends, Bennett, barely a free man, gets a literal victory lap, running to his freedom with glee. He may have spent the whole movie in the deepest dregs of his own making, but by the end, the film seems to want us to believe that he has really done anything wrong at all.

The 1974 film is a stark contrast to this. Axel is constantly gambling, but we never focus on the actual playing of the game. His gambling takes place in dirty, everyday casinos; we see him roll the dice, flip the cards, win and lose, but the camera is solely focused on Freed. Freed's expressions and his body language are telling the story during these moments instead, telling a story of a man in a constant fight between the short-lived highs his gambling gives him and the nervous reality of the rest of his life. He is visibly shaken when he is losing, and even when he has money he is never calm, because winning means he has the means to keep going, against his better judgment and even safety.

The key basketball game in the final act is shot plainly, focusing not on the game being played but on Freed nervously sitting in the rafters, eyes darting between his student in the game and the scoreboard. When he succeeds here, he is a sweaty mess; his friend who attends the game with him can't understand why he looks so dejected, but by that point the audience doesn't need to be told. At the end of the movie, he is safely out of debt, but at his lowest point yet, with a final shot of his slashed face after a seedy encounter gone awry, once again by his own fault.

The Gambler (1974, 111MIN)

Axel Freed is a literature professor. He has the gambling vice. When he has lost all of his money, he borrows from his girlfriend, then his mother, and finally some bad guys that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling.

The Gambler is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino and Lauren Hutton. Toback wrote it as a fictional story using his own teaching career and gambling addiction as inspiration.

Axel Freed is a literature professor with a problem. He is a compulsive gambler. In one night he manages to lose $44,000 and his bookie wants the money. Not knowing where to turn, he has to beg for support from his mother, who is willing to bail him out. With the cash in his hands, Axel decides to head for Vegas instead of paying his debts, knowing that he is on a lucky streak. Returning home a winner, Axel cannot help himself but bet which means he has to answer some questions from some pretty dubious characters.

Despite a brief stroke of luck in Las Vegas, Axel soon ends up in hot water again, and the money he manages to win is immediately chewed up and disposed of via more irresponsible betting. As his luck runs out, so does his girlfriend and any further hopes of leniency from the nefarious gangsters he owes the money.

James Caan is excellent as Axel, bringing to life a man who is consistently preoccupied with self-destruction. He portrays an intelligent person, who is likeable and full of prospects, but also a slave to his own subconscious and compulsions, and therefore powerless to prevent his own downfall. On a more superficial level, The Gambler reminds us of what an incredibly stylish dude James Caan was.

There are also other notables dotted about in smaller roles which include James Woods as a slimy bank clerk, M. Emmet Walsh as a Vegas casino gambler, and Antonio Fargas unsurprisingly cast as a Harlem pimp.

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This is a civil action instituted by the plaintiff, Thomas C. Thomas, against the defendant, United States of America for refund of federal wagering occupational taxes for the periods ending November 1971, December 1971 and October 1972, in the total amount of $3,850.00. The defendant answered plaintiff's complaint and asserted a counterclaim against plaintiff for additional federal wagering excise taxes and interest for eight (8) periods between December 1971 and January 1973, for which the unpaid amount totals $1,520.38, plus interest.

An assessment of wagering excise tax and interest in the total amount of *225 $14,901.98 was duly and timely made against plaintiff on February 2, 1973, by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Proper notice and demand for payment of the assessment was duly and timely made against plaintiff on February 2, 1973. Plaintiff paid $3,989.55 of the assessment and timely filed his claim for refund with the Internal Revenue Service, which was denied. Plaintiff thereafter brought this action for a refund. 152ee80cbc

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