Needed: A Great Gambling Movie

I love a good discussion, especially with people who are good communicators.

My brother Legs, whom I love dearly, is not one!

Legs and I have a problem that dates back to our childhood. He thinks he is always right and so do I.

For example...

...he owns this beautiful television set with a flat screen. He watches all his favorite TV programs, Fox News, Judge Judy, and any programs that involve politics or Donald Trump. But he has never learned how to play a movie on his TV set.

My brother is not a movie person. I am. In two weeks I am planning on driving back to Pennsylvania to spend some time with him in Sutersville, PA. Both of us are looking forward to our reunion.

He is alone after the recent death of his wife, Marie, and it will be nice to share some good times with a brother who is always challenging even though we may not agree on anything.

We will visit the area casinos, The Meadows in Washington, PA. and the Rivers in Pittsburgh. He'll play the slots and I will play poker and shoot dice. Hopefully, we will win.

I told him I plan to find a television-savvy neighbor who can show the two of us how to make a DVD work on his television. I said I wanted to share some of my favorite foreign sub-titled films with him like 'La Dolce Vita', 'City of Women,' 'La Strada' and other movies made by great film directors like Federico Fellini and Jean Luc Goddard.

'You can watch them if you want,' Legs said, yawning. 'What do I care about some lousy Italian films? I'd rather watch a video of me performing some of my great songs from the 1950s.'

I told my brother to wash his mouth out...

...Fellini is not a lousy Italian filmmaker! He was a genius when it came to making movies.

Jeff, my housemate in Phoenix, enjoy having a good discussion. I had a recent discussion with him about movies and asked him to name his favorite film of all time. He was stumped.

'That's a tough one,' he said. 'There are so many.'

We agreed that 'Romancing The Stone' was good. Jeff is a constant movie watcher who loves action flicks. He is currently on a James Bond kick. He asked me what my favorite movies of all time were.

'My favorite movies of all time?,' I said aloud. 'Well, I would like to name a gambling film, but there really haven't been that many great gambling movies". The best I ever saw was 'The Only Game In Town' starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty.

'My five favorite movies are 'La Dolce Vita,' 'City of Women,' 'Giant,' 'Picnic' and 'WifeMistress,' I said.

Fellini directed 'LaDolce Vita' and 'City of Women.' Both of them starred his favorite Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, who also was the lead male actor in 'WifeMistress' which featured the beautiful Laura Antonelli.

'WifeMistress' may be the best movie I ever saw. Marcello plays a turn of the century wine merchant and Antonelli plays his frigid wife who was turned off sexually by Marcello because she believed he was being unfaithful to her. She was right. The film was incredibly well produced and its ending still makes my spine tingle.

'Giant' was about a cattle ranch and the Texas oil boom and starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. 'Picnic' was a nostalgic romantic film with Kim Novak and William Holden, written by William Inge, an incredible writer who authored many best-selling novels that were made into movies.

I am hopeful that a talented Hollywood director will make a truly great film with gambling as its theme. Hopefully, the film will be about poker. Mel Gibson, James Garner and Jody Foster did a pretty good film called 'Maverick' that was made along the Colorado River near Lake Havasu, AZ.

I don't know who would be capable of writing the script for a great gambling movie.

Could it be me? Smiles...Who knows?

Let the games begin!