The Gambler

Name: Kenny Rogers as The Gambler
Genre: Western
Released: 1980-04-08
Duration: 1 h 34 min
Rating: 6.3
Cast: Kenny Rogers, Christine Belford, Bruce Boxleitner

Original title: Kenny Rogers as The Gambler

TV Movie
1980
Not Rated
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

Western

The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.The adventures of Brady Hawkes, a gambler on his way to help his young son while also helping another gambler learn to play it right.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
- 1 win & 3 nominations total

Trivia
The opening scene, where Kenny Rogers is riding his horse, is Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas NV.

Goofs
After the initial poker game with Brady, Billy goes outside. Billy, under a sign that says El Paso, Texas, asks the station master when the train will be leaving. The station master peers around Billy at an arriving stage coach. Behind the stage is a saguaro forest. BUT saguaros ONLY grow in the Sonoran Desert, which is in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, some 300 miles from El Paso, Texas.

Quotes
Brady Hawkes: I've gambled a lotta towns. I've read a lotta faces. Gambling can take hold of a man. You gotta be able to walk away from it.
Billy Montana: I done pretty good so far. I've been around.
Brady Hawkes: But not along enought to see what I've seen. Kid, I've seen cowboys gamble their saddles, loggers a winter's wages. Seen men put up the deeds to their homes and their businesses and their futures. Seen those same men blow their brains out after losing everything they own.
Billy Montana: And heaven on Earth is a Mississippi riverboat.
[laughs]

Connections
Featured in A&E Biography: Kenny Rogers (2020)

Soundtracks
The Gambler
Written by Don Schlitz
Performed by Kenny Rogers
Courtesy of Liberty/United Records, Inc.
Published by Writers Night Music Administrator, Audiogram, Inc.

User reviews17

Review

Featured review

7/10

Light and pleasing fluff

This vehicle for Kenny Rogers has a warm avuncular charm. Rogers is not much of an actor, but he's mainly called upon to lend his considerable atmospheric presence to scenes in which others do (or attempt to do) the heavy lifting. And he's good at that: he doesn't chew scenery, he doesn't attempt moments of deep emotion, but his presence keeps the lightweight script from becoming an embarrassment.

The movie is unabashedly sentimental, like a good country song. Plot elements are formulaic, but successful enough, and the direction shows a sure touch, never letting the movie get either maudlin or silly.

A must-see for the Eight-Track-Tape crowd, but not a bad choice for those who just like a little unchallenging fluff now and again.