King of Gamblers is a 1937 American crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Claire Trevor, Lloyd Nolan and Buster Crabbe. Akim Tamiroff takes an unusual featured role as a slot-machine racketeer whose bombing of an uncooperative barber shop leads to a murder charge. (The film was also known as Czar of the Slot Machines.)
By her own account, silent film star Louise Brooks played a bit part in the film for Florey, who "specialised in giving jobs to destitute and sufficiently grateful actresses", referring both to herself and to Evelyn Brent. Despite the fact her name appears in the studio campaign book, Brooks does not appear in the completed film.
Contents
Cast
Claire Trevor as Dixie Moore
Lloyd Nolan as Jim Adams
Akim Tamiroff as Steve Kalkas
Buster Crabbe as Eddie
Helen Burgess as Jackie Nolan
Porter Hall as George Kramer
Barlowe Borland as Mr. Parker
Purnell Pratt as Strohm
Colin Tapley as Joe
Paul Fix as Charlie
Cecil Cunningham as Big Edna
Fay Holden as Nurse
Evelyn Brent as Cora
Louise Brooks as Joyce Beaton (scenes deleted)
Critical reception
Frank S. Nugent of the The New York Times wrote, "Unscrupulous editing and the conscienceless substitution of camera angles and mechanical dissolves for ideas and genuine suspense have made a superficially presentable melodrama out of King of Gamblers." He wrote that audiences unable to accept Lloyd Nolan in a romantic role "may be consoled by the presence of Claire Trevor."
Variety commented that the film was well enough made to be worth seeing, but felt that the storyline too closely resembled that of the recently released Bette Davis film, Marked Woman. The performances of Claire Trevor and Lloyd Nolan were well received.