MGM shows its age in this mid century story about a low key casino and it's owner in failing health. Recruiting a handful of its 30s stars it is a tired, dull telling wrapped in Cedric Gibbons set design of basically a two setting film.
Charly Kyng (Clark Gable) is stressed out. His doctors inform him he has a bad ticker probaly due to the pressures of running his casino as well as smoking and drinking to much. In the process he has distanced himself from his family, one that includes a dirt bag brother in law (Wendell Corey) out to burn the casino for thugs he owes money. All of this is confronted one night at the club and it could mean life or death for Kyng.
Any Number Can Play has a morose feel about it from the outset with nearly every character in a state of funk. Characters and performances come across fatigued and perfunctory while the editing takes on a soap opera like style of jumping from one banal conversation to the next.
Gable looking well beyond his 48 years is sympathetically convincing but canonization by his customers and employees is a bit hard to swallow. Lewis Stone as the former club owner also registers but thirties mainstays Marie Astor, Frank Morgan and Marjorie Rambeau only offer flickers from their fading star. Mervyn LeRoy's direction is lethargic and not helped by the sedate and funereal feel of the casino atmosphere with the optimistic fresh air finale too late to stifle the overall enervated feel of the picture.
Charly Kyng (Clark Gable) is stressed out. His doctors inform him he has a bad ticker probaly due to the pressures of running his casino as well as smoking and drinking to much. In the process he has distanced himself from his family, one that includes a dirt bag brother in law (Wendell Corey) out to burn the casino for thugs he owes money. All of this is confronted one night at the club and it could mean life or death for Kyng.
Any Number Can Play has a morose feel about it from the outset with nearly every character in a state of funk. Characters and performances come across fatigued and perfunctory while the editing takes on a soap opera like style of jumping from one banal conversation to the next.
Gable looking well beyond his 48 years is sympathetically convincing but canonization by his customers and employees is a bit hard to swallow. Lewis Stone as the former club owner also registers but thirties mainstays Marie Astor, Frank Morgan and Marjorie Rambeau only offer flickers from their fading star. Mervyn LeRoy's direction is lethargic and not helped by the sedate and funereal feel of the casino atmosphere with the optimistic fresh air finale too late to stifle the overall enervated feel of the picture.