Poseidon Quickies: Betting on "The Gambler"

Another in a string of movies I've taken a chance on for decompression viewing during this year is 1954's The Gambler from Natchez. I opted to record it because it stars one of our hunks from movies and TV, Dale Robertson and had an interesting supporting cast as well. I'll be pointing out a few tidbits of interest about it, though my plans for a "big reveal" fell completely flat as I had to confront the fact that my memory is not what it used to be... Ha ha!

Our handsome hero is Dale Robertson, freshly returned to New Orleans from a military tour of duty. (If you haven't already, you must see the beautiful man here!)

As he departs the riverboat which has brought him home, he hears a local girl singing as she sweeps the deck of her own family boat. Debra Paget has her attributes out where they can be spotted!

Sorry this one turned out so blurry. On Paget's boat is her father, Thomas Gomez, and a helpful deckhand played by the imposing Woody Strode.

Robertson is nearly offed in a dispute over a card game, but Paget saves his life. He likes what he sees, but she is a good girl who refuses to accept any sort of gift from a man unless they are engaged and he's hardly in that position at the moment.

On the road home, he comes upon a carriage with a lame horse and a stranded female passenger. Lisa Daniels surely likes what she sees, too, but tries to maintain a level of decorum as he uses his own steed to see her safely home. A bumpy ride and some rain soon sees them becoming a little more familiar with one another on their trip.

Arriving at her large estate, she introduces Robertson to her elegant brother, Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy has company of his own, one Douglas Dick.

It's not hard to see that in spite of his slick charm, McCarthy is going to be the villain of the piece. His whole manner changes when he discovers that Robertson's father is a local landowner himself, one who has amassed much of his fortune from extensive gambling.

Dick is clearly not in the best condition. Under the influence of alcohol, he can barely stay with the conversation, though he does give Robertson a bit of attention. McCarthy paints him as a man suffering from unrequited love, ostensibly for the blonde Daniels.

However, my own gaydar tells me that Dick is far more captivated by McCarthy. Subtle glances, placement of props, etc... do nothing to divert me from my suspicions...

Dick also wields an ever-present handkerchief which I have often found is a symbol of effeminacy in classic movies where some things just could not be properly addressed. In any case, these two have definitely been up to something. It seems they have done in Robertson's father while making it seem justified and are none too happy to see the son come rolling home.

In fact, on his way from McCarthy's, Robertson is stabbed in the back and winds up floating down the river unconscious! Paget spots him and the athletic Strode is able to fish him out and get him into their boat.

Paget is understandably interested in Robertson's recovery and starts off the healing process with a kiss on his prettily chiseled face.

The back-stabbing and journey down the river (not to mention a night's sleep!) have done nothing to mar his pompadour hairstyle!

His bandages can't seem to decide if they want to cover up his nipple or not. We prefer not, ourselves...

This is now the second time Paget has saved Robertson's life, though there still is no significant romance brewing. Two years after this movie, Paget would costar with (and grab the attention of) Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender. It is said that Priscilla Beaulieu (later Presley!) decided to completely overhaul her hair and makeup scheme in order to look as much like Paget as possible to land Presley for good herself. Whether that happened or not, she did win him for a period of time.

Now realizing that his father was set up to be killed, Robertson decides to go after the men who committed the act. He heads to the hotel where his papa was murdered.

Here, we meet the third corner of a deadly trio, John Wengraf (a onetime matinee idol of Austria) who is spending his own quality time upstairs with Dick when he finds out Robertson is on the premises.

In a "blink and you'll miss her" moment, Juanita Moore appears as Lisa Daniels' maid, trying to prevent Robertson from bursting in to see her. Moore couldn't have imagined that within 5 years she'd be costarring with Lana Turner in Imitation of Life (1959) and gleaning an Oscar nomination! The award went to Shelley Winters for The Diary of Anne Frank.

We're not 100% sure where Daniels' loyalty lies, but she seems to be aligned with her brother for the time being. Note how he wields his knife at waist level before the reclining Dick.

Having learned that a waiter at the hotel has squealed on them to Robertson, they put another dastardly plan in motion.

Things ultimately come to a head on McCarthy's glitzy riverboat, giving Paget and Gomez a chance to change out of their grungy duds and doll up a bit.

Now I know I can sometimes be guilty of projecting, but all this time McCarthy has really only had eyes for Dick. Suddenly, he seems somewhat taken by pretty Paget.

Upon meeting her, his walking stick is standing at attention...

I love the way McCarthy looks in this film with his long sideburns and natty clothing. Remember when Beverly Hills 90210 came on in the 1990s and Luke Perry brought these sort of sideburns back for a whole new generation?!

He kept reminding me of someone until it finally dawned on me. McCarthy seemed to be channeling the look of one of his very close comrades.

There's more than a passing similarity to Montgomery Clift in The Heiress, released 5 years prior. Look at the nose, mouth and jawline (and sideburns.) Now I know we have to consider the source, but Truman Capote was quoted on the subject of McCarthy and Clift. (McCarthy was at Michael Wilding and Elizabeth Taylor's home on the 1956 night when Clift was nearly killed - and was facially disfigured - in a nasty car accident, an accident McCarthy witnessed.) "In the two books about Monty, they have things about him and what a great friend he was to Monty. And in the books, McCarthy says he had no idea that Monty Clift was homosexual and was absolutely amazed...Why, he said, it never crossed his mind. Well, it had crossed the mind of every single trolley-car conductor in Hollywood, so it was very difficult to believe that it hadn't crossed the mind of his best friend for seven and a half years. I mean, how far can hypocrisy go?" Incidentally, Tennessee Williams also believed that Clift and McCarthy were more than friends... I'm not one to repeat gossip, so be sure and read it carefully this once. Ha ha!

Now, on to what was going to be my big pay-off regarding this movie, which was diminished by my feeble memory banks. The waiter who snitched on McCarthy and Dick - Jay Novello - found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Robertson forced him to come clean about the murder plot, but that left him at the mercy of the two evildoers.

Dick and McCarthy come to the hotel to check into their room and are accompanied by a large, heavy chest. They have one of the bellmen bring the chest up to their suite.

But what's inside?

Turns out to be the deceased body of Novello!

They plan to dump the corpse in Robertson's room and frame him for the killing of the waiter.

These two conspirators, and possible lovers, bickering over a chest which contained a dead body reminded me of something I'd seen once before long ago.

And the name Douglas Dick did ring a bell (well, it certainly isn't forgettable!)

Dick had come onto the movie scene (following a career in the coast guard and a stint as a print model) in the mid-1940s. In 1948, he worked for Alfred Hitchcock in the movie Rope. As I had not scene Rope since the late-1980s, I had recalled him as the murder victim (a young blond man strangled and placed in a chest!)

Perhaps you can understand my mistake. The men aren't all that dissimilar.

Anyway, Rope concerned two college-age friends (implied lovers) who decided to kill a person just for the enthralling experience of it. Gay actors John Dall and Farley Granger portrayed the lethal twosome.

They pile the young man's body into a chest...

...then perversely have the guy's parents and fiancee over for dinner, the food for which will be served atop the chest!! I was so excited that Dick might have had a hand in both of these sequences, but as you can see, I hadn't remembered him correctly.

He is IN Rope, however. He plays the former lover of the dead man's fiancee, adding to the awkward kink of the party as set up by the killers.

Seeing Rope again for the first time in ages, I was stunned by the endless rubber-faced mugging of Dall as the more dominant half of the killing duo. He seemed to be projecting every expression to the back row of the movie house across the street!

Anyway, there's still that vague connection between the movies, such as it is. I'll do better next time. LOL Mr. Dick, by the way, retired from acting in 1971 to pursue psychology and lived to be 95. Also, as this is surely my final post of 2020, I'd like to take a moment to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! Here's hoping for a far, far better 2021 than what many of us have had to endure this last year. Thanks so much to those of you who have been so kind to comment, e-mail or otherwise share your genial and encouraging thoughts, compliments, etc... It means a great deal to me. Stay safe and be healthy!

Traipsing Through the Dale...

We have a photo essay for you today on one of Hollywood's longstanding, yet surprisingly under-sung leading men. Many of the pictures seem to spring from one of his many movies in particular, though I think you'll see why! Our subject today is Dale Robertson, a rather recent discovery stemming from the purchase of one of his successful TV shows on DVD.

Dayle Lymoine Robertson, born July 14th, 1923 in Harrah, Oklahoma, was predestined to be a western figure regardless of where life took him (and it took him all over the place.) Though he took up boxing while attending Oklahoma Military Academy, and was good enough to work at it professionally, he continued to work the ranch his parents Melvin and Vervel (!) ran.

In fact, he was approached by Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn for a screen test to play the lead in the 1939 Barbara Stanwyck film Golden Boy, based on the Broadway hit about a boxer who is also a talented violinist. Seventeen year-old Robertson declined the test citing his need to stay on the ranch with polo ponies he was training! The role finally went to William Holden, who was nearly fired from the picture until Stanwyck went to bat for him.

Before long WWII came calling and Robertson made a valiant soldier in both Europe and North Africa, wounded twice (once with shrapnel in his lower legs and another time with mortar to his knee) he recovered both times. A photo (not this one) of him in his uniform drew the attention of Hollywood talent scouts and, his boxing career now behind him thanks to the injuries, this time he went for it.

He made his debut opposite Robert Ryan and Dean Stockwell in 1948's The Boy with Green Hair, uncredited as a police officer trying to unravel the mystery of the strange boy (who at the start of the film has NO hair.)

Other "blink and you'll miss 'em" parts came in Flamingo Road (1949) and, as seen here, The Girl from Jones Beach (1949), in which he played a lifeguard (which seems reason enough to look up the movie sometime!)

Robertson soon won roles in two Randolph Scott pictures, Fighting Man of the Plains (1949) and Cariboo Trail (1950), before joining Joseph Cotten in Two Flags West (1950.) These westerns were followed by Take Care of My Little Girl (1951) with Jeanne Crain and Mitzi Gaynor and Golden Girl (1951) opposite Gaynor again. Robertson possessed a pleasant, if unspectacular, singing voice that he would repeatedly display here and there during his long career.

By 1952's Return of the Texan, Robertson had achieved first-billing status. His dreamy face was as if an alchemist put parts of Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster into a vial and created a new combination of the two.

Robertson had been befriended by Will Rogers Jr., son of one of Oklamhoma's most famous men, who advised him never to alter the natural quality that he had in his acting and personality. Robertson took heed and never took part in any further training as an actor.

After costarring in The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952), second billed to Anne Baxter, Robertson enjoyed a slight change of pace, starring in Lydia Bailey, a French-flavored, Haiti-set adventure. He would look his most dashing and charming in the period clothing of the era and setting.

Anne Francis played the title character. Robertson was a lawyer searching for her in the midst of a revolution on the island. I loooovvvee his hair and sideburns in this sideview.

Robertson's trim, tight physique was advantageous when confronted with the Napoleonic clothing featured in the movie.

These next two shots are hooty as hell. Shirtless Robertson and a horse-whip-wielding Francis set out.... on a blank white soundstage!

Nothing like this appears in the movie. It's solely publicity craziness. He and Francis, fully clothed and quite muddy, do get lost in the jungle, but it's in no way like this.

After a small role in O. Henry's Full House (1952) and joining Rory Calhoun (who he also resembled) in The Silver Whip (1953), Robertson paired up with Betty Grable in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953.)  (Again I have to point out the majesty of Dale Robertson's thick, curly hair. She, on the other hand, looks quite ridiculous to me...)

One of the big pluses of Farmer, though, is that Robertson takes himself a tub bath. He's probably dreaming of her at this moment, but he also looks as if he could be pleasuring himself! LOL He certainly pleases me...

Robertson, a lifelong smoker, not only looked a fair bit like Clark Gable, but he eventually began to sound like The King, too. He generally avoided sporting a mustache, however, perhaps in an attempt to downplay the resemblance. Devil's Canyon (1953), by the way, was a 3-D western, with Virginia Mayo's boobs among the special effects.

Robertson was a popular figure in Tinseltown, known for his stand-up reputation and finely honed manners, though he strenuously avoided cooperating with gossip columnists, earning him The Sour Apple Award for three years running! Here, he meets up with Marilyn Monroe at a celebrity softball tournament, protecting her - and very much enjoying it! - from the throngs of fans seeking her autograph.

Robertson starred or costarred in City of Bad Men (1953) and The Gambler from Natchez (1954) before headlining Sitting Bull, looking dashing in his cavalry uniform. His female costar here, Mary Murphy, would briefly become his wife for six months in 1956-1957.

His rival for Murphy's affections in Sitting Bull was played by a brunette William Hopper, who would later make his mark on the long-running Raymond Burr series Perry Mason.

Robertson was married four times. His first marriage to Frederica was from 1951-1956 and resulted in a daughter. His brief union to Mary Murphy was annulled after six months in 1957. A third marriage to Lula Mae lasted from 1959-1977 and yielded two more daughters. Then in 1980 he wed Susan, to whom he was with until his death in 2013. As so often happens, it's the third or fourth try (in Hollywood, anyway!) that becomes the most lasting union. In 1955, he starred in the Alaskan adventure Top of the World (which is where the earlier uniformed pic came from.)

Surely the biggest change of pace he ever undertook, and rather uncomfortably from the looks of it, was Son of Sinbad (1955.) Robertson cavorting around in a turban is a smaller-scale version of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror (1956)!

I doubt Vincent Price much minded sharing a bed with him in it, however.

In 1956, Robertson costarred with Linda Darnell (wearing truly the reddest dress in all of cinema) in Dakota Incident. This same year, he made his TV debut on shows such as The Ford Television Theatre and Schlitz Playhouse. Ever attempting (and never with great success) to adjust his typecast image, he also did a British thriller High Terrace (1956) as well as another western A Day of Fury (1956.)

Robertson began to appear as a guest on Studio 57, Climax!, Undercurrent and The 20th Century Fox Hour. One of his two appearances on Schlitz Playhouse served as the pilot for what would be a very successful first series for him.

Tales of Wells Fargo featured Robertson as upstanding company detective Jim Hardie, who found himself all over the American west investigating robberies, accidents and other incidents of the venerable stage/transport line. During one hiatus, he went to Italy to play opposite Gina Lollobrigida in Fast and Sexy (1958.)

Wells Fargo was produced by Nat Holt, who'd been responsible for giving Robertson his first breaks in the biz a decade earlier. The half-hour western was a Top 10 hit its first two seasons. The last year it aired (1961-1962), it switched from NBC to ABC, went to an hour-long format and was filmed in color.

Even after all the movies he'd appeared in, it was Tales of Wells Fargo that made Robertson a household name at the time. He was a rare thing, too, in that his character was a left-handed draw. Right-handed Robertson practiced to learn the draw and was one of the few such gunmen on TV until Michael Landon came on in Bonanza. Even so, the morally upright Robertson never liked resorting to gunplay unless it was completely necessary.

Now closing in on forty, Robertson continued to star in minor western movies such as Law of the Lawless (1964), Blood on the Arrow (1964) and the first full-length animated (!) western The Man from Button Willow (1965.) Another unusual blip came with the foreign-made adventure Coast of Skeletons (1965) with Richard Todd.

After the failed pilot Diamond Jim (1965) - one of the few times he wore a mustache in his earlier days - he landed another series. This one in 1966 was called The Iron Horse and involved a gambler who won an unfinished railroad line and was determined to see it through.

Co-starring with him on the show was young Gary Collins. Robertson blamed network interference with ruining what started out as a promising series. It lasted two seasons, ending in 1968.

Now in his mid-forties, the still formidable hair was sporting a prominent white tuft, which Robertson declined to cover up or color.

The once-beautiful, still-handsome, Robertson had other things on his mind by now anyway. He embarked on a singing career - appearing on variety shows like The Mike Douglas Show, The Johnny Cash Show and Hee Haw, served as host of Death Valley Days and Hollywood Palace and generally enjoyed his free time more than he had when on the Tinseltown treadmill of movies and TV. He had an Oklahoma ranch of his own, which generated many well-heeled steeds.

In the wake of his third divorce, however, Robertson took renewed interest in his acting career. He popped up on Aaron Spelling's shows Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, which ultimately led to his third TV series, a new prime-time soap opera called Dynasty.

This was how Dynasty's audiences first saw the fifty-eight year-old Robertson in his return after a considerable absence. Granted "Special Guest Star" billing, he was part of the decidedly blue-collar side of the fledgling show's debut season as a hardscrabble oil wildcatter named Walter Lankersham.

It was quite a shock to fans to see the shaggy-haired older man take to the boxing ring one more time, but without the physical impressiveness that had marked his screen career for so long. I didn't even know who he was when I watched the three-hour pilot in 1981 (at age fourteen!), but even I sensed a certain dissipation on display.

The bulk of Robertson's scenes were with Bo Hopkins, his oil-drilling partner on the series. After that initial 13-episode season (the show was a mid-season replacement), all of the "have nots" except for Pamela Bellwood as Claudia, were abruptly written out of the show. Robertson claimed that he was uncomfortable with some of the sexual elements of the plotlines (one sequence had him wallering around in a brothel, trying to get gay Steven Carrington laid!) and thus was written out, but in truth audiences just wanted to see more of the wealthy characters.

This might have served as the end of Dale Robertson's screen career, but it was not. He ventured onto Dallas for a 5-episode arc and then in 1987 came bounding back to the tube once more in a mystery series called J. J. Starbuck. The Stephen J. Cannell show focused on a Texas billionaire who took on impossible cases. In several episodes prior to cancellation, Ben Vereen (of the cancelled 1980 show Tenspeed and Brown Shoe) came on board as Tenspeed! The series only lasted 5 more episodes with him, however.

As was the fashion in 1987, Starbuck featured many "name" guest stars from Telly Savalas (as seen here) to Patty Duke, Robert Conrad, Jill St. John and others. Mr. Robertson went on to appear on Murder, She Wrote and did a couple of guest shots on the short-lived Beau and Lloyd Bridges series Harts of the West in 1993 before retiring. He was seventy.

Beautiful Dale Robertson not only had attributes similar to Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, but also contained sprinkles of the aforementioned Rory Calhoun as well as John Bromfield (and there's even a splash of Tom Selleck in some pics.) His unfortunate cigarette habit did take its toll on his looks voice and, eventually, body. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia in 2013, but at the ripe age of eighty-nine.

In this magazine clipping, he's referred to as a "courtly cowboy" and I think that's tremendously appropriate. As a former boxer and twice-wounded war veteran, he was never going to take a lot of guff from anyone, yet he had a strong backbone of integrity, refusing to allow unsavory elements into his life and work. Ordinarily, this would be my send-off, but.....!

BONUS PICS:  Having seen all those black & white shots from Lydia Bailey, I just had to seek out the movie (a movie that is highly unlikely to be aired most places these days) and was stunned to see that it's in color!

Handsome as Robertson is in black & white, he's devastating in the color photography. If only there were a truly decent print of the film someplace.

At least the publicity didn't totally lie when it showed him shirtless and in those trim French pants.

I think you can really see strong Gable and Lancaster resemblances here. Only Burt could give Dale a run for his money when it came to thick curly hair (and I believe Dale held onto his longer.)

And now... The End!