Inside Straight (film)

Inside Straight is a 1951 American Western film directed by Gerald Mayer and starring David Brian, Arlene Dahl, Barry Sullivan, Mercedes McCambridge and Paula Raymond.

Plot
In San Francisco in 1870, Ada Stritch owns a bank, but there is a run on it. She needs $3 million to keep it open. In desperation, she turns to Rip MacCool, a wealthy man whom she despises.

Also in need of Rip's help are newspaperman Johnny Sanderson and an old acquaintance, Flutey. They and Ada each have an issue with Rip from their past. Rip offers to deal a hand of poker, and if Ada wins, he will give her the $3 million. If not, he gets the bank.

Everyone recalls how they first met. Fifteen years before, Ada, a widow, had a small hotel that she wanted to sell. Rip and his pal Shocker were guests there. Rip wooed her romantically, then offered her $3,000 cash plus shares in the Mona Lisa gold mine. Ada accepted, only to learn later that the stock was worthless.

Johnny was a prizefighter. After a defeat, Rip helped him find a job. Rip was broke, but suddenly discovered that a vein of gold struck at the Mona Lisa mine has made his stock worth $250,000. Johnny loved a beautiful singer named Lily Douvane, but she married Rip for his money, leaving Johnny heartbroken. They had a baby boy and named him after Johnny. It was a loveless marriage, and when Lily caught Rip in a compromising position, she demanded a divorce, $1 million and custody of their child.

Johnny cared about the baby and for Zoe, the nanny. Rip interfered again, proposing to Zoe, then angering her, as well as losing his fortune. Zoe mortgaged their home, and she also was pregnant. Rip regained his money, thanks again to the Mona Lisa mine, but lost both Zoe and his new baby in childbirth.

Shocker explains to those present how Rip became the cold-hearted man whom he is. At 16, unable to pay for his own parents' funeral, he worked with Shocker in a mine. Money came to mean everything to him. After hearing this, Ada agrees to the winner-take-all offer. Rip gracefully loses, and the bank is saved, but all suspect that Rip, having a heart after all, held the winning hand.

Cast

 * David Brian as Rip Maccool
 * Arlene Dahl as Lily Douvane
 * Barry Sullivan as Johnny Sanderson
 * Mercedes McCambridge as Ada Stritch
 * Paula Raymond as Zoe Carnot
 * Claude Jarman Jr. as Rip MacCool (Age 16)
 * Lon Chaney Jr. as Shocker (as Lon Chaney)
 * Monica Lewis as Cafe Singer
 * John Hoyt as Flutey Johnson
 * Roland Winters as Alexander Tomson
 * Barbara Billingsley as Miss Meadson
 * Richard Hale as Undertaker
 * Hayden Rorke as Carlson
 * Jerry Hartleben as John Albert MacCool (Age 3)
 * Dale Hartleben as John Albert MacCool (Age 8)
 * Lou Nova as Connegan

Reception
The film was a financial failure. According to MGM records, the film earned $552,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $217,000 in other markets, causing a loss to the studio of $1,282,000.

In his March 26, 1951, review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther warned readers: “Anyone who has ever played poker with a person who takes all day to make up his mind whether to raise you, to call you or to throw in his cards will partly appreciate the tedium of a picture called "Inside Straight." Here, without a doubt, is recounted the most tiresome poker hand we've ever seen. At the start of this Metro period drama, which came to the Capitol yesterday, a lady and a gentleman are squared off grimly over a hand of five-card stud…A total of $6,000,000 is riding on the hand. Looking on, in attitudes of moderate interest, are three other gentlemen. And, at this point, what do you think happens? They start telling the stories of their lives! No fooling! First off it's the lady…Then one of the three other fellows takes it up, and so on around the room…And it turns out to be as dull and pointless a review of a flat and selfish life as it is possible to imagine anyone bothering to recall… .Our only wonder is that someone in that painfully suspended poker game doesn't pull out a gun and start shooting.