Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Those into gambling and strong card playing must have loved this film. The rest of us probably did not.Steve McQueen in the up and coming card shark who is in New Orleans to play Lancy Howard, Edward G. Robinson, who I thought looked as though he was bored with the entire project. I know that others would say that Robinson projected a gambler's bluffing face.Ann Margret is her usual suggestive type, married to Karl Malden, as probably a marriage of convenience. Tuesday Weld is along for the ride, and as the girlfriend of McQueen, projects as if she is ready to return to Dobie Gillis on television.Then there is Joan Blondell as Lady Fingers, an old card hand dealer who is morbid and whose time has come and gone.Then young child always challenging McQueen represents someone ready to take your place, no matter how far that shall be.Don't really deal yourself into this one.

Gritty and glamorous comes together in this classic Steve McQueen movie.Movie is about the cold world of gambling, where "Kid" (Steve McQueen) excels in his art. The story revolves of course around his gambling, but there're two beautiful girls Melba (Ann Margaret) and Christian (Tuesday Weld) who are interested in him. Kid hears that legendary gambler Lancey Howard (Edward G Robinson) is in town, and gambling match is on. The game starts innocently enough, until Kid discovers that his friend Shooter (Karl Malden) who's dealing the card is passing him favorable cards. Someone wants Kid to win at all cost.The movie is beautifully shot, and casts are all A list. They really catch your eyes with their star qualities. So although the movie is supposed to be happening in a seedy place, the atmosphere is gorgeous. We don't see movies like this any more as somehow the star quality has gone down in recent years with actors.Tuesday Weld who's the inspiration for Rolling Stones' song Ruby Tuesday plays Steve McQueen's fiancé. Over doing anything is detrimental to life, and maybe the point of this movie is just that. But knowing your place in life is more difficult than winning a poker game.

Made in the mid sixties this is a throwback to the forties where it was de riguer to have large casts and plentiful sub plots. In the manner of say Gable and Tracey it is the males who predominate with the females taking second place and it is salutary to note that Joan Blondell, who came to prominence in the thirties as the wise-cracking friend of the leading lady, leaves the two 'modern' leading ladies, Ann-Margret and Tuesday Weld, dead in the water. Similarly Eddie Robinson, himself a survivor from the thirties dominates even such a fine actor as Karl Malden, a product of the forties. Much has been written here about the game of poker and how it is treated (or allegedly mistreated) in the movie but the poker in The Cincinatti Kid is as metaphorical as the pool in The Hustler, both are merely pegs on which to hang morality tales. In my opinion both do pretty well.

Quite a fine movie. The cast is the best part-McQueen doing his uber-cool thing, Ann-Margret as the sultry decoration, Malden the jittery best friend, a youngish Rip Torn as the baddie, Edward G. as Minnesota Fats, more or less.It's set in New Orleans in the thirties, it involves a killer marathon poker-showdown between the reigning champion of these events-Edward G. Robinson, and the local up and coming hotshot, Steve McQueen. Familiar faces such as Cab Calloway, Dub Taylor, Jeff Corey and Joan Blondell get into the action and help make this one even better me thinks just because.Only real debits-slowish pacing in the middle, Malden too trusting w/ his gal A-M around McQueen, and it really doesn't have that authentic Sting/Thirties look to it. A-M and Weld could have walked in off the Viva Las Vegas sets, you know? The marathon poker match is the best part, certainly, keep an eye out for Jack Weston here-he certainly adds something to the preceedings.I was surprised by Edward G winning by the way-it looked like a real set-up to have McQueen take him down at the end. No dice. I think Edward G also steals the show here, he's quite in his element and the camera just loves him.Check it out, well worth your time. *** outta ****