Review: The Big Town

Matt Dillon is a handsome, promising young small-town crapshooter named Cully who leaves family and mentor Don Francks behind as he heads for potential big-time success in 50s Chicago. There he hooks up with married hustlers Lee Grant and Bruce Dern, whom he agrees to play for. They get him invited to the big tables, he gives them a healthy percentage of the winnings. But soon Cully gets the urge to strike out on his own and beat sleazy club owner/gangster Tommy Lee Jones out of his crooked game, and steal his stripper wife Diane Lane while he’s at it. Playing ‘good girl’ to Lane’s sultry ‘bad girl’ is Suzy Amis, an aspiring female DJ and struggling young mother whom Cully also has feelings for. In a subplot, taciturn, blind Dern is looking for the gambler who long ago threw acid in his face. The extremely mannered Del Close and no-talent Tom Skerritt (sorry, I wanna like the guy, but he always gives the same constipated performance!) play a couple of gamblers, and a young Sarah Polley can be seen as Amis’ adorable kid.

 
This 1987 Ben Bolt (son of “Lawrence of Arabia” screenwriter Robert. The younger Bolt did very little after this film) unofficial update of the fantastic “Cincinnati Kid” (here Dillon’s ‘The Kid’ and Canadian character actor Francks essentially gets the Karl Malden part, with Lane perhaps echoing Ann-Margret) is perfectly enjoyable entertainment if entirely unoriginal. You’ve seen it before, and in the aforementioned case, better, but this one’s stylish and full of terrific performances and colourful characters.

 
A decidedly oddball Dern and rather frightening Jones are especially good, Dillon is well-chosen in the lead. The women fare a little worse, with Amis a bit wan, but Lane is solid and Lee Grant spot-on.


Fun stuff for fans of gambling movies, or Matt Dillon. Just don’t expect anything beyond the B-level. Screenplay by Robert Roy Pool (who went on to co-write the underrated “Outbreak”).


Rating: B-

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