Details

Release year: 1974

Storyline

When casual gambler Bill Denny befriends professional gambler Charlie Walters, Bill begins to mirror Charlie's life, sinking deeper and deeper into the sleazy world of gambling, where the stakes keep getting bigger.

Top credits

Directors

Robert Altman

Writers

Joseph Walsh

Cast

George Segal — Bill Denny
Elliott Gould — Charlie Waters
Ann Prentiss — Barbara Miller
Gwen Welles — Susan Peters

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Did you know

• The film's 8-track stereo was instrumental in launching what would become one of Robert Altman's trademarks - overlapping dialogue.

• The film is dedicated to actress Barbara Ruick who appears in the movie as a barmaid and who died on location during the filming. The end title card memorializing this reads: "FOR BARBARA 1933-1973". She was married to composer John Williams, who had worked with Robert Altman the previous year on "The Long Goodbye". It is to be noted that a great many female characters in the film are called "Barbara", possibly in tribute to Ruick.

• Writer Joseph Walsh worked on the script in its formative stages for 9 months with a young up-and-coming director called Steven Spielberg. In this early incarnation, the script was called "Slide".