Director - Joseph Pevney
Writers - Screenplay: Leonore J. Coffee, Marion Hargrove
Based on the novel by Cameron Hawley
Reviewed by Hugh Aaron
Imagine
yourself watching a poker game played by a group of gambling titans. Walk
around the table, if you will; observe the cards each player is holding; watch
each play, observe each facial expression, each droplet of perspiration. You
know who is bluffing, who has the high hand, who uses a card tucked in his
sleeve. You spot the master of the table. Now let’s call the hands positions of
power and the chips financial fortunes. There you have the elements of the
story of Cash McCall. From start to
end the film will hold you in fascination with the game—not poker, but finance
which is the same by another name.
Cash
McCall (James Garner), a superman of finance, buys and sells businesses for
profit. His manipulations are reputedly shady though he doesn’t look the type,
and we quickly learn he isn’t. Indeed, his honesty is pure, as is his romantic
involvement with the daughter (Natalie Wood) of the owner (Dean Jagger) of a
company he is negotiating to buy. Both his influence and affluence transcend
the common view of the American dream of success. Since Cash is so
intrinsically decent, we are always on his side. We cannot help but vicariously
enjoy his triumphs abetted by his powers of persuasion. Author Cameron Hawley
has thus created for us an adult fantasy that bears just enough resemblance to
truth to give us a kick. The trouble is that superman Cash is not human.
Only
one character has more than one dimension, and she (Nina Foch) exists on the
sideline only as a complication. All the others give resounding performances as
far as their characterizations permit them to go, which is no deeper than a
dollar sign. But we shouldn’t mind too much because the film is paced at a
perfect cruising speed for enjoyment. The poker game, by the way, ends without
a loser. This is not stuff for export to Moscow.
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