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Cads and crinolines
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Only a Western by a stretch of the definition, The Mississippi Gambler is a romantic costume-drama which is quite enjoyable in an old-fashioned way. Set mostly among the super-rich of New Orleans in 1844, it tells of elegantly attired gentlemen fighting duels, beautiful spoilt-brat daughters in crinolines, caddish younger sons and fortunes lost at cards on riverboats. The sets and décor are slick and fancy, there’s fine glossy color photography by Irving Glassberg, and the whole thing has the sheen of Universal movies at their best.
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In tone and setting it resembles pictures like The Iron Mistress of the year before and The Gambler from Natchez of the year after. Pre-Civil War stories with swordfighting don’t really cut it as oaters (in this one the only horses seen are pulling carriages) but there are Western touches here and there. For one thing, the hero’s crusty sidekick is John McIntire and he draws a pepperbox pistol from his waistband when a crooked gambler tries it on.


Though a riverboat gambler and a priori therefore not socially acceptable in the houses of the gentry, Power’s character is a frightfully good egg and spends most of the movie doing the decent thing. He is thus qualified to win the hand of the heiress in the last reel.
There are obligatory scenes in which what were probably in 1953 still referred to as darkies sing mellifluously and dance exotically. They are quite embarrassing now.

Anyway, you could have a look at The Mississippi Gambler, if you like that kind of thing. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times probably got it right when he said, “Notwithstanding its costumes, duels, courtly manners, gaming and brawls, The Mississippi Gambler is standard stuff. It is romantic adventure of a century ago and it is gone with the wind. And a good thing too.”
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There’s something of the Edmond Dantès about him