Any Number Can Play

"The most exciting picture in years!"

Jul 15 1949 Approved 1h 52m
Drama, War

When illegal casino owner Charley Kyng develops heart disease, he is advised by a doctor to spend more time with his family. However, he finds it difficult to keep his work separate from his life at home. His son, Paul, feels ashamed of Charley's career and gets into a fight at his prom because of it. Meanwhile, Charley's brother-in-law, Robbin, who works at the casino, begins fixing games due to his extreme gambling debts.

Plot

Although Charley Kying has owned a casino for fifteen years, on one rainy night events and people seem to converge and threaten his family home and second home, his gambling house. After a doctor secretly diagnoses him with a severe heart condition and recommends that if he continues to subject himself to the daily stress of a professional gambler, he hasn't long to live. Later that day he's made to realize that he's been neglecting his faithful wife for years and abdicated his duties as father to his son, who resents his father's unsavory reputation and rebuffs his interest in attending that night's prom. Charley's weakling brother-in-law, who sponges off him by freeloading at home and cheating him out of petty cash as croupier, agrees to conspire with rival gamblers to cheat Charley out of thousands. Among the others who add stress to what would seem to be Charley's last night in the casino are a rich former girlfriend who proposes they renew their relationship, an old nemesis who's vowing to break the bank at the tables, and an old degenerate gambler and former mentor whose desperation leads him to try to take his own life.

Written by

Richard Brooks, Edward Harris Heth

Directed by

Mervyn LeRoy

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Languages

English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
1,190
Average Rating
6.8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA