I do neither doubt nor wonder that some do not `get' The Cincinnati Kid, but the fact remains it is simply one of the great money movies of all time. It is as cautionary an American tale as any rags-to-riches-to-rags story. It is as truthful as any courtroom drama, and as trenchant a commentary on a material culture as one is likely to find. Where its mythology falls short, I think, stems from the absence of a mentor for the lonely Eric Stoner (The Cincinnati Kid). He must face The Man, Lancey Howard, by his lonesome, with his only possible ally being the disreputable Shooter, a trustworthy card dealer and shark (he uses the word `mechanic') and a man who believes himself honorable, but who has slept with so many mangy dogs for so long he can shake neither the fleas nor the stink. Stoner's isolation-something he abets throughout the film-keeps him from defeating Howard. The film's subtext is revealed in a brief conversation between The Kid and his girlfriend, Christian. She sees a French film with Shooter's wife, Melba, and puzzles over a choice the foreign movie poses: is honor the most important thing in life? Is it worth dying for? For the moment The Cincinnati Kid doesn't think so. For him the answer seems obvious: `what good is honor if you're dead?' Yet he tries to defeat Howard honorably-and meets devastation. Principles and honor take a beating in this movie; nobody has the kind of character one would hold up as a gold standard. By inference the only honorable people are either black urbanites (seen here either shining shoes or playing jazz music), or country folk. The rest are hard-scrabbling sleeze, among whom honor is an alien virtue. Thus The Cincinnati Kid poses a fundamental question, one every American male seeking to improve his lot in life (Eric Stoner, Fast Eddie Felson, Bud Fox and many others) must answer: is victory (i.e. success) worth a tarnished name, or is it worth scheming and cheating for? And what good is honor when you've `died' in a card game and you haven't got two dimes to rub together?
Review of The Cincinnati Kid
