In the most recent "Casino Royale" film, the hubris of James Bond (Daniel Craig) costs him a high stakes game, and nearly costs him his life. Every scene in the movie involves a bet, a bluff, or a calculated risk. Whether the game is espionage, romance, the stock market, or poker, the rules are basically the same: Outwit, outplay and outlast your opponents.

In "Gilda," Glenn Ford's Johnny Farrell uses loaded dice and sleight of hand to ensure that the odds are in his favor. He is befriended and mentored by Ballin Mundson (George Macready), a club owner who encourages him to use his "talents" in a casino of high class, and even higher stakes -- but who warns him: "They won't let you in without a tie." Or, does he say, "They won't let you win without a tie"? You can never quite be sure how the game is fixed here.

Farrell is glib and cocky, but it isn't so much his pride that threatens to destroy him as much as it is his wrath and lust for Gilda (Hayworth) -- the beguiling wench from his past who is married to Mundson. For Farrell, perhaps there's a little envy and jealousy thrown into the mixture -- both at Mundson, for "possessing" Gilda; and at Gilda, for insinuating herself into their perfect partnership. Years before the post-war, nuclear arms race gave birth to the term, Johnny and Gilda seem to embody "mutually assured destruction." The question is: How much luck Johnny can make all by himself?

And so, what Johnny Farrell maketh, Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) taketh away. As the title character in "The Cooler," Bernie is anything but "Mr. Cool." With his cheap, rumpled suits; his limp, oily hair; and, a walk somewhere between a limp and a shuffle, he is the ultimate loser. He has only to approach a craps or blackjack table, or touch the rim of a roulette wheel, to turn even the hottest winning streak as cold as a Chivas Regal on the rocks.

Bernie is accustomed to getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop. He's not a proud man (he can hardly afford to be), or a greedy or envious man. He's a hard worker. Then, when Lady Luck smiles upon him in the form of waitress Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello), love turns the tables and slaps him with a jinx. His cat comes back, he gets cream in his coffee and good fortune threatens to make him unemployable. Suddenly, the old downtown Shangri-La casino starts paying off, one jackpot after another. Bernie discovers it's almost like being in luck.

Love trumps greed in Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" (1941), in which the father and daughter con team of "Colonel" and Jean Harrington (Charles Coburn and Barbara Stanwyck) attempt to take advantage of muddle-headed, Pike's Pale Ale heir and snake expert Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), who has just returned from a long safari. The result is one of the funniest movies ever made, and at least one of the greatest lines in all the movies: "You're certainly a funny girl for anybody to meet who's just been up the Amazon for a year." Jean does her best to take advantage of Charles, but she just can't do it, and falls in love with him.

In Paul Thomas Anderson's wonderful first feature, "Hard Eight," Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) teaches young, down-and-out John Finnegan (John C. Reilly) about luck and life -- only Sydney's lessons have nothing to do with superstition. In Reno he's a pro, mentoring John in the ways of working the system -- and the odds -- to get the most for his money. Like, how to keep changing money at the cashier's window to make it look like you're spending enough to be offered a free hotel room.

As the central figure in Martin Scorsese's "Casino," Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) gets into the Las Vegas casino business not for the money but for the prestige, moving out west to become a big man in a small, neon oasis. "Anywhere else in the country," Rothstein remembers, "I was a bookie, a gambler, always looking over my shoulder, hassled by cops day and night. But here, I'm 'Mr. Rothstein.' I'm not only legitimate, but running a casino... Las Vegas washes away your sins. It's like a morality car wash. It does for us what Lourdes does for humpbacks and cripples. And along with making us legit comes cash. Tons of it."

But then, pride and lust -- in the form of comely call girl Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) -- bring down Ace's empire, just as the corporations demolish the grand old casinos like the Stardust, the Fremont and the mythical Shangri-La in "The Cooler" -- far removed from the sanitized glitz of the Strip.

Next: More Gambling Movies | Back