Atlantic City

Atlantic City. 1980 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Michel Piccoli, Kate Reid
Director: Louis Malle
Buy Atlantic City at Amazon.

This was a blind buy from Wal-Mart a long while ago, for three bucks. I couldn't believe they had a Malle film on sale.

The movie was filmed at a time before Atlantic City really was transformed into a gambling and entertainment mecca, we do get to see old landmarks in really bad shape, and not long before they were torn down.

Sally (Sarandon) comes to New Jersey seeking to become a croupier, and she ultimately wants to go to Monte Carlo. Lou (Lancaster) is a lifelong Atlantic City resident who thinks he used to be a big time mobster. He is married to Grace (Reid), who came to town years ago to enter a beauty contest, but ended up staying after she married Lou. She is in poor health.

Things get quite interesting when Sally's estranged husband Dave (Robert Joy) shows up in Atlantic City, along with her sister Chrissie (Hollis McLaren), who is pregnant with Dave's child. They've both come all the way from Saskatchewan to find Sally. Dave has some stolen drugs to sell, so he talks Lou, who still wants to be a big time mobster, into selling them. Dave gets himself killed, leaving both Sally and Lou being tailed by the criminals who the drugs were stolen from. While they're on the run, Chrissie befriends Grace.

Oh yes, I can't forget the cameo appearance by Robert Goulet, which MAKES THIS MOVIE, man!

Burt Lancaster's performance as Lou, the elderly small-town nobody who desperately wants to be number one no matter what it takes, was fantastic.

Recommended.