The Gambler

Axel Freed teaches English literature at a New York university, where he appears to colleagues and students as a respectable academic. In private, he is consumed by a gambling addiction that shapes his life and steadily pulls him away from the people close to him. After a disastrous night of betting, he owes a large sum to creditors who make clear what failure to pay will cost him, and he turns to those around him, including his mother and his girlfriend, for money that he cannot stop risking. The pressure from the men he owes forces him toward choices that put his career and a student's future in danger.

Karel Reisz directed the film, which came between Isadora and Who'll Stop the Rain in a career that began with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. James Toback wrote the screenplay, and Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler produced. James Caan plays Axel, with Paul Sorvino as Hips, Lauren Hutton as Billie, Morris Carnovsky as A. R. Lowenthal, Jacqueline Brookes as Naomi and Burt Young as Carmine among a credited cast of 45. It runs 112 minutes and was released in October 1974.

On IMDb, users rate the film 6.7 out of 10 from 136 votes, while critics give it 7.3 out of 10 from 11 reviews. The critical score sits above the audience rating, indicating that reviewers responded to the film more warmly than general viewers did.