POKER ALICE
US, 1987, 91 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Taylor, George Hamilton, Tom Skerritt, Susan Tyrell, Richard Mulligan, David Wayne.
Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman.
Poker Alice is an average western telemovie but it offers the chance to see Elizabeth Taylor, full of glamour in the west.
She is a Bible toting expert poker player who wins a brothel and uses the brothel (where the girls are not allowed to work on Sunday and have to read the Bible) as a means for getting money to establish themselves in the west. Tom Skerritt is easy as a bounty hunter who falls in love with her. George Hamilton is efficient as her would be writer cousin. David Wayne makes a welcome appearance as the manager of a hotel in a small western town. Nothing particularly new, more or less as expected (except a fierce fight between Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Tyrrell. Elizabeth Taylor seems to be enjoying herself in this western written by James Lee Barrett, author of many such westerns.
1. Enjoyable western? The gamblers, the bounty hunters, the men in the towns? Familiar ingredients?
2. The western locations, the desert, the towns? Interiors? Musical score?
3. The title and the focus on Poker Alice? Elizabeth Taylor's presence, style?
4. Alice and Cousin John being stranded in the west, at the depot, meeting Jerome, in love with him? John urging them on? The comedy with the owner, especially about the soup? Her train ride, her guile in getting the poker game started, Jake's suspicions? Winning from McCarthy? The arrival in the town, discovering that the winning was a bordello, her rules for the girls: no work on Sunday, reading the Bible, taking no money from them? Her using this as part of a poker technique against Jake? His anger with her, her confrontation of him? Her winning in the games? The clash with Cousin John and speaking the truth to him, the reconciliation? Discovering him in the brothel, the fight with the prostitute? Her friendship with Jerome, seeing him again, understanding him, the meal, the night together? A future in California with him?
5. Jerome as the bounty hunter, losing his horse, meeting Alice, infatuated by her, amused observance, the night talking with her, in the town, friend to the prostitutes, watching her techniques, her explanation of everything to him, his declaration of love, the night, going to California? The showdown and his taking the criminals?
6. Cousin John, the dandy, friends with Alice, accompanying her, his disdain of the west, wanting to go east? In the train, warding off the advancing woman? His wanting to get away from the town, his attack on Alice? Her attack on him, his leaving, going to the prostitute? Going on his own way?
7. Jake, his wealth, watching Alice on the train, allowing the bordello to be the prize? Thinking to buy it easily, the confrontation with Alice, her techniques, putting up the price, his capitulating? The gamblers on the train, McCarthy? losing the bordello, his malicious delight in handing it over to Alice? The sketch of the girls, their concern, the Bible reading? The fight?
8. David Wayne as the man at the depot, his lackadaisical attitude, his trying to be friendly, his charges, the confrontation with the bandits, a touch of comedy?
9. The popular ingredients of the American west, the frontier, men and women, gambling, the law?
