Friday, July 14, 2023

Two Dollar Bettor (1951)

A neat if modest cautionary tale of the evils of gambling.

John Hewitt (John Litel) is a respected bank official with a couple of young daughters and a seemingly idyllic life. However, on a day at the races he is seduced into betting on the horses and sees this as a seemingly perfect way to make the money to buy his daughters a new car.

However, his winning streak soon ends and his gambling debts start to build up. Desperate, he starts to steal funds from the bank but the losses continue as do the debts. The bookmaker's secretary Mary Slate (Marie Windsor) who has been leading John on tells him about a dead cert, all he needs is $20K from the bank...

A reasonable film though somewhat sentimental at times. This does give a good contrast between the sweet home life of John and the noir doom his gambling is leading him to. Cheap but does the job.