The Lady Gambles (1949)

Cast as the wife of a Chicago writer doing a piece on Nevada's Hoover Dam, Barbara Stanwyck gives a sly, knowing performance as a housewife who discovers the addictive dice and gambling tables in Las Vegas. Noticing that she's taking pictures in a casino, the manager admires the wife's made-up story that she's doing a magazine item on gambling and gives her a stack of house chips "to shill for the casino." Soon, she's winning at poker--and alienating her husband and the spinster sister who resents her. This cautionary tale of a gambling addict is engrossing in spite of its unconvincing milieu and portrait of a marriage. Robert Preston is the incredibly naïve husband who's aghast at his wife's actions: "All of it, Joan? Tell me you spent the money on something else!" Ask a foolish question, you're liable to get a foolish answer. **1/2 from ****