The Movie: In my quest to watch movies set in Vegas, I found this little piece called The Gambler. Set mostly in New York, it's about a university professor played by James Caan who has a serious gambling problem. He absolutely cannot keep himself from gambling on anything and everything. After losing thousands of dollars in an illegal casino, he can't help but get out of his car and challenge some guys he sees playing basketball in a park. He's so desperate for action that he bets these guys $20 that he can beat one of them one on one... even though they say they only have 10 cents to bet. He puts his $20 up against their dime!

This movie revolves around the premise that all compulsive gamblers want to lose. The need to lose, and well, James Caan in this movie can't help but lose. Even when he wins big, he's got to put it all back in action, which of course results in him losing it all back. And though he seems to believe in this idea that gamblers, including himself, desire to lose, he also seems to believe that he is untouchable and can will himself to win.

He believes he is so invincible that he even puts himself in dangerous situations... just to show he can get out of them unscathed. More or less, this movie is about the downward spiral of an otherwise respectable man into the depths of compulsive gambling and debt. There are a couple of minor twists into things, and he does actually go to Vegas, with some scenes inside Caesars and the Horseshoe, but for the most part, it's just another one of those downward spiral and lives thrown away due to some sort of vice kind of movie.

Overall, I'd say it was pretty unremarkable. It wasn't a bad movie, but not a terribly good one either.

The DVD: The anamorphic transfer was actually surprisingly clean. The color characteristics and grain are consistent with a movie of this era, and there doesn't seem to be much added in the way compression artifacts, or dust or dirt or anything like that. The audio seemed somewhat muffled, but also consistent with movies of the era. And there isn't a single special feature on here, unless you consider multiple language options and chapter selection to be special features. It's pretty darn bare-bones, but at least the transfer is nice.