After taking a year’s rest from the movie business, McQueen returned with The Cincinnati Kid, a vivid character study about two card-sharks meeting for a big game in ’30s New Orleans. McQueen plays The Kid who would like to be The Man, and gets a chance to prove himself when he catches up with card-ace Edward G. Robinson. In a cast of top-notch players that also includes Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Rip Torn and Joan Blondell, McQueen holds his own in the acting stakes. Sam Peckinpah was the film’s original director, but he was replaced by Norman Jewison after a dispute with producers.

U.S.A., 1965.
Colour.
113 mins.