Catherine Cookson Gambling Man Cast
- With Robson Green, Ian Cullen, Bernard Hill, Sammy Johnson. A rent collector in Victorian Tyneside tries to better himself. He finds navigating class prejudices and family obstacles difficult.
- Author Catherine Cookson penned almost one hundred novels in her ninety-one years, most dealing with life in her native northeast England. 'The Gambling Man,' one of those many stories, is brought to the small screen, and held this viewer's interest until the third act. Rory (Robson Green) is a young man in 1870's England.
Author Catherine Cookson penned almost one hundred novels in her ninety-one years, most dealing with life in her native northeast England. 'The Gambling Man,' one of those many stories, is brought to the small screen, and held this viewer's interest until the third act.
Rory (Robson Green) is a young man in 1870's England. He has a lovely girlfriend, Janie (Stephanie Putson), and a regular job collecting rent with his best friend John George (David Haddow). He lives at home with his extended family, not getting along with Lizzie (Anne Kent)- and we will soon find out why.
Rory is also very good at playing poker. His cockiness gets the better of him, and he gets game fixer Little Joe (Dennis Lingard) to set him up in a higher stakes game. Life for the characters quickly goes downhill. John George, who has been pilfering small amounts of money from his employer, is arrested for stealing a very large amount. Rory is beaten half to death after his big card game, at the orders of crooked businessman Frank Nickle (the always excellent Bernard Hill). Rory's brother, Jimmy (David Nellist), planned to buy a small shipyard, but Rory was supposed to help out financially. Rory and John George's boss dies, and the business falls to his plain spinster daughter Charlotte (Sylvestra Le Touzel), who becomes embroiled in the lives of her new employees.
Like a novel, I cannot give away too many more plot points without ruining the ending. I am not familiar enough with Cookson's books to know if this film was faithful to the page or not. Looking at the film is grand, but watching it started frustrating me.
The look of 'The Gambling Man' is nothing short of miraculous. The costuming, the set design, the cinematography- all of it looks like it cost a fortune, and you can feel the cold humidity envelop you. The musical score is a little maudlin, but this is not a happy picture, so I feel it is appropriate.
T.R. Bowen's screenplay is another matter, or maybe I should be blaming Cookson's story. While the gambling angle of the tale is eventually subsided, the film is sprinkled with giggle-worthy soap operatics that would make Telenovela fans blush. I cannot get specific, but there is one sequence in the film (who's that knocking at Jimmy's door?) that had me roll my eyes and throw my hands in the air. The film does a u-turn from a Dickensian life story into 'The Bold and the Blimey,' and it will make you mad. Also, many storylines, which I invested a considerable amount of interest in, are dropped or not clarified.
The cast, made up of mostly television actors save Hill, is excellent. Green does an outstanding job playing Rory, who is not your average hero. Rory is downright hateful at many points, and Green completely occupies his role. Another special mention should go to Sylvestra Le Touzel as Charlotte. It wasn't easy being an independent businesswoman in Victorian England, but Le Touzel doesn't turn Charlotte into some ancient women's libber with an axe to grind.
Director Norman Stone does okay. He brings you into this world, but could not film a fight or action sequence to save his life. He also repeats the old 'face coming out of darkness into light' one time too many.
Catherine Cookson Gambling Man Cast Of Characters
A list of 21 films compiled on Letterboxd, including The Fifteen Streets (1989), The Black Velvet Gown (1993), The Black Candle (1991), The Man Who Cried (1993) and The Gambling Man (1995). About this list: All the films based on the novels of Catherine Cookson.
I realize this 1995 film was not made for me; Cookson fans can seek this out as well as about half a dozen other television adaptations done at the same time. At two and a half hours, I invested a lot in these characters, and felt a little let down when it ended. 'The Gambling Man' breaks even.
originally posted:02/25/10 09:11:22
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You are in: Tyne > Entertainment > Hollywood On Tyne > TV on Tyne > Catherine Cookson on screen
South Shields-born Catherine Cookson's books and the films they were made into have captured the hearts of millions of people over the years.
Dame Catherine Cookson's work helped to put the North East firmly on the map.
Her fiction was set in the region and millions of copies were sold around the world.
Then when the books were made into films, North East locations were used, taking the region's locations into people's living rooms.
The man responsible for bringing the Cooksons to the screen was Ray Marshall with his company Festival Films and Television.
Long-running franchise
Between 1989 and 2001, he produced 18 mini-series of Dame Catherine's work.
Catherine Cookson Gambling Man Cast And Crew
He said: 'It was about 12 or 13 years so it was the major thing that I have done in my career by a mile.
'It was really what established my company firmly as a big drama producer. It was incredibly important as was my relationship with Catherine Cookson.'
Ray started off the franchise with The Fifteen Streets in 1989 and the last one was A Dinner of Herbs in 2001.
He said it was important to set the films in the North East as the books were.
North East locations
Among the locations used in the films were Alnwick Castle, Belsay Hall, Marsden Grotto and the Cheviot hills.
In The Moth, Eshott Hall, in Northumberland, was chosen as the location for a major fire scene.
Tow Law moor, in County Durham, was used to recreate an action scene from World War I for The Cinder Path.
A mine was recreated in a factory near Gateshead in Tilly Trotter and in The Glass Virgin, Newcastle's Hanover Street was transformed into a 1850s street.
Ray said: 'I think the North East became very much part of my life for a while. I sort of felt a bit like an honorary Tynesider just for having spent so much time there.
'Her work was very much grounded in the North East.'
He said he thought the films had played a key role in bringing the North East to a wider audience in the 80s and 90s.
Another characteristic of the films was their ability to cast young actors who went on to enjoy successful careers alongside more established names.
Among those who starred in the Cooksons were Sean Bean, Catherine Zeta Jones, Robson Green and Emilia Fox.
Ray said: 'I think the casting in the Cooksons was so crucial to its success.'
Enduring interest
He said it is difficult to pick out a favourite from the films, although The Fifteen Streets has a special place in his heart because it was the first one.
Ray said he would love to make another Cookson film but it would all be dependent on getting the funding into place. The next one he would like to bring to the screen is Katie Mulholland.
He also said he wasn't surprised at the enduring interest in her work.
'I think she had a massive fanbase when she was alive. I think that fanbase hasn't really gone away,' he said.
last updated: 11/06/2008 at 11:08
created: 11/06/2008
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