Kaleidoscope (1966)

A dishonest professional gambler (Warren Beatty) is blackmailed by his girlfriend's (Susannah York) detective father (Clive Revill) into helping him ruin a wealthy narcotics dealer (Eric Porter) with an addiction to high stakes poker. Directed by Jack Smight, this is one of those movies that probably play better today than when it was first released (it was not a success). The 1960s had a glut of those swinging London flicks and there wasn't anything special about most of them. Today, KALEIDOSCOPE seems like a modestly entertaining relic of the era. Since I love cards, perhaps I'm overly partial to films where card games play a central role. This was director Smight's follow up to his Paul Newman hit HARPER and like that film, Smight is lucky to have two charismatic romantic leads as Beatty and York. This was obviously a paycheck role for Beatty, so he's more relaxed (which is a good thing) than he is in his more personal projects where he often tries too hard and York is the very embodiment of the 60s English dolly. With Murray Melvin, Jane Birkin and Yootha Joyce.