The Great Sinner (1949)

A writer (Gregory Peck) traveling from Moscow to Paris meets a beautiful woman (Ava Gardner) on the train. When she gets off in Germany, he impulsively gets off too and pursues her. But like her father (Walter Huston), she is addicted to gambling and instead of saving her, the writer finds himself caught by the addiction which will take him to the depths of despair. Loosely based on the novel THE GAMBLER by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the film has the usual elegant MGM production values befitting such a prestige project. But the film only superficially captures both the highs and the degradation of a gambler's addiction. There have been good films made about gamblers and gambling, THE CINCINNATI KID and the 1949 QUEEN OF SPADES come to mind, but despite its ambitions, the film bites off more than it could chew. Robert Siodmak's (THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE) direction is decent enough but Peck is miscast. He's a fine actor but not here. He just doesn't have a gambler's risk taking soul and never once conveys the thrill of winning nor do we get a sense of obsession. With Melvyn Douglas, Agnes Moorehead and in the film's two best performances, Frank Morgan as an ill fated gambler and Ethel Barrymore as a matriarch whose doom is sealed by the gambling bug.