California Split (1974)
California Split (1974)
California Split Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Bill Denny
as Charlie Waters
as Barbara Miller
as Susan Peters
as Lew
as Sparkie
as First Bartender
as Helen Brown
as Lady on Bus
as Reno Barmaid
as Robber
as Lloyd Harris
as Receptionist
as Bartender
as Bartender
as Go-Go Girl
as Mother
as Woman at Bar
as Man at Bar
as Harvey
as Used Car Salesman
as Tenor
as Kenny
as Harvey
as Reno Dealer
as Nugie
as Nugie's Wife
as California Club Poker Player
as California Club Poker Player
as California Club Poker Player
as California Club Poker Player
as California Club Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
as Reno Poker Player
Critic Reviews for California Split
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (1) | DVD (3)
California Split has never been heralded as one of the key Altmans. But the few things it does - friendship and disappointment and the drab and desperate thrill of the gambler's life - it does superbly.
Sold as a comedy, the film scans more like American-century Dostoyevsky, with comp cocktails.
Robert Altman's masterful 1974 study of the psychology of the compulsive gambler.
The film is technically and physically handsome, all the more so for being mostly location work, but lacks a cohesive and reinforced sense of story direction.
Altman feels rather than thinks his way into a subject, with a special interest in how people relate to one another in moments of crisis.
A fascinating, vivid movie, not quite comparable to any other movie that I can immediately think of. Nor is it easily categorized.
Audience Reviews for California Split
Altman's hilarious look at compulsive gambling is perhaps his most underrated film.
Super Reviewer
An amusing and completely uncategorizable film that captures the mood of its period, an atmosphere long gone by now where the low life and unstable compulsive gamblers round up looking for little green papers to pass through the week or more hopefully to heal their wounds. As some other works by its director, it feels over talky, anarchic, scattered, erratic, but he always gets the best out of his cast, giving them time to improvise and take it to the wildest, in the case of Elliot Gould. He and George Segal were perfect for the job, the chemistry is real, un rehearsed. Although the story doesn't take much chances, the reliance on its actors' charm is what makes it quite enjoyable.
Super Reviewer
a stellar tragicomic buddy film about compulsive gamblers. extremely natural, even by altman standards. elliott gould at his manic peak
Super Reviewer
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