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This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Clark Gable stars as owner of a legal, small-town gambling house but his heart condition is about to make him quit. It's then he realizes that he's alienated his wife (Alexis Smith), who has retreated to a "memory room," and his son (Darryl Hickman) who is ashamed of how he has become rich.He's also got a sneaky brother-in-law (Wendell Corey) who is married to his wife's sister (Audrey Totter). But he also has loyal employees (Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan, Caleb Peterson), and some women who are quite fond of him (Mary Astor, Marjorie Rambeau).Stealing the film are two longtime MGM players. Franks Morgan plays the gambler who may break the bank, and Lewis Stone plays the has-been who's about to play his last hand. Each is excellent.Others include his doctor (Leon Ames), a couple of thugs (William Conrad, Richard Rober), and dejected woman gambler (Dorothy Comingore), and Art Baker as the nightclub owner.Scotty Beckett was originally signed to play the son and his picture is on Gable's desk, but he was replaced by Hickman.Frank Morgan and Lewis Stone turn in terrific performances, and this ranks as one of Clark Gable's best post-war performances.

While this is not a "great", as were a number of Clark Gable classics, it is a very solid and very good film that is well worth watching.It would have been easy to simply tell the story of a small-time gambling casino, and to paint some of the patrons as pathetic losers at life. But this film goes beyond all that and tells its story from various perspectives.For example, the owner of a casino (Gable)...but also a family man who is having problems with his son because the son disapproves of the gambling aspect of his father's life. The owner of the casino also has a serious heart condition, and he needs one thing to thrive -- retirement. The scenes with the son (Darryl Hickman, who is excellent) and wife (Alexis Smith, also excellent) are sentimental, but well done, and flesh out Gable's character more than one might expect from reading the blurb about the film.While Gable is the star here, and the focus of the film, there's a wonderful parade of performances by terrific character actors to round out the film:Lewis Stone is a down-and-out gambler...definitely quite a long ways from his days as Andy Hardy's father. He plays it superbly.Mary Astor as the almost-other love of Gable.Marjorie Rambeau as a high society lover of poker and a force of nature.And, one of Gable's frequent costars -- Frank Morgan, although here Morgan is not quite so likable, but does very nicely as the opponent.Not all of Gable's post-war films were gems, but this one is. And I know that because I don't like gambling, don't gamble, and don't understand gambling. But this film help my rapt attention. Highly recommended. Frank Morgan as Jim KurstynBarry Sullivan as TycoonEdgar Buchanan as EdLeon Ames as Dr. Palmer

Believe it or not, Any Number Can Play was one of the few non-musicals produced by Arthur Freed over at MGM. To show you it was a Freed film, please note that the background music includes such Freed tunes as This Heart of Mine and Should I.Richard Brooks who would soon get a big directing break in another Freed produced non-musical, Crisis, wrote a very fine story that Mervyn LeRoy directed with class and finesse. LeRoy got a stellar cast together and really mixed the ingredients well.Clark Gable is perfect as an aging gambler with a lot on his plate. He's just been told by Dr. Leon Ames that he's got angina pectoris and for the sake of his health he'd better give up a very high stress profession. He's got a loving wife in Alexis Smith and a rebellious teenage son in Darryl Hickman who he barely knows. Living with them is her sister Audrey Totter and her husband Wendell Corey. Gable employs Corey at his gambling establishment where Corey does a little chiseling on the side and he's also into racketeers Richard Rober and William Conrad for some big bucks. They've got ideas how to cancel the debt. And Totter measures her own husband against Gable and finds Corey quite wanting.That's just in his own household. Gable's got a lot of friends and enemies playing at his high class establishment which the police all know about, but do nothing because half the town's establishment is in the place on a given night. Such habitués might include Frank Morgan, Marjorie Rambeau, and Mary Astor a divorcée also carrying a huge torch for MGM's king.The story involves all these issues and how they're resolved over one 36 hour period. What makes Any Number Can Play such a good film is that even the smallest characters do have their moments. Art Baker plays the owner of a country club where Hickman gets in a fight over his father. Note how in his brief moments, Baker tries oh so hard to keep Gable out of it when he discovers who Hickman is. Astor has only one real scene, but it's a beauty involving Gable having an angina attack and then with minimal dialog the two of them talking about a lost love of many years ago. Staged brilliantly, I might add.One thing about Any Number Can Play that is frighteningly real are those angina attacks, remembering just how Gable died as the result of doing some very high stress stunt work on The Misfits. Absolutely eerie.Any Number Can Play is one of Gable's best post World War II films and not to be missed by any of his fans. And if you're not a Clark Gable fan, you might become one after seeing this.

I like that Clark Gable plays the logical extension of the characters he so often played in the 1930s and 40s. So often he played the likable rogue who made his living just skirting the border between good and evil--playing gamblers, mercenaries or con-men. However, in each film you almost never see what this same character would have been like had the film followed him into mid-life. Well, ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY is such a film. Gable plays an older rogue who owns a gambling house but also has a wife and older son. And, instead of being firmly in control of his life, you can see it slowly crumbling--at least around the edges. This role took some guts to play as he was more vulnerable and Gable COULD have just continued playing "fluff roles". Give it a try and see an adult drama.