California Split (1974) on Netflix
Bill Denny, a magazine writer who bets for fun, meets Charlie Waters, a career gambler chasing the next score. Bill tags along to card rooms and racetracks and bets beyond his means.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.1/109,451 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Los Angeles, Bill Denny and Charlie Waters become friends over a shared appetite for betting. Charlie is a wisecracking career gambler who wagers on poker, horse racing, boxing and anything else offering odds, and he shares his home with two prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters. Bill writes for a magazine and only dabbles at first, ducking his boss while he tags along to bars, card rooms and sports venues. He comes to want Charlie's life, and Susan's company especially. To keep betting, he falls into debt with his bookie, Sparkie, and pawns his belongings to fund a trip to Reno, where he hopes to win big at a high-stakes poker game.
Cast
- Barbara Londonas Lady on the Bus
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about California Split (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM wanted the story turned into a mafia-related "sting" with Dean Martin as one of the two main characters and dropped Joseph Walsh as producer, so he and Steven Spielberg took the script to Universal Pictures, whose Zanuck and Brown then hired Spielberg for The Sugarland Express, leaving Walsh's film stranded.
- After seven days, George Segal pleaded with Joseph Walsh that Elliott Gould, who had lived his character's gambling life, was "an octopus" strangling him; Walsh told Segal not to try to keep up with Gould.
- Actress Barbara Ruick, who played a friendly Reno poker room bartender, died at 41 of a cerebral hemorrhage while sleeping in her hotel room during the Reno shoot; her husband, composer John Williams, was left a widower with three children, and the film was dedicated to her.
- Screenwriter Joseph Walsh argued with Robert Altman many times over his script, and Altman stormed out of the room during the picture, though Walsh said he always came back and listened.
- California Split was the first feature film to use an experimental eight-track sound system with eight separate audio channels, which helped develop Altman's trademark of overlapping dialogue.
- Walsh considered his long-time friend Elliott Gould for a lead but saw Peter Falk and Robert De Niro first, and Gould called him up and convinced him he was right for the role, with George Segal already cast early on.
- Music rights problems forced Sony/Columbia to cut almost three minutes of footage and change the soundtrack for the 2004 DVD, which is already out of print.
