THE CASINO is, unsurprisingly enough, a casino-set drama from Shaw Brothers, with dual starring roles for Lily Ho and Yueh Hua. It's a standard enough thing that suffers somewhat from having too much plot and dialogue and too little in the way of incident in the first hour. The film makes much of its gambling sequences, but they aren't particularly thrilling when compared to more recent fare like GOD OF GAMBLERS.
The story is about a husband and wife team who run a casino and have a plan to take down a corrupt gambler who uses loaded dice. A lot of plot twists and turns occur which are watchable but quite routine, but the good news is that it all builds to a spectacular climax which seems to have been inspired by that of BOXER FROM SHANTUNG and is just as bloody and exciting as in the Chen Kuan Tai-starrer. It's worth the wait and makes the film. Cast-wise, Ho and Hua shine (and the latter has hair!), ENTER THE DRAGON's Shih Kien is the stock villain, Fan Mei Sheng is a corrupt police captain, Wu Ma a desperate gambler, and Lam Ching-Ying a briefly-seen henchman.
The story is about a husband and wife team who run a casino and have a plan to take down a corrupt gambler who uses loaded dice. A lot of plot twists and turns occur which are watchable but quite routine, but the good news is that it all builds to a spectacular climax which seems to have been inspired by that of BOXER FROM SHANTUNG and is just as bloody and exciting as in the Chen Kuan Tai-starrer. It's worth the wait and makes the film. Cast-wise, Ho and Hua shine (and the latter has hair!), ENTER THE DRAGON's Shih Kien is the stock villain, Fan Mei Sheng is a corrupt police captain, Wu Ma a desperate gambler, and Lam Ching-Ying a briefly-seen henchman.
