The Only Game in Town (1970)

Fran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) walks into a piano bar for pizza. She comes back home with Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), the piano player. Joe plans on winning five thousand dollars and leaving Las Vegas, Nevada. Fran waits for something else. Meanwhile, he moves in with her.

Director:

George Stevens

Writers:

Frank D. Gilroy (screenplay), Frank D. Gilroy (play)

Stars:

Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Charles Braswell

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Fran Walker
Warren Beatty	...	Joe Grady
Charles Braswell	...	Tom Lockwood
Hank Henry	...	Tony
Olga Valéry	...	Overmade Female Craps Player (as Olga Valery)

Storyline

While waiting in vain for her married lover to get a divorce, Fran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), a lonely chorus girl approaching middle age, falls for Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), a frustrated musician and compulsive gambler who dreams of escaping Las Vegas for fame and fortune in New York City.

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Plot Keywords:

fishing | watching a movie on tv | champagne | beer | reference to humphrey bogart | 

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Taglines:

Dice was his vice. Men hers.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

M/PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was such a box-office bomb that it was double-featured at a Long Beach, California drive-in with the so-bad-it's-good science fiction movie The Green Slime (1968). Adding insult to injury, this movie was listed second on the marquee.

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Goofs

When Fran gets off work at the Desert Inn at the beginning, her walk home makes no geographical sense. She is strolling past hotels, chapels and casinos miles apart and in completely opposite directions.

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Connections

Features What Price Glory (1952)

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Soundtracks

But Not for Me
(uncredited)
Music by George Gershwin
Played by Joe at the piano

User Reviews

so early 60's

I liked Beatty in this minor flick, even in the way that he carried himself (though I could certainly see Sinatra in the role), but it made me wonder if Liz was ever a good actress. She won an Oscar for Butterfield 8 which was god awful,and she did look older than her years, especially compared to actresses of that age now. The oddest thing to me was that her outfits and her hair were vintage early sixties, possibly mid 60s. I kept checking and rechecking the year the movie was made. One of the reviewers commented that the movie was in a genre with Two for the Seesaw, a film made in 1962, a decidedly different age. The whole thing just didn't fit together which may explain Taylor's intermittent fits of shrieking.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 January 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Juego de amor y deseo

Filming Locations:

Caesars Palace - 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1