Doug Saito in the latest Chip Chat finally answered the question no one could on the source of the Harrahs 'movie chips' that we discussed sometime ago on this bb. The movie was Jinxed!, made in 1982, starring Bette Midler. There were 25, 100, and 500 denominations of the chip props. Seems like there should be a 5 but I've never been able to find one.

According to info at several places on the www, the film was filmed in Reno, not Lake Tahoe. The artwork for the tape of the movie shows signs from Las Vegas clubs, so I'm not sure where it should be placed in The Chip Rack. It would appear that Tahoe is not the best place, though. Doug also mentions that the film was done in the Harrahs, Reno. He says the date was 1985, which is not consistent with all the web citations I found which say 1982.

Apparently, the movie was a disaster... here's what critics say on the WWW today:

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They tried and tried to come up with a better title for Jinxed !, but somehow they kept returning to the only one that was fitting. The exclamation point emphasizes the totality of the disaster. Director Don Siegel's w.k. disillusionment with the project is fully understandable.

Idea seems to have been a darkly comic version of The Postman Alway Rings Twice, with perhaps a touch of A Place in the Sun.

Set in Loserville, USA, represented by Reno, tale presents casino dealer Ken Wahl as the hapless victim of seedy gambler Rip Torn. Once Torn sits down at his blackjack table, Wahl knows he'll soon be out of a job, such is the fantastic luck his tormentor enjoys. Torn also gives grief to his smalltime singer g.f. Bette Midler, who is sufficiently taken with Wahl's charms to rope him into a scheme, a la James M. Cain, to bump off her lover.

The title of this comedy flop says it all. The off-screen fighting betwen the stars was so intense that nothing could save this disaster. Its star, Bette Midler, had been Oscar nominated for her work in The Rose. Apart from a concert footage film, this was her next project and explains her lack of offers for the next few years. The plot is wafer-thin. Midler's a lounge singer in a casino. Her boyfriend, played by Rip Torn, giving the best performance in the film, is a vicious character who beats her up. He also has an enemy in casino dealer Ken Wahl, as each time he sits at Wahl's table, he wins, which could cost Wahl his job. So Midler and Wahl plot to kill Torn - and pocket a hefty inheritance. On the face of it, the role of a singer in a sleazy casino should have suited the Divine Miss M, whose trademark at the time was to be flashy and trashy, but the script is so bad there's little she can do with it. The great Don Siegel's last film and a sad note on which to bow out.