Las Vegas Shakedown (1955): Stars Dennis O’Keefe (Joe Barnes), Thomas Gomez (Al “Gimpy” Sirago), Colleen Gray (Julie Rae), Charles Winninger (Ernest/Ernie Raff), Elizabeth Patterson (Mary Raff), Mary Beth Hughes (Mrs. Mabel Dooley)

It was Joe Barnes’ testimony, at the Kefauver hearings, that put Al “Gimpy” Sirago away for income tax evasion. Gimpy did his time at Alcatraz, much of it in solitary confinement. During his confinement, Gimpy plotted how he would force Joe, the active partner in the group that owned the El Rancho Vegas, to sell him the ERV for 2 cents on the dollar. He would then force Joe to sign a paper saying that the rest of the ownership of the ERV was transferred to Gimpy as payment of a gambling debt. Once Gimpy owned the ERV, he and his henchmen would kill Joe.

Meanwhile schoolteacher Julie Rae headed to Las Vegas, to the El Rancho Vegas, to research a book on gambling. Her book was intended to show that, mathematically, the house has a slight edge so, in the long run, the gambler can’t win. She reminds Joe of someone he used to know…someone who’s now happily married, and that keeps Joe’s attention. Julie likes to tell Joe how prim and proper she is but, at the end of one day’s acquaintance she’s quite happy to hear him utter the words “As my wife, you’ll have to own lots of pretty clothes.”

Ernest and Mary Raff, an older couple from small-town Nebraska, are having a daring adventure at the El Rancho Vegas. He is the head of the bank, and it would cause a scandal if anyone in their hometown knew that they’d gone to “gasp!” Las Vegas! Even more daring, Ernie tells Mary that he’s never gambled before, but he’s going to now. After all “…we’ve set up trust funds for our children, and for their children. We’ve given a lot of money to charity, and we’ll continue to give. We’ve got money set aside, and there’ll be more, so what difference will it make if I lose a few thousand dollars?” Mary pats his arm, and tells him to go ahead. Several hours later he’s up $10,000. Mary calls home, only to discover that the bank examiner was at his bank, and discovered a shortage in the books. Ernest assures Mary that everything will be fine, there’s probably just an error in the books and it will be found. Just the same, they should head for home. Mary is still concerned, what if an employee did embezzle from the bank, and Ernie shows up with $10,000 that he can’t explain? Ernie agrees that could cause a problem, so decides that a few more hours won’t matter…he’ll just gamble the money away. Of course, a few hours later he’s up $15,000.

Another guest at the El Rancho Vegas is Mrs. Mabel Dooley. She stopped at the ERV with $3000, on her way home to Utah. She and her husband will be using the money to put a down payment on a lunch wagon. She gambles away $2000, and begs Joe to help her. He suggests that she take the $1000 that she still has, and go home. She says he doesn’t understand, she’s had a gambling problem before and it almost destroyed their marriage. Again, Joe tells her to go home. Instead, she heads for the bar, and from there to the roulette table.

This movie is a good one to watch while you’re doing something else. You don’t have to pay close attention to keep up with the story lines, and nothing happens that will keep you glued to the t.v. while your dinner burns on the stove, or you forget that you let the dog out in the rain. I’ll give it 2.5 stars

For those who love old Vegas and gambling: The entire movie was filmed at El Rancho Vegas, which I thought was pretty cool. There were several shots of the outside and the signage. There were several gambling scenes shot in the casino, but I couldn’t make out any chips. Unfortunately, there were no shots of any of the other casinos in town, inside or out. I’ll give it 2.5 chips.