When two gamblers named Charlie (Elliott Gould) and Bill (George Segal) meet at a poker table and end up being robbed and beaten up, they recognize their similarities and become friends. Charlie is addicted to every and any form of gambling, and Bill is on his way to becoming just like his new friend. Together they travel through America's seedy underbelly full of broken dreams, a world of people who want to win big not so they can get rich, but because it gives them a feeling of being alive, the illusion of a life lived. And being the master that he is, director Robert Altman does not shy away from the moments where tragedy and drama intersect with comedy, allowing us to be entertained but only until he delivers a punch to remind us that this is, in fact, life.
Considered one of the best gambling movies ever, California Split was a deeply personal film for Joseph Walsh—a screenwriter and also an actor of 20 years—who used the knowledge he had about gambling addiction, to write a movie unlike any single one before it, one that would do a deep dive into the hearts and minds of gamblers across America.
In 1972 a neophyte Spanish media company created a rare platform for artists to explore classic genre imagery with a sophisticated cinematic sensibility.
After Peter Hyams made a successful TV movie called "Goodnight, My Love", producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler approached him with the desire of...
