“Now listen sister, I’m a gambler. It’s my business to read people.”

This week’s look at Poker on Screen sticks to the game and nothing but as the 80-minute movie masterpiece Smart Money comes under the microscope.

Amazingly for the time it was made – almost equidistant between World Wars in 1931 – the film features the only time Edward G. Robinson (as Nick ‘The Barber’ Venizelos) and James Cagney (as Jack) made a movie together, despite both being signed to Warner Brothers studios throughout the decade. Maybe it was a way of getting more films out of them to separate them and conquer the silver screen. Possibly they didn’t find the right project with two such strong roles. Either way, it’s a shame, because they are superb together sharing the same frame.

Smart Money was billed to many as a gangster movie, shot as it was after Robinson’s popular movie Little Caesar had reached the cinemas and coming shortly before Public Enemy, the film that made Cagney’s name was released. Smart Money was, as a consequence, buried a little in the years that followed and today sits as more of a quirky footnote than the signature production it should be. No matter. The years have not dulled the gilt and the action is still golden to this day in a way so many other poker movies have failed to be.