REVIEW: The Gambler

Broadcast:Thursday, 9th August 1956

Character: Marquis de Grieux

Background

What can one possibly do in a place called Roulettenburg than play Roulette?

Technically, it’s a spa town, and some of the characters do talk about “taking the waters”, but it’s the casino rather than the spring which draws them to this part of the Rhine; it’s to the whirling table and spinning ball that visitors devote themselves.

And with what devotion! ‘The Gambler’ is a study in obsession, an account in which the hoarse call of the croupier is answered without regard to the cost in terms of money and lives.

In the first stages of the play it’s simply money that draws the principle characters to the casino. The General is up to his ears in debt; even his stepdaughter inheritance is mortgaged to the Marquis de Grieux, who dogs their every footstep awaiting repayment. There can’t be any delay, since the Generals aunt is dying, and then he’ll be able to clear his debts and be able to marry the merry-eyed Mademoiselle Blanche.

In the middle of all this – half-spectator, half-participant, stands the tutor, Ivanovich, poor himself (his wages are always in arrears) and tortured by Polina who he loves but who flaunts before him her relationship with the Marquis de Grieux and a potential lesion with an Englishman.

Alexis hates the casino; he despises his bad luck, crudity and greed of those who play there. But he’s driven to play himself to try to get money for Polina. She spurs him on; others use him too, and the fever sets in…

The Story

The events take place in the German spa town of Roulettenberg in 1850.

Private tutor, Alexei Ivanovich (James Donald), arrives in town with his employer’s three young nieces, the grown-up Polina Alexandrovna (Rosalie Crutchley), and her two younger sisters.  

The head of the family, General Zagoriansky, latterly arrives in Roulettenberg. He has been forced to secure large loans against his properties in Russia to a wealthy young Frenchman, the Marquis de Grieux (Peter Wyngarde).

Alexei describes the Marquis as follows: “De Grieux is like all Frenchmen, that is, cheerful and amiable when it was necessary and profitable, and insufferably dull when the necessity to be cheerful and amiable ceased. A Frenchman is rarely amiable by nature; he is always amiable as if on command, out of calculation”.

With the General is Mademoiselle Blanche Cominges (Andrée Melly) – a notorious gold digger, whose plan is to accept Zagoriansky’s proposal of marriage as soon as he receives an inheritance from his aunt back in Russia. Polina, meanwhile, is perused both by the Marquis and an English nobleman by the name of Astley (Gordon Whiting), whilst the penniless Alexei who’s also in love with her, is treated with all the contempt she can muster.

One day, however, Polina asks Alexei to place a bet for her at the town’s casino. Although he initially delays – fearing that she’ll lose her money, the wager turns out to be a winner. However, when he asks her why she’d been so desperate for him to lay the bet, she refuses to tell him.

Alexei, it emerges, has loved Polina since their first meeting – a fact that she’s well aware of. But when he finally plucks up the courage to tell her of his feelings, her response is cruel and heartless. Nevertheless, he sets out to uncover what Polina needed the winnings for, whereupon he learns from Astley that Zagoriansky’s family are penniless.

During a walk in the mountains one day, Alexei pledges himself – body and soul – to Polina, adding that he’d gladly throw himself off the nearest cliff if it was to please her. When moments later, the two see the Baron and Baroness Burmerhelm (Boris Ranevsky and Elaine Inescort) who’re also taking in the mountain air. Polina challenges Alexei to verbally abuse the couple, both for her own amusement and to test Ivanovich. Without a moment’s indecision, he lets fly at the Baron and his wife – resulting in him losing his job teaching Zagoriansky’s children.

Soon afterwards, the General’s aunt (Hermione Baddeley) – who is known to the family as Baboulinka (‘Grandmother’) – turns up in the town with her Servant (Gerald Lawson) having made a full recovery. She declares that she’s been aware all along of her nephew’s debts, and that she’s determined he will never get his hands on any of her money. She now asks Alexei to act as her guide around town, which is famed equally for its restorative waters as it is for its gambling den. It turns out that the old lady wishes to gamble.

Once at the roulette table, she places a large amount of money on her chosen number, which she subsequently loses. This losing streak continues for most of the night, and so by the time she leaves for home three days later, she’s squandered over 100,000 Roubles.

Returning from the railway station after seeing Zagoriansky’s aunt off, Ivanovich is met by Polina, who’s waiting for him at his hotel. She shows him a letter from the Marquis de Grieux who, it says, intends to sell her stepfather’s properties in an effort to recoup the money he’s owed.

Polina now admits that she is de Grieux’s lover, but wishes that she has enough money so that she could free herself from the French nobleman. When he hears this, Alexei immediately goes to the casino and eagerly places bet after bet, until he’s able to return to Polina with his pockets filled with gold. Initially, she indicts Alexei of attempting to buy her as de Grieux had done, but then she thinks better of him, and the two eventually fall asleep on the couch in his room. In spite of this, the following morning she requests 25,000 Francs from Alexei, which she instantly throws back into his face before leaving to find Mr Astley with whom she’s been trading notes.   

On learning that Zagoriansky has been disinherited by ‘Baboulinka’, Mademoiselle Cominges leaves the hotel where she’d been staying with the General, but before she returns to Paris with her Chaperone, she successes in tempting Alexei to go with them.

After only a month in the French capital, Mademoiselle Cominges manages in squandering Alexei’s entire fortune on elaborate dinners and lavish parties. Unbeknown to the former tutor, the General has followed them to Paris, and once the Lady has protected enough of Alexei’s money, she dumps the young man and marries Zagoriansky.

Now destitute, Alexei starts to gamble as his last option to survive. One day, whist passing through a park in Bad Homburg, he bumps into Mr Astley who’s sitting on a park bench. The Englishman tells the former tutor that Polina, who is now resident in Switzerland that, in spite of her barbed comments towards him, she really did love him. Astley adds that, whilst Alexei had been away, Baboulinka had finally passed away, leaving all her wealth to Polina and her siblings.

Before leaving, Astley hands Ivanovich some cash, in spite of his knowing that it would inevitable end up in the hands of a croupier somewhere. As the Englishman predicted, Alexei heads for the nearest casino, dreaming of what made him win in Roulettenberg and of going to Switzerland to find Polina. 

Critic’s Comments

Lime Grove are fielding a strong cast for ‘The Gambler’, an adaptation from a story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. From the distinguished cast list of Hermione Baddeley, Roselie Crutchley, James Donald, Andrée Melly and Peter Wyngarde. It is clear that this can be regarded as a major TV production. The Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 8th August 1956

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