Roulette takes the center stage at the movies

Roulette is one of those casino games that anyone can walk up to and play.

It doesn’t require any skill, but it offers so much entertainment that millions enjoy the classic game every year. You choose your number or keep it simple with a colour, put your money down, and wait for the spin of the wheel. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, yet the charm of roulette has been used time and time again in the movies.

Directors seem to be drawn to the lure of the roulette wheel, whether it’s American Roulette, European, or French. Perhaps it’s the luxurious casino backdrop or maybe it’s the thrill of watching the roulette ball tumbling around the wheel, waiting for it to drop into one of the slots. It’s a popular choice either way you look at it. For now, we’ve taken a look through the movie vaults and picked out five of the best titles that involves this classic casino game. So, let’s take a look as we start off with one of the true iconic movies, Casablanca.

 

Casablanca

The 1942 Hollywood classic starring Humphrey Bogart is one of the most iconic films in movie history. It follows the tale of Bogart’s Rick and his plans of attempting to escape the German-occupied Casablanca during the second world war. One of the most famous scenes is where two players, a husband and wife, bet everything they own on the roulette wheel to generate enough money to make their own escape. Rick takes pity and fixes the game for the desperate couple to win on the number 22. The couple hit the number 22 twice (this is Hollywood, after all) and escape for freedom in America.

 

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Released back in 1988, this forgotten classic was later brought back to life as a musical. The original movie though gave us two amazing performances from two legends of the screen, Michael Caine and Steve Martin. The two characters are con men who ply their trade on the French Riviera. They both try to cheat a beautiful woman out of her money and at the same time, try to be the last con man standing in the area. The one scene centres on the roulette wheel in a luxurious casino where they are both in the game to win over the lady, and soon forget about where the roulette ball stops or the odds.

 

Diamonds are Forever

James Bond and the casino is a match that just seems to work. While we have seen Mr. Bond in the casinos in various movie titles, Diamonds Are Forever is the one movie that stands out the most for us. Bond is on the hunt for diamond smugglers and he ends up in a Whyte’s grand mansion where he ends up at one of the high-stakes American roulette tables. He plays and bets on the number 17 and wins, naturally. The movie then takes you through the famous Craps scene and Bond then goes on to what he does best, and that is save the day.

 

Indecent Proposal

The Robert Redford movie is all about a billionaire who offers one million to a newlywed couple who get carried away at the roulette table. In the rush of the game they lose all their money and so the billionaire offers their get-out card, but with one caveat. He gets to spend one night with the unlucky man’s wife. The game of roulette takes a lead part in the movie and as the couple agree to the billionaire’s indecent proposal, the couple get dragged into all sorts of problems that shows, in an entertaining way, the consequences of greed.

 

Run Lola Run

The German classic released in 1998 is both a romance and a thriller all rolled into one, with a good helping of roulette as well. The lead, Lola, has 20 minutes to generate 100,000 Deutsche Mark to save her boyfriend’s life. The movie is based on three scenarios where Lola is desperately trying to find the money and the third scenario sees her take on the roulette wheel. Armed with only one 100 Mark chip, she goes all in on number 20 and her luck finally comes in. Lola then rides the wave of luck to hit that 100,000 mark and save her boyfriend, she’s definitely a keeper!