California Split

Columbia. Director Robert Altman; Producer Robert Altman, Joseph Walsh; Screenplay Joseph Walsh; Camera Paul Lohmann; Editor Lou Lombardo; Music Phyllis Shotwell;; Art Director Leon Ericksen

George Segal
Elliott Gould
Ann Prentiss
Gwen Welles
Edward Walsh
Joseph Walsh

California Split is an aimless, strung-out series of vignettes starring George Segal and Elliott Gould as compulsive gamblers. The film is technically and physically handsome, all the more so for being mostly location work, but lacks a cohesive and reinforced sense of story direction.

The pic is well cast - Segal and Gould contrast well, while Ann Prentiss and Gwen Welles play happy hookers to good effect. Bert Remsen, an Altman stock player, herein does a drag number. Edward Walsh (the writer's father) is very good as a mean poker adversary, and the writer himself has a good scene as Segal's loan shark.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1974. Running time: 108 MIN.

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