The Gambler backdrop

The Gambler

Directed by Karel Reisz

Starring James Caan, Paul Sorvino

For $10,000 they break your arms. For $20,000 they break your legs. Axel Freed owes $44,000.

New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.