James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)
Vitals
James Caan as Axel Freed, gambling-addicted English professor
New York City, Fall 1973
Film: The Gambler
Release Date: October 2, 1974
Director: Karel Reisz
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Released 50 years ago today on October 2, 1974, Karel Reisz’s drama The Gambler stars James Caan as Axel Freed, a literature professor whose gambling addiction spirals into self-destruction. Screenwriter James Toback drew on his own reckless experiences as a compulsive gambler during his time lecturing at City College of New York.
The film opens with Axel already deep in debt at Hips’ gambling den, where the seasoned bookie (Paul Sorvino) notes that Axel’s $44,000 losing streak is “the woist luck I seen in fifteen yearhs.” Driven by an insatiable craving for action, Axel scrapes together money through $20 pickup basketball games on his way to work, teaching literature at an uptown college with students including the earnest and talented basketball player Spencer (Carl W. Crudup).
Axel: Look, look, look… any cretin can prove that two and two make four, right? So the man who goes against that notion must be riding on sheer… will. He claims an idea is true because he wants it to be true, because he says it is true. And the issue isn’t whether he’s right, but whether he hast he will to believe he’s right, no matter how many proofs there are that say he’s wrong.
Spencer: (holding up four fingers) Hey, how many fingers you see sticking up here?
Axel: Well, right now I see four. But tomorrow, I might be absolutely sure that it’s five. And it’s preceisely that possibility that makes tomorrow intriguing. (reading from Dostoyesvsky) Reason only satisfies men’s rational requirements. Desire, on the other hand, encompasses everything. Desire is life.
What’d He Wear?
Costume designer Albert Wolsky anchors Axel Freed’s hardy streetwear with outerwear in shades of light-brown, from a camel sports coat and tan cable-knit cardigan to a brown leather jacket and tan suede shirt-jacket.
Axel bookends The Gambler wearing the latter, a tan suede unlined shirt-jacket with a long point collar that’s consistent with 1970s fashions. The ventless back is half-belted at the waist to create a more athletic silhouette, though Axel always wears the seven-button front totally open. Inverted box pleats extend down from the horizontal chest yokes that span from the center edges to the armholes, and the set-in sleeves are finished with single-button squared cuffs that Axel wears unbuttoned and turned back. There are two large patch pockets over the hips—each with rounded bottoms and a yoke that points to an inverted box pleat.
During the first act of The Gambler that opens at Hips’ gambling den, Axel wears a long-sleeved shirt patterned with a black triple-striped check against a white ground. A significant portion of the shirt is likely constructed from stretchy synthetic fibers that pull over James Caan’s lean physique, emphasizing his famously squared shoulders. The shirt has a long point collar, single-button cuffs, and a front placket that he wears dramatically undone while gambling but somewhat tactfully buttons back up before teaching his students—albeit still leaving the top three buttons undone.
Axel tucks this shirt into tan cotton flat-front casual trousers that have jeans-like front pockets and V-shaped yoke seams over the seat, though they lack back pockets. The fit flares out to a then-fashionable boot-cut below the knees.
Whether it’s a continuity error or offscreen change, Axel swaps his usual brown leather loafers for suede lace-ups during the pickup basketball game.
Out of options and cornered by the mob, Axel feels compelled to ask his student Spencer to make sure his basketball team doesn’t win their upcoming game by more than seven points—allowing the mob to benefit and wipe his compounding debts to them. After Spencer fulfills the request and leads the team to a six-point victory, Hips and his fellow gangsters gleefully see the potential despite Axel’s refusal to continue their point-shaving scheme. “Don’t kid yourself, once you ain’t a virgin no more, you’re a whore,” Hips cynically assures him.
Through the day which also includes a visit to his grandfather, Axel again wears his tan suede shirt-jacket but now layered over a cream-colored jersey-knit long-sleeved shirt. Like the previous shirt, this has a long point collar, button cuffs, and a front placket with the top few buttons undone to expose Caan’s hirsute chest.
Rather than washing out his appearance into all neutrals by returning to his earlier tan trousers, Axel presents a more interesting yet compatible contrast by tucking the shirt into dark-gray flannel trousers that have a colorful fleck texture that adds a sporty warmth which fits the rest of the outfit. The then-fashionable fit echoes the tan trousers with narrower thighs and flared plain-hemmed bottoms.
During this era that celebrated tight menswear on the disco floor and beyond, trousers were frequently cut closer to the hips and thighs—and often without pockets, as these would not only disrupt the lithe lines but also be too tight to be practical. Axel’s gray trousers appear to be an example of this, lacking visible front or back pockets, though—like some contemporary trousers Roger Moore wore in James Bond’s early ’70s adventures like Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun—they may have set-in slit pockets beneath the belt line on each side of the front.
Axel holds up both sets of trousers with a brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned rectangular single-prong buckle.
Axel always pairs this shirt-jacket to well-polished brown leather apron-toe loafers, each detailed with a gold bar across the instep. At least during the final act, he wears black socks.
After the climactic college basketball game, Hips asks Axel to join him for a night out to “eat some lasagna, grab some pussy, drink some wine…” On the way off the court, Axel insists on betting whether he can make a basketball shot, but Hips insists on leaving: “Fuck gambling, I’m hungry and horny.”
We’re surprised to see the depressed Axel may have the latter in mind as he picks up a prostitute from a Harlem bar… only for the revelation that it’s part of his own attempt at suicide-by-angry pimp—with the pimp in question played by Antonio Fargas, perhaps best known to some as Huggy Bear from Starsky & Hutch.
Did Axel just instigate a fight with a knife-wielding pimp or ask Chappell Roan for an autograph?
The Car
I’ve written about Axel Freed’s wheels in a previous post, but his baby-blue 1968 Ford Mustang convertible is too sweet to neglect, so I’m pasting my previous write-up below with screenshots from the sequences featuring his tan suede shirt-jacket.
One of the most recognizable cars in the world, the venerable Ford Mustang debuted in April 1964, firmly establishing the “pony car” class of sporty two-door cars that offered an affordable and compact alternative to the increasingly powerful “muscle car” street machines. Ford evolved its flagship pony car with cosmetic changes and performance improvements through the ’60s, including the Mustang’s first significant redesign in 1967 that would continue through the 1968 model year, the same year of the famous highland-green fastback driven by Steve McQueen in Bullitt and James Caan’s base-model convertible in The Gambler.
The 1968 model year was the first year that the chrome “FORD” lettering was removed from the hood and the final year for vent windows. The side scoops were streamlined into a sleeker, more vertical design than on the ’67 Mustang.
In addition to a 200 cubic-inch Thriftpower inline-six, the array of available V8 engines included the 195-horsepower 289 Challenger, which would be phased out that year by the new 230-horsepower 302 Windsor as the standard small-block V8, and the 325-horsepower 390 Thunderbird Special; the beastly 427 and 428 Cobra Jet engines were available only for the GT.
Axel’s Mustang lacks any GT badging, though it also lacks the scripted “Mustang” emblems on each front fender that were standard on base-model Mustangs. The exterior is painted “Diamond Blue”, a light aqua-teal shade that essentially replaced the more silver “Arcadian Blue”. Given that it would be the standard small-block V8 for the 1968 model year, I’m inclined to suspect Axel’s Mustang has the then-new 302 cubic-inch Windsor V8 under the hood, mated to Ford’s long-running three-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic.
1968 Ford Mustang
Body Style: 2-door convertible
Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)
Engine: 302 ci (4.9 L) Ford Windsor V8 with Motorcraft 4-barrel carburetor
Power: 230 bhp (172 kW; 233 PS) @ 4800 rpm
Torque: 310 lb·ft (420 N·m) @ 2800 rpm
Transmission: 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic
Wheelbase: 108 inches (2743 mm)
Length: 183.6 inches (4663 mm)
Width: 70.9 inches (1801 mm)
Height: 51.6 inches (1311 mm)
Caan’s cinematic connections to first-generation Mustangs date back to the start of his career, when he drove a white and blue-striped 1965 Shelby GT 350 fastback in the Howard Hawks-directed racing flick Red Line 7000 (1965). The actor’s connection to the car would continue in Misery, when Paul Sheldon’s ill-fated ’66 hardtop crashes in a blizzard… delivering the author into the sadistic hands—and sledgehammer—of superfan Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates).
How to Get the Look
James Caan as Axel Freed in The Gambler (1974)
Though the fit and details (those collars!) are arguably dated to the ’70s, Axel Freed’s sporty casual layers can be comfortably reimagined today.
- Tan suede unlined shirt-jacket with long point collar, 7-button plain front, horizontal chest yokes with inverted box pleats, two inverted box-pleated hip pockets, set-in sleeves with 1-button squared cuffs, and half-belted ventless back
- White and black-checked (or cream jersey-knit) long-sleeved shirt with long point collar, front placket, and button cuffs
- Tan cotton or gray mixed flannel flat-front trousers with belt loops and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
- Brown leather belt with gold-toned rectangular single-prong buckle
- Brown polished leather apron-toe loafers with gold bar detail
- Black socks
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Hey, who’s lending and who’s borrowing?
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