Casino (1995)


Robert De Niro          Sam Ace Rothstein
Sharon Stone            Ginger McKenna
Joe Pesci               Nicky Santoro
James Woods             Lester Diamond
Don Rickles             Billy Sherbert
Alan King               Andy Stone
Kevin Pollak            Phillip Green
L.Q. Jones              Pat Webb
Dick Smothers           Senator
Frank Vincent           Frank Marino
John Bloom (II)         Don Ward
Pasquale Cajano         Remo Gaggi
Melissa Prophet (II)    Jennifer Santoro
Bill Allison            John Nance
Vinny Vella (II)        Artie Piscano
Oscar Goodman           Himself
Catherine Scorsese (II) Piscano's Mother
Phillip Suriano         Dominick Santoro
Erika Von Tagen         Older Amy
Frankie Avalon          Himself

Directed by:            Martin Scorsese, Phil Marco
Produced by:            Barbara De Fina, Joseph Reidy


Sam "Ace" Rothstein, the consummate bookie who can change the odds merely by placing a bet, has risen through the 
ranks of the Midwestern mob to be picked by the bosses to front their entree into Vegas. Ace lives and breathes 
the odds. He eventually doubles the mob's take and changes the rules of how the casinos are run. But he can't 
control the odds when it comes to Ginger McKenna, the chip-hustling vamp who charms Ace and becomes his wife. His 
infatuation with Ginger turns to obsession as she rises with him to the upper crust of society, then turns to the 
bottle and pills for consolation in her gilded cage. The third member of this triangle of greed and obsession is 
Nicky Santoro, Ace's best friend and fellow graduate of the city streets. Together, they run the perfect operation, 
with Ace in charge and Nicky providing the muscle. But as Nicky expands his interests and each man gains power, 
their lives become entangled in a story of hot tempers, obstinacy, money, love and deception.

==========

This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as 
well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, 
live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob 
involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, 
while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each 
have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of 
drugs and violence.

==========

Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, a mob-connected casino operator in Las Vegas, attempts a civilized lifestyle with his 
money-conditional wife, Ginger. Nicky Santoro, a boyhood friend of Ace and now a Made-Man of the Mafia, arrives 
in town with an ambitious agenda of his own that soon disrupts Ace's life.