Coming out as it did right before Tony Curtis's breakthrough role as a serious actor in Sweet Smell Of Success was this overlooked drama Mister Cory where Curtis plays a man on the make just like Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell Of Success. The only difference is that Mister Cory is redeemed somewhat in the final fadeout. It would not surprise me that Burt Lancaster who produced as well as starred in Sweet Smell Of Success cast Curtis after seeing this.
In the title role of Mister Cory, Curtis plays a young hustler on the make who gets a job as a busboy in a posh resort on the Lake Michigan shore. He's got both a talent for gambling and womanizing and starts romancing Lake Shore Drive princess Martha Hyer who has rich and weak William Reynolds eating out of her hand. For a context to put her relationship with Curtis in, Hyer was taking notes from Norma Shearer in A Free Soul. Her younger sister is Kathryn Crosby who really likes Curtis, but his sites are set higher on Hyer.
But it's his gambling prowess that comes to the attention of Charles Bickford who takes Curtis on as a protégé and he becomes a regular Cincinnati Kid. Later they go into partnership with Russ Morgan in a posh gambling club and all the plot elements congeal right there.
Russ Morgan is indeed Russ Morgan the famous swing band leader and I was surprised at the good performance he turned in. He did not pick up an instrument or baton and I was surprised what a good acting performance he turned in in a role that had nothing to do with music.
Henry Daniell is also in the cast as the head of the resort where Curtis gets his job and he plays the usual Daniell part and eventually has to fire Tony. When it comes to opening his club he hires Daniell to run the non-gambling part of it. Later on during the climax of the film we learn that the cold and haughty Daniell that we all know has a criminal record of his own.
I'm sorry that this film is not out in any format. A must for fans of Tony Curtis.
