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Casino (film)

Casino is an Academy Award nominated 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi and Larry Shandling. Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish chain-smoking top gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. The story is based on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont and the Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s.

Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on the real-life Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, an intimidating enforcer and psychopath. Nicky is sent by the Chicago Outfit to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and that the casinos and mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ace's wife, the self-obsessed, spoiled, devious and sly Ginger, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

When released, Casino had the most uses of the word "fuck" (422) in a feature length film, but was outdone two years later by the film Nil by Mouth though it remains the highest number of uses of the word in an American film excluding documentaries. Casino has been considered a companion piece to Scorsese's earlier film, Goodfellas (1990), which also starred De Niro and Pesci.

Plot

Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a sports handicapper for the mob, is entrusted by four Midwest mob bosses in Kansas City, Missouri (Remo Gaggi, Vincent Borelli, Americo Capelli and Vinny Forlano) to oversee the management of the Tangiers Hotel's casino in Las Vegas while they illegally skim the casino profits. Sam's experience in gambling and "hands-on" management style allow him to quickly double the profits of the Tangiers. The bosses send his boyhood friend, Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Joe Pesci), who is famous for his violent temper, to "protect" Sam and their interests. Nicky shows his sadistic and brutal nature in one of the Outfit's bars. When Sam asks a man talking to a woman if a misplaced pen is his, the man insults him in return after saying that the pen does belong to him. Nicky takes the pen out of Sam's hand and furiously stabs him in the neck and kicks him even mocking his whimpering. A certain mobster-style can be seen in Sam too, especially in the scene where he and several casino security guards severely beat and threaten two cheaters.

Later on, Sam falls in love with an attractive hustler named Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Three months later, he proposes to Ginger, who claims to care about him but not love him. Sam laments that his entire life he's always bet on the sure thing, while marrying Ginger would be a "real long shot." But he convinces himself married life will change her. The two have a daughter, Amy, and do marry.

Nicky's recklessness, combined with his cheating in various Las Vegas casinos, get him banned from every gambling den in the city. Undeterred, Nicky starts working for himself in Vegas, organizing his own crew, Jack Hardy (Jed Mills), Sal Fusco (Clem Caserta), and Bernie Blue (Bret McCormick), plus a jewelry business and a restaurant with his brother Dominick (Philip Suriano) and his right-hand man Frank Marino (Frank Vincent).

Tensions rise when an up-and-coming hood, Tony Dogs (Carl Ciarfalio), along with two other men shoot up one of Gaggi's diners, killing two of his men and a young waitress. An enraged Gaggi demands information out of Dogs by any means necessary. Nicky and his men beat and torture Dogs for two days. He eventually sticks Dogs' head in an industrial vise with the option of ratting on his crew or dying. Nicky tightens the vise after Dogs curses him, until one of his eyeballs pops out of his head. Dogs finally breaks and gives up one of his partners, begging Nicky to kill him afterwards. Nicky leaves Marino to slit the man's throat, and possibly goes to find the other man.

Sam is interviewed by a reporter concerning the running of the Tangiers' hotel. After hinting he runs the casino, which is technically under the cover of the legal chairman, Phillip Green (Kevin Pollak), Sam is forced to apply for a gaming license. The application is rejected by a crooked Nevada senator (Dick Smothers) (who Sam had been comping with money and women at the hotel) as a favor to county commissioner Patrick Webb (L.Q. Jones), whom Sam had enraged earlier by firing his brother-in-law (played by Joe Bob Briggs).

Upon hearing a phone conservation between Ginger and her former boyfriend Lester Diamond (James Woods), Sam learns that Ginger is financially aiding Lester with his money troubles. Sam then tells Nicky to make arrangements for Lester to be beaten up, and makes Ginger watch Nicky and his crew brutalize Lester. After this, Ginger's drug and alcohol addictions worsen and eventually, Ginger turns against Sam. By way of revenge, she and Lester take Amy and flee. Nicky persuades Ginger over the phone to return but Sam refuses to forgive her disloyalty and drug use. Following a violent argument, Ginger leaves Sam and begins an affair with Nicky.

The bosses notice that the suitcases delivered from the Tangiers are getting lighter, since the men counting the money have begun stealing more than usual for themselves. The bosses put Artie Piscano (Vinny Vella), the underboss of Kansas City, in charge of overseeing the operations, but his loud complaints give the FBI, which had placed bugs in Piscano's grocery, cause to start an investigation. Worse yet, out of frustration at not being reimbursed, Piscano starts keeping precise records of the expenses, despite Borelli warning him to put nothing in writing.

Nicky starts drinking too much, and the members of his crew become cocaine addicts. Their work, once cold and precise, becomes sloppy in both planning and execution. Ace notes in a voiceover that it took Nicky three punches to knock down a man; before he'd have needed just one. After two detectives killed Bernie Blue, mistaking his foil-wrapped hero sandwich for a gun, the crew draws attention to themselves by shooting up the detectives' homes.

Sam and Ginger's relationship ends for good after Ginger ties Amy to her bed while she goes out to Nicky's restaurant. When Ginger returns home, Sam gives her some luggage and forcibly throws her out; hours later, Ginger returns into the bedroom and Sam decides to forgive her. Soon afterwards, a furious Sam threatens to kill her, prompting Ginger to turn to Nicky for help. Nicky, aghast at Ginger's attitude (and still showing loyalty to his friend), refuses to help, causing her to create a public scene; Ginger then yells that she is now going to go the FBI and drives away in fury. Nicky laments to Marino that he "fucked up good this time", a cardinal sin to the bosses being for one associate to sleep with another's wife. Ginger drives to Sam's house in a fit of rage to collect her possessions. The police are called. She tricks the police into letting her enter the home where she steals the keys to a safety deposit box holding $1,000,000. Later, Ginger is arrested for aiding and abetting the Mob.

Ginger's arrest and Piscano's big mouth start the crumbling of the Mafia's desert empire. FBI agents storm Nicky's business and the casino. Piscano's expense reports provide them with a blueprint of how the scam worked, along with dates, names and addresses. While being arrested in his living room, Piscano becomes so upset, he has a massive heart attack and dies.

The FBI also visits Sam with photographic evidence of the affair between Nicky and Ginger to persuade him to testify, but Sam balks. The bosses are arrested and taken to court, where they hold a meeting during a recess in a back room to decide which witnesses should be eliminated to stop them from ratting them out. Gaggi's hitmen murder several associates. Ginger sinks deeper into drug addiction, and ultimately ends up with a group of lowlife bikers in California who use her money to purchase drugs. She collapses in a hotel hallway and dies of a drug overdose, alone. Sam's voiceover suggests Ginger was purposely given a "hot dose," and talks about how he had paid for a second autopsy.

Sam himself is almost killed by a car bomb, surviving by sheer luck due to a metal plate being underneath the driver's seat (GM actually installed the plate to correct a balancing problem for the 1981 Cadillac Eldorado.) Though he can't prove who planted the bomb, Sam suspects that it was Nicky. The Tangiers and other mob-run Vegas casinos are demolished and replaced with family-friendly "resorts." As Nicky's own narration puts it, "It turns out that was the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that fucking valuable."

Nicky and his brother Dominick hold a meeting in a cornfield with Marino, Nicky's crew, and two of Gaggi's wiseguys, Fat Sally (Michael Toney) and Beeper (Steve Vignari), who helped murder the witnesses. Nicky's own crew turns on him, with Marino clubbing him with a baseball bat. As Nicky is helplessly restrained by Fusco and Fat Sally, he watches in horror as Marino, Hardy and Beeper brutally beat Dominick with baseball bats. He begs them to stop, but Marino clubs him twice in the mouth (a scene omitted from most versions), and eventually knocks Dominick into unconsciousness. Nicky is next, and Marino and his men bury the Santoro brothers alive. Sam's narration states the bosses had enough of Nicky, and ordered Marino and the rest of Nicky's crew, along with their hoods, to "make an example" of Nicky and Dominick.

Sam is seen in San Diego, living alone in what appears to be a luxurious large house with a swimming pool (though not nearly as big as the mansion he had previously owned in Vegas) making bets for the mob and watching sporting events on multiple televisions. Sam notes that he ended up right back where he started before taking over the Tangiers, picking winners and making money for the bosses back home. As he takes off his sunglasses, the audience sees that he is an old man now and looks depressed, knowing that he has ultimately ended up where he started, only this time, with all his friends gone.

Development

The Tangiers Casino is based on The Stardust Resort & Casino,

which closed forever on November 1, 2006. Snippets of Hoagy Carmichael's composition Stardust in the soundtrack give a subtle hint as to the casino's true identity. Lester Diamond was reportedly going to be murdered and buried by Nicky and his crew as a favour for Sam in an early draft of the script, but this idea was changed under the fear of a lawsuit by Lenny Marmor, who is still living to this day. Frank Rosenthal is re-named Sam Rothstein for the film. This could be a nod to one of Joe Pesci's previous films, My Cousin Vinny, which features a character named "Stan Rothenstein" (played by Mitchell Whitfield).

Rosenthal was initially opposed to the idea of his story being made into a film. His opinion, however, reportedly changed when he learned of Scorsese's involvement and De Niro's casting. Scorsese also organized the film's storyline production in a similar fashion as he did when he produced his 1990 film Goodfellas too.

Differences between fact and fiction

The majority of the actual events took place in Kansas City, Missouri, even more so than Las Vegas. In the 1970s, the Kansas City mob was involved in a gangland war over control of the River Quay entertainment district, in which three buildings were bombed and several gangsters were killed. Police investigations into the mob took hold after Kansas City Boss Nick Civella was recorded discussing gambling bets on Super Bowl IV (where the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings). The gang war and investigation would lead to the end of mob control of the Stardust Casino, which was the basis for the film (although the Kansas City connections are minimized in the movie).

The character of Frank Marino (played by Frank Vincent and based on Frank Cullotta) participates in the killing of the Santoro brothers. In reality, Frank Cullotta was not present and played no part in the beating of the Spilotro brothers (on whom the Santoro brothers were based), and only betrayed them by testifying against them about the M & M murders (as the 1962 murders of James Miraglia and Billy McCarthy in Chicago were called) when Anthony Spilotro ordered him killed over the phone, although Cullotta's testimony was not enough to convict Spilotro. Cullotta also has a cameo as Curly, one of Gaggi's hitmen near the end of the film.

The character of John Nance, based on George Vandermark, is murdered in the film with two gunshots to the stomach and one to the head and left in open view. The real George Vandermark was murdered along with his drug addict son, Jeffrey, but his body was never found. Furthermore, Bill Allison (Nance's actor), is a former casino owner and served as a technical advisor for the film, along with Frank Cullota (who plays Curly, Nance's killer).

In the film Artie Piscano, based on Kansas City Underboss Carl A. "Tuffy" DeLuna, dies of a heart attack during an FBI raid on his home. In reality, DeLuna was arrested, tried and sentenced to 30 years. He did in fact keep extensive cryptic notes hidden in his basement which, together with wiretaps, connected all the dots the FBI needed. He was released from prison in 1998 and died in Kansas City in 2008, the last surviving defendant.

The Tangiers Casino, based on the Stardust Resort & Casino, is shown to be demolished at the end of the movie, whereas in real life, the Stardust Casino was not demolished until March 2007.

According to Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal's official website (The man which the film is based on), he never juggled on television, even though Robert De Niro's character does.

The Spilotro Brothers were said to be killed in a basement in Bensenville, Illinois, and their bodies buried in the cornfield in Indiana according to testimony of Nick Calabrese in the Chicago Family Secrets Mob Trial.

The place in the film where the bosses of the Chicago mob met to pick up and distribute their Las Vegas money was in a boarded up, out-of-business ARCO gas station on the southeast corner of Harlem Ave. and Division St. in Oak Park, IL.

Cast

Actor	Role	Based on
Robert De Niro	Sam "Ace" Rothstein	Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
Joe Pesci	Nicky "The Ant" Santoro	Tony "The Ant" Spilotro
Sharon Stone	Ginger McKenna Rothstein	Geraldine McGee Rosenthal
Frank Vincent	Frankie Marino	Frank Cullotta
Don Rickles	Billy Sherbert	Murray Ehrenberg
Pasquale Cajano	Remo Gaggi	Joseph Aiuppa
James Woods	Lester Diamond	Leonard Marmor
John Bloom	Donald "Don" Ward	-
L. Q. Jones	Pat Webb	-
Kevin Pollak	Philip Green	Allen Glick
Alan King	Andy Stone	Allen Dorfman
Bill Allison	John Nance	George Vandermark
Philip Suriano	Dominick Santoro	Michael Spilotro
Carl Ciarfalio	Tony Dogs	Billy McCarthy
Vinny Vella	Artie Piscano	Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna
Nobu Matsuhisa	K. K. Ichikawa	Akio Kashiwagi
Ffiolliott Le Coque	Anna Scott	Tamara Rand
Bret McCormick	Bernie Blue	Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein
Richard Riehle	Charlie "Clean Face" Clark	Morris Shenker
Dick Smothers	Nevada State Senator Harrison Roberts	US Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
Oscar Goodman	Himself	Himself
Frank Cullotta	Curly	-
Steve Vignari	Beeper	-

Casting notes

Madonna was strongly considered for the female lead in the film and took the producers to dinner at a well-known "mafia hangout" to help her secure the part. She was passed over for the role in favor of Sharon Stone. Sam Rothstein's lawyer in the film is played by Oscar Goodman, Lefty's real lawyer and mayor of Las Vegas. Ray Liotta was considered for the roles of both Phillip Green and Lester Diamond.

According to an interview on Jay Leno, James Woods said that when his agent told him that Martin Scorsese was interested in possibly working with him, he told his agent to reply back "Anywhere. Anytime. Any part. Any price." Two of co-lead actors from his 1990 film Goodfellas (Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci) were again assigned lead roles in this film as well.