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California Split

California Split

Comedy · Drama · 1974

Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.

Movie details

California Split

“…Being the story of two bet-on-anything guys who happily discover something called a "winning streak."”

1974 Comedy · Drama 1h 48m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

8.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

87 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

85 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over California Split?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Rounders

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Molly's Game

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Bugsy

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House of Games

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Crime · 1987

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Robert Altman

Written by

Joseph Walsh

George Segal

George Segal

Bill Denny

Elliott Gould

Elliott Gould

Charlie Waters

Ann Prentiss

Ann Prentiss

Barbara Miller

Gwen Welles

Gwen Welles

Susan Peters

Edward Walsh

Edward Walsh

Lew

Joseph Walsh

Joseph Walsh

Sparkie

Bert Remsen

Bert Remsen

Helen Brown

Court is in session

Put California Split on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.