Casino

Casino is a 1995 movie directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi and Larry Shandling. Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a 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 Mob from the 1970s until the early 1980s.

Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on the real-life Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, an enforcer for the Chicago Mob. Santoro is sent to Vegas by the bosses 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 Rothstein's wife, Ginger, a role that earned her a Golden Globe win and Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Pileggi has described Casino as Scorsese's last installment to his gangster trilogy, supplementing Mean Streets and Goodfellas. However, the film has more obvious stylistic connections to the latter (Goodfellas), Scorsese's early 1990s cinematic masterpiece. Also, both films were based on a book by Pileggi and starred De Niro and Pesci. For these reasons, many critics consider Casino an unofficial sequel to Goodfellas, which may account for Casino's critical reputation not being as high as Scorsese's other films. However, many of Scorsese's fans and supporters consider Casino one of his best and feel that the film is underrated due to its unfair comparison to Goodfellas.

Trivia

• The word "F**k" is said 422 times, including in the narration - 2.4 times per minute on average.
  
  
• Sharon Stone spent many long workdays in agony while filming scenes for this film. She has back trouble due to an old injury, and the gold & white beaded gown she wears during a casino scene weighed 45 pounds.
  
  
• Madonna was considered for the role of Ginger, but Sharon Stone convinced director Martin Scorsese to give her the role.
  

• The blackjack cheats were using a technique known as "spooking". It is highly illegal.
  
  
• The movie is based on the career of casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal as portrayed by Robert De Niro's character Sam "Ace" Rothstein.
  
  
• To avoid the continuity problems that accompany a chain-smoking movie character, Robert De Niro always held his cigarettes the same distance from the lit end so that their lengths never appear to change.
  
  
• The jewelry store owner who gets robbed by Nicky's boys is an actual Las Vegas jeweler. His line "I just got a shipment of diamonds from Israel" was not in the script.
  
  
• Martin Scorsese stated before the film's release that he created the "head in the vise" scene as a sacrifice, certain the MPAA would insist it be cut. He hoped this would draw fire away from other violent scenes that would seem less so by comparison. When the MPAA made no objection to the vise scene, he left it in, albeit slightly edited.
  
  
• The character played by Joe Pesci, Nicky Santoro, was based on the real-life gangster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.
  
  
• Cameo: [Frank Cullotta] the grey-haired hitman in sunglasses near the end of the movie. He was the chief lieutenant of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro in the late '70s, early '80s. Cullotta entered the Witness Protection Program before the "cornfield incident" took place and was not present, unlike Marino.
  
  
• The scenes outside the fictional Tangiers casino were shot in front of the then-closed Maxim casino. The Maxim was renovated and reopened as the Westin Casurina (1996)_ .
  
  
• Casino was filmed entirely in the Las Vegas Valley. The casino and office scenes were filmed in the famed Riviera Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip and the driving scene in the beginning of the movie was filmed on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas, which is no longer open to automobile traffic.
  
  
• In Goodfellas, another film where Joe Pesci played a bad guy, his character's name was Tommy DeVito. This the same name as the actor who plays the crooked poke dealer.
  
  
• After being elected the Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, who played a small part in Casino and was the attorney of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the basis of Robert De Niro's character and who represented the Four Queens Casino/Hotel in Las Vegas created a $5 and $25 casino chip with his portrait.
  
  
• The "head in a vice" scene is taken from an anecdote in the book "Casino" unrelated to the main story, describing mob enforcer Tony Spilotro's interrogation of a low-level gangster named Billy McCarthy, who had committed the unauthorized murder on the Scalvo Brothers, a pair of high-ranking mobsters within Spilotro's crime organization. Trying to get McCarthy to give up the identity of the man who helped him kill the Scalvos, Spilotro first beat McCarthy, then stabbed him in the testicles with an icepick, before finally shoving his head in a vice and crunching it to five inches wide; McCarthy didn't give up the name of his partner, Jimmy Miraglia, until Spilotro tightened the vice in such a way that one of Billy's eyes popped out. Amazingly, McCarthy survived the head-crushing long enough for Spilotro to kill him by dousing him in lighter fluid and setting him ablaze. Spilotro would remark later in life, "Billy McCarthy was the toughest guy I ever met." (Jimmy Miraglia was subsequently shot dead and put in the trunk of his own car along with Billy's corpse).
  
  
• Oscar Goodman, who plays Sam Rothstein's attorney, is in real life a lawyer who defended several reputed mobsters with Las Vegas connections. In June of 1999, he was elected Mayor of Las Vegas.
  
  
• The character of K.K. Ichikawa (Nobu Matsuhisa), the Japanese highroller, is based on the life of high roller Akio Kashiwagi. During the 70's and 80's, Kashiwagi was a big scene at Las Vegas casinos. By the end of the 1980s, however, Kashiwagi had used up his casino credit, owing many casino executives, among them Donald Trump, millions of dollars. He was murdered in his home in Tokyo by the yakuza (Japanese mafia) in 1992.
  
  
• The casino scenes were shot at the Riviera between 1:00 am and 4:am so as not to get in the way of the real gamblers. Although the casino didn't want the shoot to interrupt its business, that didn't prevent it from trying to lure more punters inside by putting up a large banner that said, "Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci Filming the New Movie 'Casino' Inside!"
  
  
• Martin Scorsese hired actual parolees from that era as plot consultants, as well as various F.B.I. agents who had busted same parolees
  
  
• "Ace" Rothstein's vehicle during the bombing scenes is a 1981 Cadillac featuring the ill-fated "V 8-6-4" engine. Offered for only one year, the engine was meant to save fuel by shutting off unneeded cylinders. This can be seen in the dashboard shot of the "MPG Sentinel" and its "Active Cyls" button at the end of the movie.
  
  
• When James Woods heard that Martin Scorsese was interested in working with him, Woods called Scorsese's office and left the following message: "Any time, any place, any part, any fee."
  
  
• While the movie begins by stating it is based upon a true story, it never names the actual casino involved. The Tangiers casino is fictional. The story is actually based upon the history of the Stardust casino, a fact well documented in the Vegas history books. Scorsese discreetly documents this fact via the soundtrack, in which the song "Stardust" is heard three different times. An instrumental version plays during Ace and Ginger's wedding and a vocal version is heard during the scene where Remo asks Marino if Nicky and Ginger are having sex and also during the very end of the final credits.
  
  
• Sasha Semenoff, the orchestra leader seen on the "Aces High" television show, is a well known Las Vegas local. He has performed in Vegas for nearly fifty years. His quartet played the Dunes hotel in the mid 1960s; in 2003, he entertained diners at The Venetian with his violin.
  
  
• After Nicky is barred from Vegas casinos, Ace and Nicky meet sixty miles outside Vegas at a bar called the Idle Spurs. The telephone number seen on the front sign of the Idle Spurs was the correct telephone number for the Idle Spurs Tavern in Las Vegas (at 1113 South Rainbow Boulevard, near the intersection of Charleston Boulevard). The telephone number remained in service years after the movie was made. The number is now disconnected.
  
  
• Among other Las Vegas regulars, veteran comedy headliners Alan King, Don Rickles, and Dick Smothers appear in major, non-comedic roles.
  
  
• Dick Smothers' character, Senator, is partly based on Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. The scene in which Sam Rothstein is denied a license by the Nevada Gaming Commission is based on a December 1978 hearing when Harry Reid was the commission's chairman; some of Reid's statements are used in Smothers' dialogue. The scene was shot in an actual courtroom in the Clark County Courthouse, which was later closed in 2005.
  
  
• One of Las Vegas's most flamboyant casino operators, Bob Stupak, was originally cast to have a non-speaking role as a member of the Nevada Gaming Commission. However, when he demanded that he have some lines, he was quickly replaced.
  
  
• Close associates of the people portrayed in the film were on the set constantly, providing crucial and pivotal information.
  
  
• Michelle Pfeiffer as well as Madonna was also considered by Scorsese before Sharon Stone accepted the role.