of the novel. Spencer Tracy was originally cast as Lancey Howard, but ill health forced him to withdraw from the film. Sam Peckinpah was originally hired to direct; producer Martin Ransohoff fired him shortly after filming began for "vulgarizing the picture." Peckinpah's version was to be shot in black-and-white to give the film a 1930s period feel. Jewison scrapped the black-and-white footage, feeling it was a mistake to shoot a film with the red and black of playing cards in greyscale. He did mute the colors throughout, both to evoke the period and to help pop the card colors when they appeared. Strother Martin said he was cast in the film but got fired after Jewison replaced Peckinpah. The film features a theme song performed by Ray Charles, the Eureka Brass Band performing a second line parade, and a scene in Preservation Hall with Emma Barrett (vocalist and pianist), Punch Miller (trumpet), Paul Crawford (trombone), George Lewis (clarinet), Cie Frazier (drums) and Allan Jaffe (helicon). Notes on the game When reciting the rules, Shooter clearly states "no string bets", though players (including Howard) go on to make string bets during the game. The game is open stakes. This is unusual in modern times and almost never allowed in casinos, but permissible in home games and was common for the time period of the film. The unlikely nature of the final hand is discussed by Anthony Holden in his book Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player, "the odds against any full house losing to any straight flush, in a two-handed game, are 45,102,781 to 1", with Holden continuing that the odds against the particular final hand in the movie are astronomical (as both hands include 10s). Holden states that the chances of both such hands appearing in one deal are "a laughable" 332,220,508,619 to 1 (more than 332 billion to 1 against) and goes on: "If these two played 50 hands of stud an hour, eight hours a day, five days a week, the situation would arise about once every 443 years." Nevertheless, the nature of probability is that even if something is possible, however unlikely, it nevertheless might happen, and therefore is certainly not an impossibility. The movie reflects that truth - if something is possible, it may possibly happen whatever the odds. Despite Holden's statement, such a hand is exactly as likely to appear on the