5 Against the House

5 Against the House is a 1955 American heist film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Guy Madison, Kim Novak and Brian Keith. The supporting cast includes William Conrad. The screenplay is based on Jack Finney's 1954 novel of the same name, later serialized by Good Housekeeping magazine. The film centers on a fictional robbery of what was a real Nevada casino, Harold's Club. Plot Four friends enrolled at Midwestern University (which was fictional at the time of the film but became a reality in the mid-1990s) - Brick (Keith), Al (Madison), Ronnie (Kerwin Mathews) and Roy (Alvy Moore) - visit the Harold's Club casino in Reno, Nevada during a weekend trip. After an hour spent gambling and socializing, the group prepares to leave. Ronnie, however, has lost money playing roulette and must cash a check at the cashier's window. He is accompanied there by Roy, but unbeknownst to either of them, the cashier is being threatened by a man with a gun. Using a concealed security alarm, the cashier alerts casino officials, who apprehend not only the would-be robber, but Roy and Ronnie as well. Al persuades the police to release Roy and Ronnie, but the inquisitive Ronnie has become obsessed with the idea of a spectacular casino robbery, and he begins forming his own plans to rob Harold's Club after he overhears one of the police officers say "There's no way it [robbing Harold's Club] can be done." Back at college, the incident is seemingly forgotten, though Ronnie begins developing his plans in earnest. Al also re-establishes his relationship with his girlfriend, Kay (Kim Novak), who recently has become a singer at a local nightclub. Al takes Brick, Roy and Ronnie to see one of her shows. After the performance, Brick, a veteran of the Korean war, is provoked into fighting a fellow student over a former girlfriend, and afterward, he suffers from the effects of a dissociative psychotic episode due to an ongoing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Later that night, Al encourages a distraught Brick to return to a veteran's hospital for treatment, but he refuses.