Valerie Bertinelli accessorizes in The Seduction of Gina.

From California Split to Croupier and Uncut Gems, women are often afterthoughts in movies about gambling. Jeanne Moreau’s compulsive gambler in Bay of Angels (1963) is a notable exception, a deadbeat mom whose desperation is evident in her haunted eyes and peroxide-blonde hair. “The first time I walked into a casino, I felt like I was in church,” she recalls in that film, a romanticization not quite echoed by Valerie Bertinelli’s Gina Breslin* in The Seduction of Gina (1984).

Gina’s gambling is less about spiritual communion than emotional immaturity and marital ennui. “I feel like I’m single except I can’t date,” she moans to best friend Mary (Dinah Manoff) as they loll around the college campus where she studies art. It’s a problem of her own making. Husband David (Fredric Lehne), a young physician, warned against tagging along for his intern year, worried she’d feel lonely and isolated. She insisted on cohabitation anyway but struggles during his overnight shifts, resorting first to restless late-night baking and then baccarat to keep busy.

Valerie Bertinelli in The Seduction of Gina.

Gina’s risk-taking starts accidentally, when she bets $5 on a long-shot horse and wins big. Then there are furtive trips to the bank and clandestine jaunts to a casino in Lake Tahoe, where sleazy lawyer Keith (Michael Brandon) observes “It’s always midnight here.” She knows nothing about horse racing, card games, or playing the odds and remains incurious throughout Seduction. Guided solely by instinct, she’s either lucky or she’s not — and as the ‘nots’ add up, so do her debts and the lies she tells to hide them.

Difficulty repaying her lenders leaves Gina in panic mode. She’s in over her head with bookie Jack (Michael Paul Chan) and owes thousands more to Keith, who stakes her when she runs out of chips. Screenwriter Judith Parker (Are You in the House Alone?) and director Jerrold Freedman (Goodnight Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston) don’t wring too much suspense from whether she’ll resort to working in the seedy strip clubs and sex shops that line the street near her apartment, but they make sure we notice the XXX signage and are aware of her dwindling options.

Valerie Bertinelli with Fredric Lehne and Dinah Manoff in The Seduction of Gina.

This never would’ve happened on Ann Romano’s watch, but as Bertinelli neared the end of a nine-year run on One Day at a Time in 1984, she showcased her versatility in a pair of very different telefilms. In Shattered Vows, she was a teenage nun-in-training whose yearning for independence — and passion for a priest — drew her away from the convent. Here she’s just as believable playing a considerably less rational and more frustrating character, a spoiled kid with a history of financial impulsivity who shares none of her husband’s willingness to accept delayed gratification.

Despite its conventionality — you can set a clock by Gina’s unraveling as she descends into addiction — The Seduction of Gina is the rare cautionary tale that doesn’t go overboard in making its points. With its gritty look (it was shot by the celebrated cinematographer Tak Fujimoto), Eddie Van Halen synth score and Bertinelli’s fun, purple-heavy ’80s wardrobe, it plays more like a forgotten theatrical release than a made-for-TV movie. It’s realistic in its depiction of the stresses faced by interns, residents and their partners, and in its portrayal of how abruptly the music finally stops for gamblers like Gina when they run out of funding.

You might also get a kick out of the pretty, pouty, emotionally injured husband being the one to snap “I don’t even know who you are anymore!”, a line usually given to wives in tales such as this.

*IMDb refers to Bertinelli’s character as Gina Breslin; in a scene near the end of the movie, she and another actor say either Bresley or Presley. The end credits don’t list her name.

Streaming and DVD availability

The Seduction of Gina is available on limited edition Blu-ray from Fun City, where it’s part of a triple-feature alongside The Death of Richie and Incident at Crestridge. It also streams free with ads on Freevee, Tubi and YouTube.

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