The Gin Game

D.L. Coburn’s The Gin Game, the 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner, uses a game of cards as a metaphor for life. William Schallert and Pamela Payton-Wright star in this comedy.

The two characters, Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, discover they both dislike the nursing home where they have both been forced to live. The one thing they do enjoy is a game of gin rummy. As they play the game and uncover each other’s past, they create an intimate, yet uneasy friendship. The rookie, Fonsia, always wins, while the gin rummy veteran, Weller, can’t seem to win.