The Gin Game on AllMovie

D.L. Coburn's1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Gin Game was originally directed by Mike Nichols. This taped TV version was staged by Terry Hughes and performed before a live London audience in October 1979. The scene is the sun porch of a nursing home. Longtime resident Hume Cronyn has avoided close contact with the other patients thanks to his crotchety nature. Newcomer Jessica Tandy (Cronyn's wife, who won a Tony award for her performance), hospitalized for diabetes, timidly walks onto the sun porch, and before long she and Cronyn are playing a quiet game of gin rummy. During their next several games, Cronyn and Tandy's relationship dwindles down to one long argument, culminating with the two players dredging up their most painful memories. The Gin Game was telecast on March 7, 1984 as an entry of PBS' American Playhouse.