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Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Sting

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The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw).[2] The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life con games perpetrated by the brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money. (Today the expression is mostly used in the context of law enforcement sting operations.) If a con game is successful, the mark does not realize he has been "taken" (cheated), at least not until the con men are long gone. The film is divided into distinct sections with old-fashioned title cards with lettering and illustrations rendered in a style reminiscent of the Saturday Evening Post. The film is noted for its musical score—particularly its main melody, "The Entertainer", a piano rag by Scott Joplin, which was lightly adapted for the movie by Marvin Hamlisch. The film's success encouraged a surge of popularity and critical acclaim for Joplin's work

Plot

Johnny Hooker (Redford), a "grifter" (small-time con man) from Depression-era Joliet, Illinois, along with accomplices Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe) manage to swipe $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting "mark" (victim). Luther announces his retirement from crime and advises Hooker to seek out an old friend, Henry Gondorff, in Chicago, who can teach him the art of the "big con."
Unfortunately the mark was a numbers racket courier for crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder (Charles Durning) confronts Hooker, demanding a cut and revealing Lonnegan's involvement. Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit bills. Lonnegan's men murder Luther and Hooker flees to Chicago.
Gondorff (Paul Newman), a once-great con-man now down on his luck, is initially reluctant to take on the dangerous Lonnegan. Eventually he decides to resurrect an elaborate and supposedly obsolete scam known as "the wire." A large number of con artists are recruited to simulate a betting parlor.
Gondorff arranges to have Lonnegan's wallet stolen aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited enroute from New York City, and poses as boorish Chicago bookie "Shaw." He buys his way into Lonnegan's private high-stakes poker game on the train with the latter's own money. He taunts, goads and out-cheats Lonnegan, winning $15,000. Hooker, posing as Shaw's disgruntled employee "Kelly", is sent to collect the winnings (which Lonnegan, lacking his wallet, was of course unable to pay).
"Kelly" pretends to seek the overthrow of his boss, Shaw, convincing Lonnegan that he has a partner in the Chicago Western Union office named Les Harmon, and that he can use this connection to win large sums of money in Shaw's off-track betting (OTB) establishment bypast-posting. Harmon is actually one of the lead con artists, going by the name Kid Twist. He and J.J. Singleton, another con man, successfully "borrow" an actual Western Union office for a very brief time, to help dupe Lonnegan.
In the sub-plot, Hooker must continually avoid Snyder, who has followed him to Chicago. Snyder is thwarted when he is summoned by undercover FBI agents led by a man named Polk, who orders him to assist in their scheme to arrest Gondorff by bringing Hooker in—this for the purpose of coercing him into betraying Gondorff.
The title of this act comes from "shutting out" Lonnegan from the betting window when he intends to place a bet much bigger than the phony wire set-up can cover; the window is closed as the race begins, just as Lonnegan is stepping up to bet. His intended horse does "win," however, further convincing him of the effectiveness of the method.
In a subordinate action, Hooker begins a romance with a local waitress (Loretta). Unbeknownst to Hooker, Lonnegan has grown frustrated with his men's inability to find and kill Hooker, so he arranges for a professional killer, "Salino," to finish the job. (Not having previously met Hooker, Lonnegan is unaware that Hooker and "Kelly" are the same person). A mysterious figure with black leather gloves is soon seen following and observing Hooker.
After Hooker spends the night with Loretta, he wakes up alone and begins walking to work. He sees Loretta coming toward him. The black-gloved man appears behind him, aiming a gun in his direction. The bullet passes Hooker and hits Loretta in the forehead, killing her instantly. It turns out that the hired killer was "Loretta Salino". The gloved man had been hired by Gondorff to protect Hooker.
Lonnegan brings a half-million dollars to "place" his bet on Lucky Dan to win, as per "Harmon’s" telephoned instructions. As the race begins, and when Lonnegan confirms the bet with Harmon (aka Kid Twist) in person at the parlor, the latter displays shock, telling Lonnegan he was supposed to bet on the horse to "place", as it's going to finish second. Lonnegan panics, but is unable to retract his bet. Suddenly the FBIand Snyder burst in and order everyone to freeze. Polk confronts Gondorff, then tells Hooker he is free to go. Gondorff, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Hooker in the back; Polk then shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get Lonnegan away from the crime scene so as to avoid greater complications—Snyder immediately complies. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise amid cheers and laughter. Gondorff tells "Polk": "nice con, Hickey." Hooker and Gondorff then depart, as the rest of the players and members of the Sting strip the room of its contents before Snyder and/or Lonnegan and his men can come back to retrieve the money.

[edit]Cast

[edit]Production

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (November 2008)
  • In 1974 The Big Con author David Maurer filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit claiming at least part of the film's story had been taken from his book. The matter was resolved out of court in 1976.
  • Doyle Lonnegan's limp in the film, used to great effect by actor Robert Shaw, was in fact completely authentic as Shaw had slipped on a wet handball court at the Beverly Hills Hotel just a week before filming began and had split all the ligaments in his knee. He had to wear a leg brace during production which was kept hidden under the wide 1930s style trousers he wore. This incident was revealed by Julia Philips in her 1991 autobiography You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. She said that Shaw saved The Sting since no other actor would accept the part and that Paul Newman hand delivered the script to Shaw in London in order to ensure his participation. He no doubt paid the price for the extremely high salary his agent John Gaines held the producers up for since he was not nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, the general feeling being, as Philips states in her book, that he should not have demanded that his name follow those of Newman and Redford before the film's opening title.
  • Rob Cohen, later a director of 1990s action films like The Fast and the Furious, years later told of how he found the script in the slush pilewhen he was working as a reader for Mike Medavoy, a future studio head then an agent. He wrote in his coverage that it was "the great American screenplay and ... will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film." Medavoy said that he would try to sell it on that recommendation and promised to fire Cohen if he couldn't. Universal bought it that afternoon, and Cohen still has the coverage framed on the wall of his office.[4]

[edit]Reception

The film was a box office smash in 1973, taking in more than US$160 million. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[edit]Awards

[edit]Wins

The film won seven Academy Awards and received three other nominations. Julia Phillips became the first female producer to win Best Picture at the 46th Academy Awards.[5]

[edit]Nominations

[edit]Music

The soundtrack album, which was executive produced by Gil Rodin, contained the following selections, most of which are Scott Joplinragtime pieces. Ragtime had just experienced a revival due to several recordings by Joshua Rifkin on Nonesuch Records starting in 1970. There are some variances from the actual film soundtrack, as noted. Joplin's ragtime music was no longer popular during the 1930s, although its use in The Sting evokes a definitive 1930s gangster movie, The Public Enemy, which also featured Scott Joplin theme music. The twoJazz Age style tunes written by Hamlisch are chronologically much closer to the film's time period than are the Joplin rags:
  1. "Solace" (Joplin) - orchestral version
  2. "The Entertainer" (Joplin) - orchestral version
  3. "The Easy Winners" (Joplin)
  4. "Hooker's Hooker" (Hamlisch)
  5. "Luther" - same basic tune as "Solace", re-arranged by Hamlisch as a dirge
  6. "Pine Apple Rag" / "Gladiolus Rag" medley (Joplin)
  7. "The Entertainer" (Joplin) - piano version
  8. "The Glove" (Hamlisch) - a Jazz Age style number; only a short segment was used in the film
  9. "Little Girl" (Madeline Hyde, Francis Henry) - not in the final cut of the film
  10. "Pine Apple Rag" (Joplin)
  11. "Merry-Go-Round Music" medley (traditional) - "Listen to the Mocking Bird" was the only portion of this track that was actually used in the film, along with the second segment of "King Cotton", a Sousa march, which was not on the album
  12. "Solace" (Joplin) - piano version
  13. "The Entertainer" / "The Ragtime Dance" medley (Joplin)
The album sequence differs from the film sequence, a standard practice with vinyl LPs, often for aesthetic reasons. Some additional content differences:
  • Selected snippets of Joplin's works, some appearing on the album and some not, provided linking music over the title cards that were used to introduce major scenes. (The final card, "The Sting", introducing the film's dramatic conclusion, had no music at all.)
  • Some of the tunes in the film are different takes than those on the album.
  • A Joplin tune used in the film but not appearing in the soundtrack album was "Cascades". The middle (fast) portion of it was played when Hooker was running away from Snyder along the 'L' train platform.
  • The credits end with "Stoptime Rag" (Joplin), which does not appear on the film soundtrack album but instead appears on Hamlisch's 1974 album The Entertainer.

[edit]Chart positions

YearChartPosition
1974Billboard 2001
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
Preceded by
Chicago VII by Chicago		Billboard 200 number-one album
May 4 - June 7, 1974		Succeeded by
Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot
Preceded by
Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield		Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
June 17 - July 28, 1974
August 5–11, 1974		Succeeded by
Caribou by Elton John

[edit]Sequel

A less-successful sequel with different players, The Sting II, appeared in 1983. In the same year a prequel was also planned, exploring the earlier career of Henry Gondorff. Famous confidence man Soapy Smith was scripted to be Gondorff's mentor. When the sequel failed, the prequel was scrapped.

[edit]Home media



A deluxe DVD, The Sting: Special Edition (part of the Universal Legacy Series) was released in September 2005, including a "making of" featurette and interviews with the cast and crew.

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