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
The Players (0 min)
Johnny Hooker (Redford), a small-time con man (a "grifter") 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 victim (a "mark"). 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.
The Set-Up (24th min)
Gondorff (Paul Newman), down on his luck is initially reluctant to take on the dangerous Lonnegan. Eventually Henry decides to resurrect an elaborate and supposedly obsolete scam known as "the wire." A large number of con artists are recrutied to simulate a betting parlor.
The Hook (40th min)
Gondorff arranges to have Lonnegan's wallet stolen aboard a train, 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 Lonengan, winning $15,000. Hooker, posing as "Kelly" -- adisgruntled employee of Shaw -- is sent to collect the winnings, which Lonnegan was unable to pay without his wallet.
The Tale (65th min)
"Kelly" pretends to seek the overthrow of his boss, Shaw, convincing Lonnegan that he has a partner in the Chicago Western Union office, and that he can use this connection to win large sums of money in Shaw's off-track betting (OTB) establishment by past-posting.
The Wire (83rd min)
Johnny must continually avoid Snyder, who has followed him to Chicago. Snyder is thwarted when he is summoned by undercover FBI agents. Snyder is ordered to assist the FBI in their attempts to arrest Gondorff by bringing Hooker in -- this for the purpose of coercing him into betraying Gondorff.
The Shut-Out (93rd min)
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, so 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 named 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.
The Sting (112th min)
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 hits Loretta in the forehead and kills 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 bet on the horse to win. When he informs Kid Twist of this, the latter displays shock and tells Lonnegan he was supposed to bet on the horse to "place", as it's going to finish second. Lonnegan panicks, but is unable to retract his bet. Suddenly the FBI and Snyder burst in and order everyone to freeze. Polk confronts Gondorff and tells Hooker he is free to go. Gondorff, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Hooker; Polk then shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get Lonnegan out of there. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and GOndorff rise amid cheers anbd laughter. Hooker and Gondorff then proceed nonchalantly to walk out of the alley way, 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.
Cast
Paul Newman as Henry "Shaw" Gondorff
Robert Redford as Johnny "Kelly" Hooker
Robert Shaw as Doyle Lonnegan
Charles Durning as Lt. William Snyder
Ray Walston as J.J. Singleton
Eileen Brennan as Billie
Harold Gould as Kid Twist
John Heffernan as Eddie Niles
Dana Elcar as FBI Agent Polk, aka "Hickey"
James Sloyan as Mottola
Larry D. Mann as Mr. Clemens
Sally Kirkland as Crystal ("Hooker's hooker")
Jack Kehoe as Joe Erie
Robert Earl Jones as Luther Coleman (credited as Robertearl Jones)
Dimitra Arliss as Loretta Salino
Joe Tornatore as Black-gloved gunman
Charles Dierkop as Floyd, Lonnegan's Bodyguard
Lee Paul as Lonnegan's bodyguard
Leonard Barr as Leonard (burlesque comic)
Jack Collins as Duke Boudreau
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)
Harold Gould's character, "Kid Twist," shared that nickname with (though apparently not the profession of) at least two different mob hit men, Max Zwerbach and Abe Reles.
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.
The movie was filmed on the backlot of Universal Studios.
Robert Weverka later wrote a novelization of The Sting.
The diner in which Hooker meets Lonnegan is the same diner interior used in the 1985 movie Back to the Future, in which Marty McFly first meets his father and calls Doc Brown, and re-used as the interior for the Cafe 80s in the sequel, Back to the Future Part II.
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 pile when 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.
Reception
The film was a box office smash in 1973, taking in more than US$160 million. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. In 2005, The Sting was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Awards
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.
Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Directing - (George Roy Hill)
Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay - (David S. Ward)
Academy Award for Best Art Direction - (Henry Bumstead and James W. Payne)
Academy Award for Best Costume Design - (Edith Head)
Academy Award for Film Editing - (William H. Reynolds)
Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation - (Marvin Hamlisch)
Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures - (George Roy Hill)
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actor - (Robert Redford)
Academy Award for Best Cinematography - (Robert Surtees)
Academy Award for Sound - (Ronald Pierce & Robert R. Bertrand)
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture - (David S. Ward)
WGA Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen - (David S. Ward)
Music
The soundtrack album, which was executive produced by Gil Rodin, contained the following selections, most of which are Scott Joplin ragtime 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 two Jazz Age style tunes written by Hamlisch are chronologically much closer to the film's time period than are the Joplin rags:
"Solace" (Joplin) - orchestral version
"The Entertainer" (Joplin) - orchestral version
"The Easy Winners" (Joplin)
"Hooker's Hooker" (Hamlisch)
"Luther" - same basic tune as "Solace", re-arranged by Hamlisch as a dirge
"Pine Apple Rag" / "Gladiolus Rag" medley (Joplin)
"The Entertainer" (Joplin) - piano version
"The Glove" (Hamlisch) - a Jazz Age style number; only a short segment was used in the film
"Little Girl" (Madeline Hyde, Francis Henry) - not in the final cut of the film
"Pine Apple Rag" (Joplin)
"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
"Solace" (Joplin) - piano version
"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.
Chart positions
Year Chart Position
1974 Billboard 200 1
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 - August 11, 1974 Succeeded by
Caribou by Elton John
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.
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.
Cultural references
The BBC series Hustle frequently makes reference to The Sting, the first episode "The Con is On" having one character shot and a fake policeman, and series 1 episode 6 "The Last Gamble" features a con similar to the plot, with a horse-racing scam as the central plot.
A 1975 episode of The Bob Newhart Show, "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time," parodies The Sting.
Episode 10 from season 6 of King of the Hill (titled "The Substitute Spanish Prisoner") has Peggy Hill staging a fake off-track betting scheme to recoup the money she spent on a fake PhD, with the antagonist bailing before the last bet leaving with the infamous nose swipe.
Australian cricket player Rod Marsh watched the film 33 times while touring Pakistan in 1982.
The ABC series "MacGyver" aired the episode "Twice Stung" during the second season, the title referring to two stings played on one character during the episode. Dana Elcar, who here played the fake agent Polk, was Peter Thornton in the series.
(source:wikipedia)
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