The Sting (1973) or, Partners in Hoax

7/04/2014

The Sting (1973) or, Partners in Hoax

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Those good old days ... Poster for George Roy Hill's The Sting

The Sting is a crime thriller, action drama, buddy comedy, caper film according to who you ask, because it is a difficult one to label. It's probably a mix of all of these things.
It reunites Robert Redford (All the President's Men (1976)) with co-star Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke (1967)) and director George Roy Hill (The World According to Garp (1982)), who had first teamed up on the successful Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), which is very similar to The Sting in tone: Everyone seems to be having a wonderful time, and Redford-Newman have a great partnership on screen in a frank, vivaciously directed movie.
This one takes place in 1936, mostly in Chicago, where two con men decide to team up, after the younger of the two (Redford) has fouled up by robbing a mob guy and loosing the dough. They now plan to rob the head of the Irish mob in the city, Doyle Lonnegan, by staging an elaborate charade and have the guy risk half a million $ of his own money, and then run off with it.
The plot has some twists and quite a bit of cleverness, mostly in connection with the two guys' hoaxes and tricks. It is a celebrated, Oscar-winning script by David S. Ward (Sleepless in Seattle (1993)).
Besides the great chemistry among our two heroes, Sting also has Robert Shaw (Jaws (1975)) playing the tense, dangerous Lonnegan to great effect. He makes the film stick, because he plays it dead-serious and if he didn't, it wouldn't have worked, I think.
The film has a very light tone to it, - like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, - with fun scenes, especially chase scenes, that have a silent comedy feel to them, along with old-fashioned 20's ragtime music, which the film gave a revival through its popularity. It is an impressive and very well-achieved production that also has some really lovely matte shots of old Chicago in it.
And there's some great scenes, like the tense poker game on the train, in which Newman pulls off a poker face for the ages:

The Sting is based on the real life exploits of the con men brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff as portrayed by David Maurer in The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
It is a true classic and a film that just seems to get better every time you see it.

Beautiful artwork on the title cards in George Roy Hill's The Sting, but unfit for the movie, unfortunately

The Sting really was extremely popular, making itself back almost 30 times, and The Sting was also 10 times (!) Oscar-nominated, winning 7 (!!!), including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Best Music, Best Costumes, Best Editing and Best Art and Set Direction. - Its Best Film Oscar is on display at the Hollywood Museum off Sunset Boulevard.

Related review:

George Roy Hill: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or, Friendly Outlaws

Watch a wonderful old trailer for the film here

Budget: 5.5 mil. $
Box office: 159.6 mil. $
= Blockbuster

What do you think of The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
Do you agree that they feel old?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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7/04/2014

The Sting (1973) or, Partners in Hoax

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