The Sting (1973)

Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.

Director:

George Roy Hill

Writer:

David S. Ward

Stars:

Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw

Top Rated Movies #99 | Won 7 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Newman	...	Henry Gondorff
Robert Redford	...	Johnny Hooker
Robert Shaw	...	Doyle Lonnegan
Charles Durning	...	Lt. Wm. Snyder
Ray Walston	...	J.J. Singleton
Eileen Brennan	...	Billie
Harold Gould	...	Kid Twist
John Heffernan	...	Eddie Niles
Dana Elcar	...	F.B.I. Agent Polk
Jack Kehoe	...	Erie Kid
Dimitra Arliss	...	Loretta
Robert Earl Jones	...	Luther Coleman (as Robertearl Jones)
James Sloyan	...	Mottola (as James J. Sloyan)
Charles Dierkop	...	Floyd - Bodyguard
Lee Paul	...	Bodyguard

Storyline

Johnny Hooker, a small time grifter, unknowingly steals from Doyle Lonnegan, a big time crime boss, when he pulls a standard street con. Lonnegan demands satisfaction for the insult. After his partner, Luther, is killed, Hooker flees, and seeks the help of Henry Gondorff, one of Luther's contacts, who is a master of the long con. Hooker wants to use Gondorff's expertise to take Lonnegan for an enormous sum of money to even the score, since he admits he "doesn't know enough about killing to kill him." They devise a complicated scheme and amass a talented group of other con artists who want their share of the reparations. The stakes are high in this game, and our heroes must not only deal with Lonnegan's murderous tendencies, but also other side players who want a piece of the action. To win, Hooker and Gondorff will need all their skills...and a fair amount of confidence.

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Plot Keywords:

scantily clad woman | con | con man | caper | national film registry | 

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Taglines:

...all it takes is a little Confidence.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Sting

Filming Locations:

Hugus Alley, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$159,600,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zanuck/Brown Productions,Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Chicago Elevated stop used in the sequence where Snyder chases Hooker is the 43rd Street station. There is still a stop there, on the current Green Line, but the building shown in the film was destroyed by a fire in 1974 and replaced in 1976. Though shown painted white in the movie, the old station probably would still have been the original natural brick color in the 1930s. The A/B signs on the platform are also an anachronism: skip stop service was not introduced until after WWII.

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Goofs

When Johnny meets a passed-out Henry for the first time in Henry's apartment, Johnny is wearing a maroon pinstripe suit with a gray three-button collarless undershirt instead of a dress shirt. He also has a three-day stubble. The very next scene,they are both in the bathroom as Henry sobers up in the shower. This time, Johnny has on the same pants, but his coat is off an he's wearing a blue wide-collared dress shirt and is clean shaven.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Henry Gondorff: You not gonna stick around for your share?
Johnny Hooker: Nah. I'd only blow it.

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Crazy Credits

The opening animated logo for Universal Pictures is in 1930s style, matching the movie's setting, instead of the 1970s version.

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Connections

Referenced in Edición Especial Coleccionista: La carrera del siglo (2013)

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Soundtracks

Solace
(1909) (uncredited)
Written by Scott Joplin
Conducted and Adapted by Marvin Hamlisch

User Reviews

Almost perfect

This film deserved every Oscar thrown at it. It looks good, it's funny, it's extremely complex but doesn't dwell on the fact for a moment: if you can spot the twists, you haven't got time to sit back smugly as they pop up - everything rushes on. The acting's good as is the story, one carrying the other. I can't think of a movie where people so obviously had as much fun - maybe (Soderbergh's) Ocean's Eleven, or even Some Like It Hot? The soundtrack is brilliant too, contemporaneous Joplin rags evoking the time and its contradictions artlessly.

The bit that raises this film the one notch higher though is a short, central sequence, in which the music plays as high profile a part as any character or narrative aside. It's the night before The Sting and Redford is drawn to the drugstore girl who's trying to leave town. Perfectly framed by the bittersweetest of the blues/rags he asks her out for a drink - revealing his vulnerability for the first time in a movie where everybody's pretending to be someone else: 'It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I don't know nobody.' Despite all the caper and thrill of grifting all he wants is what we all want. It's a rich, compassionate heart to a virtuosic piece of film-making. 9.5/10