BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE: "The Sting" (1973)

1973 was a great year in my humble opinion, even though I remember absolutely none of it. You see, it was my birth year, so naturally I should be fond of it! Fortunately, it was also the year of a film that is still popular today, The Sting. Thanks to a fun screenplay by David Ward, great direction by George Roy Hill and the already-proven on-screen combination of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, it's easy to see how this film was so successful. Oh, and let's not forget about Marvin Hamlisch's catchy score, part of which takes Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" and adapts it into a song we've all whistled out loud at least once in our lifetimes (and wound up bringing Joplin more success 60 years after his death than he ever enjoyed while amongst the living). The story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff, which were documented by David Maurer in his book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man..

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The film is divided into chapters, each given a title card. First up, "The Players", as we are introduced to the characters. Johnny Hooker (Redford), a grifter in 1936 Joliet, Illinois, cons $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim with the aid of his partners Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe) as Luther pretended to be a robbery victim. The conned man wound up running to the airport with a stack of scrap paper. What the team doesn't yet know is that the conned victim was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Johnny takes his $3,000 cut to a stripper girlfriend and a roulette wheel, and that money's gone pretty quickly. Luther returns home, where Johnny later visits him to discuss a future con. However, Luther decides it's time to retire. Luther tells Johnny to seek out Henry Gondorff (Newman) in Chicago so the two of them can pull off a huge caper.

As Johnny is walking around town, he meets up with corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder (Charles Durning), who after smacking Johnny around a bit alerts him that he just stole $11K from Doyle. He also demands $2,000 of Johnny's cut for himself. Having already spent his share, Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit bills, and then runs to tell Luther about the Doyle connection. Unfortunately, he's too late, as Luther has been murdered by Doyle's men before Johnny can get there. Johnny flees the city to find Henry in Chicago.

Next chapter, "The Set-Up." Johnny arrives in Chicago and finds Henry, who lives in a building that looks from the outside to be an amusement area complete with merry-go-round, but actually in the back is a brothel run by Henry's wife, Billie (Eileen Brennan). Johnny's first sight of Henry is him passed out after a night of drinking on the floor. After a non-consensual and fully-dressed cold shower compliments of Johnny, Henry tells him how he used to be a big shot until the feds nailed him for conning a U.S. senator. Johnny tells Henry about the Doyle situation and how his men killed his friend Luther. Henry is reluctant but eventually decides to go with it via an elaborate scam known as "the wire", using a crew of con artists to create a phony off-track betting parlor. After Henry gathers his crew, Lt. Snyder visits the brothel as he hunts for Johnny. Billie blows him off and warns him he could search the back if he wants to, but he's going to walk in on his police chief so he probably shouldn't.

The gang finds a building to turn into their phony OTB house. The renter asks who the con is going to be played on, and when he learns it's Doyle, he decides to take a flat-rate payment instead of a percentage, since he obviously thinks this is a BAD idea. Kid Twist (Harold Gould) is recruiting extras for the con at a bar when Snyder shows up. Snyder roughs up Elie for mouthing off.

"The Hook" now kicks in, as Henry boards a train to buy into Doyle's private high stakes poker game. Before the game starts, Billie "accidentally" bumps into Doyle and winds up pickpocketing him. Johnny and Billie wait in a train car cabin while Henry, posing as "Shaw", goes to buy into the poker game. Henry brings a bottle of watered-down gin and is sure to have the smell of alcohol on him too, as he pretend-obnoxiously gets into character. During the game, Shaw infuriates Doyle with his obnoxious behavior, and ultimately outcheats him to win $15,000. Doyle then realizes his wallet is gone and says he must have left it in his cabin, but Shaw calls him a phony and the two nearly come to blows. Shaw will send his man "Kelly" (Johnny's pseudonym in this con) to collect the money from Doyle's cabin a bit later. Later, Kelly is sent to collect the winnings but instead tells Doyle that Shaw pickpocketed him earlier (giving Doyle the wallet back) and cheated during the game, and also that he himself wants to take over Shaw's operation. Kelly reveals that he has a partner named Les Harmon (Kid Twist's pseudonym) in the Chicago Western Union office, who will allow them to win bets on horse races by past-posting, which is making a bet on a horse race after the race has already started.

Meanwhile, Snyder tracks Johnny down but is thwarted via a summons by undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk (Dana Elcar), who orders him to assist in their plan to arrest Henry using Johnny as their patsy. At the same time, Doyle has grown frustrated with the inability of his men to find and kill Johnny. Doyle, of course, has no idea Johnny has been under his nose the whole time. Doyle decrees that Salino, his best assassin, be given the job. A mysterious figure with black leather gloves is then seen following and observing Johnny.

The OTB parlor (i.e, "The Wire") is ready, and Doyle decides to give Kelly a test. Doyle awaits near a phone booth near the OTB parlor for the betting tip that will be told to him so he can bet on the already-finished race across the street, where what is presumed to be the racing broadcast will then air after the fact. Doyle gets the call and will bet $2K on Blue Note to win. After he makes the bet, he hears the broadcast, actually being done live in the next room by J.J. (Ray Walston) based on ticker tape results collected by he and Billie. Blue Note wins, Doyle collects, and he decides to aid Kelly further, although he's still not ready to commit for a huge bet yet.

"The Shut-Out" is next. Doyle receives another tip but is thwarted at the betting window by a line of people bumbling through their own bets. (Those people are all, of course, part of the con as well.) Doyle hears the horse he was to bet on win the race. Even though he's missed out on this one, he is now fully convinced and tells Johnny that he's bringing $500K tomorrow.

Johnny, meanwhile, has gotten friendly with a diner waitress named Loretta (Dimitra Arliss). Johnny realizes he's being followed by the man in black leather gloves, and Loretta aids him in escaping as he's about to be caught. He's evaded that problem, but cannot evade Snyder, who captures Johnny and brings him before FBI Agent Polk. Polk forces Johnny to betray Henry by threatening to incarcerate Luther Coleman's widow. Johnny woefully agrees.

The night before the final act of the con, Johnny sleeps with Loretta. The next morning when he wakes up, she's gone. He then thinks she's robbed him but discovers that's not the case. He doesn't know where Loretta is but shrugs it off and gets dressed, then calls Agent Polk to let him know where Henry can be corralled today during the "big con." While outside walking down an alley, he spots Loretta coming toward him smiling. Suddenly, the gloved man emerges behind Johnny and shoots Loretta between the eyes. She drops a handgun as she falls. Johnny is stunned as he hears the gloved man tell him that Loretta Salino is Doyle's best assassin and she hadn't killed him the night before because witnesses had seen him entering her apartment. The gloved man also says Henry hired him to look after Johnny.

It all leads us to "The Sting." Doyle gets the phone call from Les/Kid Twist to "place it on Lucky Dan" and makes the $500,000 bet at the OTB parlor on Lucky Dan to win. As the race begins, Les/Twist arrives and makes conversation with Doyle, who says he made the bet for Lucky Dan to win. Les expresses shock at Doyle's bet, explaining that when he said "place it" he meant, literally, that Lucky Dan would "place" (i.e., finish second). In a panic, Doyle rushes the teller window and demands his money back. As this happens, Agent Polk, Lt. Snyder and a fleet of FBI officers storm the parlor. Polk confronts Henry, then tells Hooker he is free to go. Henry, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Johnny in the back. Polk then shoots Henry and orders Snyder to get Doyle away from the crime scene so he doesn't wind up implicated as well. With Doyle and Snyder safely away, Johnny and Henry eventually open their eyes, smile and rise amid cheers and laughter of everyone else in the building. Agent Polk is actually Hickey, a con man, running a con entwined with Henry's con to divert Snyder and provide a solid conclusion. As the men strip the room of its contents, Johnny refuses his share of the money, saying "I'd only blow it", and walks away with Henry.

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Shot for just $5.5 million, The Sting was an absolute blockbuster as it brought it nearly $160 million at the box office. Critics loved it, and moviegoers agreed. The constant double-crosses right up until the big finale kept everyone guessing and loving being "conned" themselves upon seeing the movie, as very few were able to predict just how the film was going to end before seeing it.

Interestingly, two of the actors shot the movie while injured, and in both cases it's noticeable. My wife realized that Redford seemed to be avoiding using one of his thumbs most of the time. Sure enough, Redford had sustained a broken thumb in a skiing accident a few months prior. Also, Robert Shaw injured his knee playing handball a week before shooting began and was walking with a limp. Since the limp really didn't affect the story itself or anything Shaw had to do with his character, Shaw and director Hill decided just to make it part of the performance. Shaw wore a knee brace for the duration of filming.

The Sting didn't have to con anyone at the Academy. They knew this film was good, and it earned 10 nominations, winning 7 of them. Redford scored his one and only nomination to date for Best Actor here, but unfortunately lost out to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger. Cinematography and Sound were the other non-wins for this film. Oscars were awarded for Score, Film Editing, Costume Design (Edith Head's 8th and final career Oscar win), Art/Set Direction, Original Screenplay, Director and Picture. In winning the top prize, it bested American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers, The Exorcist and A Touch of Class. Julia Phillips, who was among the nominated producers, became the first female producer to be nominated for and to win Best Picture. Just as noteworthy, the award was presented to them by Elizabeth Taylor. Actually, that's really not the noteworthy portion. Taylor was introduced by Oscar host David Niven. Does that ring an Oscars history bell? Yes, it was before this award presentation that "The Streaker" incident occurred. Streaker notwithstanding, and unsuccessful 1983 sequel also notwithstanding, The Sting remains over 40 years later one of Universal Studio's most popular and enjoyable films, and with good reason.