July 29, 2017
When I was around ten years old, and had just started my
addiction to everything about movies, my father dropped his newspaper one night
and said, “Come on, get in the car.” Well, me, being me, was certain I was
being driven somewhere to be sold to the Gypsies or taken to a place who
punished acts better than parents. But I got in the beloved family station
wagon (don’t get me started…) and we left the house. I relaxed tremendously
when my father stopped downtown at the world-famous-all-over-my-hometown Alamo
Theater. I looked up at the marquee and saw the weirdest title of a movie I had
seen up to that time.
My father had taken me to a re-release of The Sting.
If I had only been a rookie movie fanatic before, I became a
lifelong movie addict after that night...
The story is, on the surface, a simple one. Johnny Hooker,
played by Robert Redford, accidentally pulls a big-money con on Doyle Lonnegan
(Robert Shaw). Lonnegan is a hardcase Irish crime boss, and he is rather ticked
off that his money got stolen by anyone, much less a small-time grifter. He
sets out to get rid of the man who wronged him. When Luther (Robert Earl Jones,
the father of James Earl Jones), one of Hooker’s partners is beaten to death,
Hooker gets the hell out of town and heads for Chicago. Luther has told Johnny
that he is ready for the big time, and had given him the name of the best con
man in the world, a man known as Henry Gondorff.
Gondorff (Paul Newman) has been in hiding since pulling a
major real estate scam on some heavy-hitting politicians, but, out of respect
for Luther, he partners up with Hooker to take Lonnegan down once and for all.
He gathers up all of his old team, including the wonderful Eileen Brennan as
Billie, a small-time madam and con artist in her own right, Ray Walston as
J.J., the fastest talking con man ever, and Harold Gould as Kid Twist, the most
dapper grifter known to man. The team sets out on a broad con job, but things
get complicated when Lt. Snyder, a Joliet, IL police lieutenant (played by
Charles Durning, from last night’s movie) who has been after Hooker for years,
shows up. But, Gondorff figures out a way to take both Snyder and Lonnegan
down, and making it away scot-free.
Or so they think…
Lord, where to begin with this movie. ..
The casting was a re-pairing of Newman and Redford, who had
struck gold together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Director George Roy
Hill had directed the two in Butch and Sundance, and knew how well they worked
together. When David. S. Ward’s script fell into their hands, angels from
Heaven played the Hallelujah Chorus on their harps. Okay, I went a bit
overboard there… but it was, indeed, the perfect mix of talent, all coming
together at once. When Robert Shaw was added to the mix, well, that was the
cherry on the top of the beautiful cake…
The decision to use Scott Joplin’s ragtime music, as adapted
by Marvin Hamlisch, was a stroke of genius, even though the music predates the
date in the film by almost 25 years. Joplin’s music captures the t secret about
the soundtrack, though. While most everyone knows “The Entertainer” is,
basically, the theme song for The Sting, there is a piece of music that is a
real heart-grabber on this soundtrack that few people pay attention to. It is
called “Solace,” and, as arranged by Hamlisch, it is just… damn… I mean, it
does not let you go. (It turns up in the videogame Bioshock, too… surprise!!!).
I don’t normally add a link to music in these midnight writings, but, in this
case… enjoy…
For reasons of spoiler-ship, I will not discuss the last
half-hour or so of the movie, except to say this – When David S. Ward first
started pitching the script for The Sting around Hollywood, he refused to tell
the studio bosses how the movie ended, unless they promised to read the entire
script. When they argued, he told them, quite bluntly, that, should his ending
show up in any way, shape, or form in any other movie made in the next three
years, he would sue them so hard their studio name would be Ward Studios before
the last gavel rang down. Three studios threw him out of their offices.
Universal, however, promised. Producer Tony Bill, who you may remember as
studio boss Terry Hawthorne in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and his partner,
producer Julia Phillips, jumped on the script and hid as many details as
possible from the Hollywood press, so as to keep the secret. And, folks, when
that secret ending hit screens, people actually yelled out in surprise in the
audiences. How often has that happened since 1973? That being said, yes, it IS
that great a plot twist…
Because I love this movie so very much, I am gonna throw a
few little trivia tidbits at you. Feel free to use them at the water cooler,
the bar trivia contest, or to win a few bets…
One – the diner used in the movie, where Hooker meets up
with Lonnegan, is on the Universal backlot. If it looks vaguely familiar when
you watch the movie, you might know it as the same diner where Marty McFly
meets his 50’s-era father, George McFly in Back To the Future...
Two – in numerous scenes, Robert Redford uses his right hand
very awkwardly. One notable instance comes when he is eating lunch in a diner,
and holds his fork with four fingers and his thumb stuck straight out. Some
thought it was a Redford character bit, showing Hooker didn’t have the class or
manners of his other con men. In actuality, Redford had broken his right thumb
in a skiing accident a couple of months before, and was supposed to be in a
cast. When necessary, he had the cast sawed off and used the hand as best he
could, and once the scene was over, an on-set doctor would recast the hand
until it was needed again…
Three – Actor Sterling Hayden had been the first actor
offered the role of Doyle Lonnegan. He turned it down because he didn’t want to
shave his beard off. As a result, Robert Shaw was offered the role. Two years
later, Sterling Hayden was offered the role of Quint in Jaws, and, because of
financial complications (he owed a ton of money to the IRS), he turned the role
down. Again, Robert Shaw was offered the role…
Look, I can’t imagine anyone who reads blogs about movies
having not already seen The Sting at least once. But, do yourself a favor. As
the weekend approaches, set aside a couple of hours and watch The Sting again.
You will find yourself lost in the story within 15 minutes, and you won’t move
until the end credits roll…
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