The Sting

Movie Review: The Sting

Year of Release: 1973
Country of Origin: USA
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw

Plot outline: In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker (IMDb).

The Sting looks and sounds like a musical comedy from which the songs have been removed, leaving only a background score of old-fashioned, toe-tapping piano rags. Mr. Newman and Mr. Redford, dressed in best, fit-to-kill, snap-brim hat, thirties splendor, looking like a couple of guys in old Arrow shirt ads, are more or less reprising their roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Mr. Newman is Henry Gondoroff, the older con artist in charge of the instruction of Johnny Hooker (Mr. Redford), the bright, eager, younger man who yearns to make what the movie calls the Big Con (swindle). Their quarry is a ruthless, vain, fastidious New York racketeer named Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw in the broad manner. The director supplements the period sets and costumes with elaborate technical devices to move from one scene into another: wipes, iris-outs, images that turn like pages, title cards. It's all a little too much, but excess is an essential part of the movie's style. The Sting has a conventional narrative, with a conventional beginning, middle and end, but what one remembers are the set pieces of the sort that can make a slapped-together Broadway show so entertaining. These include a hilarious, thoroughly crooked poker game in which Henry blows his nose on his tie to the horror of Lonnegan, as well as a chase that lasts approximately two minutes, and the final swindle, the mechanics of which are still none too clear to me. The only woman with a substantial role in the movie is Eileen Brennan, who plays a madam with a heart of gold and enough time off to be able to assist the stars in the final con. It is not a terrible perversion of the romantic movie-team concept idealized by William Powell and Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Lana Turner but, rather, a variation on the old Dr. Gillespie - Dr. Kildare relationship, with a bit of Laurel and Hardy thrown in. It is also apparently very good box office. (NYT)

My judgement: *** out of 4 stars