The Sting
Short description
In 1930s Chicago, a young street hustler named Johnny Hooker and his partner unknowingly rob a courier working for the powerful racketeer Doyle Lonnegan. Lonnegan retaliates by having the partner killed, and Hooker goes into hiding. Seeking revenge, he turns to Henry Gondorff, an experienced con artist and an old acquaintance of the murdered man. The two devise an elaborate scheme aimed at ruining Lonnegan financially, built around his weakness for gambling and his belief that he can obtain racing results before they become public.
George Roy Hill directed the film, working from an original screenplay by David S. Ward. It followed Hill's Slaughterhouse-Five and came after his earlier collaboration with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Newman plays Gondorff and Redford plays Hooker, with Robert Shaw as Lonnegan, Charles Durning as Lieutenant Snyder, Ray Walston as J.J. Singleton and Eileen Brennan as Billie. Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips and Tony Bill produced.
Made for about 6 million dollars, the film took roughly 156 million dollars worldwide, a large return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 8.2 out of 10 from around 299,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 8 out of 10 from a much smaller voter base. A critics' rating of 8.5 out of 10, drawn from 108 reviews, places it slightly above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Johnny Hooker encounters Lonnergan in the same diner where, 12 years later, Marty McFly will meet his father – in Robert Zemeckis's science fiction comedy 'Back to the Future' (1985).
- During filming, Hill passionately dreamed of shooting beyond the studio walls. He was dissuaded by experienced art director Henry Bumstead, who assured the director that it would be extremely difficult to obtain permission to block traffic on the street. As a result, only a few days were spent on location shooting in Los Angeles and Chicago.
- The musical mood of the film is created by ragtime; compositions by Scott Joplin from the 1900s and 1910s were used. Meanwhile, in the 1930s, when 'The Sting' takes place, ragtime had practically gone out of fashion; nevertheless, thanks to the film, interest in this musical genre was revived.
- Robert Shaw got the role of Lonnergan after Richard Boone, Oliver Reed, and Stephen Boyd turned it down. However, Reed played Lonnergan in the second part of the film.
- As film costume designer Edith Head recalled in her autobiography, blue-eyed Redford and Newman both demanded that their characters be dressed in blue shirts – to emphasize the color of their eyes. A compromise was reached – the actors appear "in blue" in the film in turn.
- Production period: January 22 – April 1973.
- The main literary source that inspired David S. Ward was David W. Maurer's "The Big Con," published in 1940. This book described legendary con artists of the first quarter of the 20th century, whose names were revived in film characters such as Henry Gondorff, J.J. Singleton, Little Twist, and Eddie Niles.
- If Redford hadn't changed his mind, Jack Nicholson would have played Hooker.
- Paul Newman, who played the card sharp Henry Gondorff, had a stunt double – in all close-up shots, the hands of Gondorff shuffling cards belong to the film's technical consultant, John Scarne.
- For two years, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley refused to allow filmmakers into the city if they were going to say anything negative about Chicago. However, he made an exception for the creators of 'The Sting,' letting them in for three days.
- George Roy Hill happened to come across Ward's script. Hill immediately grabbed onto it and immediately invited Paul Newman to the project.
- Ward briefly summarized the plot of the film to his producers but refused to reveal the ending until he finished writing the screenplay.
- Ward wrote the screenplay specifically with Robert Redford in mind. But the actor didn't particularly like the role of Johnny Hooker and turned it down. And even when he changed his mind, he still wasn't sure the film would work out.
- Doyle Lonnergan was not written as lame in the script. But Robert Shaw injured his ankle before filming; his character had to be given a limp.
- The character named Johnny Hooker received his name in honor of blues legend John Lee Hooker.
- Robert Redford only managed to watch the film in its entirety for the first time in June 2004.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
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