THE STING 'Essentials Collection' 4K UHD Blu-ray (Universal, 1973) Universal Home Video

The con is on, in more ways than one in George Roy Hill’s timeless, The Sting (1973), a devilishly featherweight period piece made in a decade when dark and brooding, contemporary narratives were all the rage, and, the norm. From its preposterous use of Scott Joplin’s classic ragtime (that predates this film’s settings by at least 25 years) to the deceptive ‘of the moment’ performances given by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, The Sting is a Teflon-coated cinematic anomaly of contradictions, where apparently not even continuity – or lack thereof – manages to hinder its overall arc, brilliantly scripted by David S. Ward. The tale was inspired by real-life cons, Fred and Charley Gondorff, immortalized in David Maurer The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. Ward has always maintained that his inspiration for The Sting derived from his research on pickpockets. Figuring out this lithe concoction, exactly how much the audience should be ‘in’ on the fix, and carefully delineating the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad’, took Ward nearly a year’s worth of rewrites to perfect. His re-imagined underground brotherhood of thieves became a lovable part of the hoax perpetuated on slickster extraordinaire, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw, in a part originally anticipated for actor, Richard Boone). Whatever his muse, Ward was sued by Maurer for plagiarism. Universal, having already bought the property, quickly settling out of court for a cool $300,000.

In Ward’s original draft, the character of Henry Gondorff was a minor, not terribly prepossessing and paunchy hood, well past his prime. Certainly, no one could accuse mega-star, Paul Newman of as much. And, with Newman’s name attached to the project, Gondorff became a major player. Indeed, with Robert Redford’s signing on as his counterpoint, Johnny Hooker, The Sting took on the flavor of a reunion piece as Newman and Redford had first appeared together in the indelibly etched western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Newman sincerely worried about the lighter bits in Ward’s screenplay, having been advised by his agent he was an ill-fit for comedy. Producers’ acquiescence to top billing and a $500,000 salary, plus a percentage of the profits, undoubtedly convinced the star to partake. The third crucial piece of casting, however, is Robert Shaw as the heavy. Shaw had proven himself to be a consummate actor, but a real pain in the ass – ego, preceding talent. His exaggerated limp in the picture was authentic, however; Shaw, having slipped on wet pavement at the Beverly Hills Hotel the week before he was required to report for work, with torn knee ligaments besides. Rather effectively, costume designer, Edith Head addressed the injury by redesigning Shaw’s 1930’s styled trousers to accommodate his leg brace, worn throughout the shoot.

Early on, George Roy Hill made the executive decision, The Sting’s production design should mimic movie set design from the 1930’s, particularly the ‘look’ achieved at Warner Bros. for all those classic Cagney/Robinson/Raft and Bogart gang-land outings. Close collaboration with art director, Henry Bumstead and cinematographer, Robert L. Surtees, resulted in a deliberate decision to lean the color palette towards muted browns and maroons, expertly lit in the classical tradition, but with a few ‘trick’s scattered along the way. The last bit of inspiration would be to introduce various scenes throughout the movie as their own all-inclusive vignettes, book-ended by inter-title cards designed by Jaroslav Gebr in the grand old style of The Saturday Evening Post. With the exception of a few scenes shot in Wheeling, West Virginia, the Santa Monica pier in Pasadena, and, Chicago’s Union Station, virtually all of The Sting was recreated from scratch on the Universal back lot. But historians will likely revel in the fact this would be the last documented glimpse of that Chicagoan landmark, destined for the wrecking ball in 1978. For added authenticity, co-producer, Tony Bill – an avid car buff – rounded up vintage automobiles, including his own one-of-a-kind 1935 Pierce Arrow, featured prominently as Lonnegan’s mode of transportation.

Set during the Great Depression, our story centers on grifter, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) whose latest con has just netted him a cool $11,000 in cash. His cohort, Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) is an aging master who announces his retirement and advises Hooker to do the same…or seek the advice of a superior swindler, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), the only man this side of Joliet, Illinois who can teach Hooker about ‘the big con’. Unfortunately for Coleman and Hooker, their last victim was a numbers’ racketeer working for the unscrupulous Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) - a tough-as-nails/cold-as-ice crime boss who can snap a man in half for double-crossing him.  Lonnegan even has crooked cops in his pocket, and uses one – Lt. William Snyder (Charles Durning) – to confront Hooker and get his money back. One problem: Hooker’s already blown his half of these ill-gotten gains. So, Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit instead. When Lonnegan’s men find out, they kill Luther. But Hooker manages a clumsy getaway to Chicago.

This dime store fraud is up against a pro and knows it when Gondorff tells Hooker he will not join him in his life of crime. Seems Gondorff – a once truly great con artist – has recently had his wings clipped by the FBI. To reaffirm for himself, he still is the best, Gondorff tells Hooker they are going to perpetrate ‘the wire’ – a phony off-track betting parlor. The two board the 20th Century Limited where Gondorff poses as ‘Shaw’, a loutish Chicago bookie who easily cons Lonnegan out of $15,000. Naturally, Lonnegan is outraged. But his distemper is somewhat quelled with the arrival of ‘Kelly’ (actually Hooker) who poses as Shaw’s disgruntled employee, come to collect his winnings. Shaw hints to Lonnegan, he is looking to wipe out his current boss and take over his operation with a new partner, Les Hamon (Harold Gould), who goes by the name Kid Twist. Kelly tells Lonnegan, Twist has the perfect set up where they can bet and win a bundle of cash on past-posted horse races, simply by fooling the world with a delayed response to the broadcast.

So far so good - except Snyder has tracked Hooker to Chicago and is about to spill the beans to Lonnegan when he is summoned by FBI agent, Polk (Dana Elcar) to partake in his sting operation. Polk wants to arrest Gondorff by manipulating Hooker. In the meantime, Lonnegan has grown restless with his men’s inability to find Hooker. Unaware Kelly is Hooker, Lonnegan hires Salino (Joe Tornatore) to assassinate his arch nemesis. Lonnegan grows more impressed with Kelly, whose connections to Kid Twist earn him a tidy profit on a pair of rigged horse races. Lonnegan agrees to finance a half-million-dollar bet at Shaw’s parlor, presumably to exact revenge on Shaw for his earlier defeat. Again, it all seems so perfect…only Snyder finds Hooker and brings him to Polk, who forces him to betray Gondorff by threatening to incarcerate Luther Coleman's widow. To clinch the deal, Hooker beds Loretta (Dmitra Arliss) a cheap floozy working at a greasy spoon, only to have her gunned down by Gondorff’s hitman early the next morning to protect Hooker from himself. Turns out Loretta was working for Lonnegan.

Armed with a hot tip, Shaw makes his epic bet on Lucky Dan – a horse, predicted to come in second, not first. Lonnegan panics when he finds out the horse’s ranking and attempts to get his money back from the teller’s window. Agent Polk, Snyder and a slew of agents storm the parlor with Polk telling Hooker he is free to go. To avenge this betrayal, Gondorff shoots Hooker in the back and Polk kills Hooker in self-defense. Polk orders Snyder to get Lonnegan away from the crime scene or face incrimination and arrest. The two terrified cohorts steal away into the night and Hooker and Gondorff – both having faked their deaths – get up off the floor amidst cheers and laughter. Polk reveals he is actually Hickey, a con used to divert Snyder’s suspicions and scare Lonnegan away. Having pulled off the ultimate con, Hooker and Gondorff stroll away as the other men dismantle their setup.

The Sting is charming, but a very strange duck. It is light-hearted to the point of never taking itself seriously. And this is sometimes a problem – or perhaps part of the in-joke played on the audience. Director George Roy Hill gives us a lot of smoke, but no fire, relying on the teaming of Newman and Redford to pull us through this manipulative pun within a farce. At times, the picture seems too clever for its own good. There is something mildly off-putting about Redford and Newman, neither assimilating into their roles, each riding the crest of their screen popularity – as star personalities. Undeniably, they are having a very good time. But neither actor challenges us to look deeper into these performances, perhaps because there really is nothing going on beneath the surface. Robert Shaw is, as Robert Shaw usually was, an over-the-top ham, selling his steely-eyed thug in a three-piece-suit like a sledge hammer cutting through Jell-o. It’s too much and compounded by Charles Durning’s heavy-handed lampoon. To clarify, The Sting, is a slap-happy, wink-and-nudge shuffle that is preposterously great fun to watch. But it does not really hold together upon later reflection. The clichés are too obvious, the loopholes in Redford and Newman’s star turns, large enough to ride a getaway car through. Instead of everything crystalizing upon repeat viewing - the narrative tightening up/the performances growing richer with renewed admiration – the absences of logic – even movie-land logic, implausible but manageable – begins to unravel the memory of it. What continues to hold up with the passage of time is Henry Bumstead’s marvelous set design and Robert Surtees' evocative cinematography – both capturing the essence and mood of gritty Depression-era Americana. Here is a colorful backdrop of speakeasies, hoodlum lairs and lavishly appointed train cars – for those still rich enough to afford them. In the final analysis, those who have never seen The Sting will likely enjoy it – perhaps even immensely so. Those who already have, might remember it with more fondness than it actually deserves.

Universal Home Video really needs to get behind doing more with its deep catalog. The Sting was already paid its due in 4K UHD Blu-ray in 2021. But now, Uni has elected for a reissue, packaged with ‘bling’ and marketed as the ‘essentials collection’, to entice us to double-dip for The Sting yet again. What’s in the bling? A 42-page, hastily assembled, but glossy booklet with production factoid info and some beautifully rendered photo art. We also get a few reproduced lobby cards, a reversible sleeve and a ‘film cell’ reproduction, numbered to authenticate its value as a ‘limited edition’. Ho-hum. The native 4K master here is identical to the previously issued disc which suffered from slight DNR. The Sting otherwise looks pretty marvelous in UHD, with beautifully rendered grain, indigenously thick and gorgeous. The color palette pops, with bold ‘reds’ in particular (they always looked pinkish on the standard Blu-ray) and flesh tones accurately rendered. Owing to primitive optical printing methods of their day, grain occasionally advances to slightly distracting levels – a forgivable, and baked-in anomaly in the original cinematography. Uni’s short-sightedness where audio tracks are concerned persists on The Sting. No DTS:X upgrade, or even consideration to include the original mono theatrical mix. Instead, it’s the same DTS 5.1 from the previous 4K Blu.

Uni has carried over the extras from its original releases of The Sting to this 4K disc. Some, like the nearly hour-long ‘Art of The Sting’, date all the way back to Uni’s LaserDisc days, while some are mere puff piece junkets, originally marketed to sell The Sting as part of Uni’s 100th anniversary celebration. For those not yet savvy in the 4K market, Uni has packed a copy of the tired ole Blu-ray, with no video/audio upgrade derived from the newly mastered 4K elements. Bottom line: The Sting is irrefutably a classic. It’s not as well-defined as many others, but with Redford and Newman it nevertheless aims high and hits its bull’s eye more often than not. This ‘essentials’ 4K reissue is easily a pass. Studios should get a clue. Give us more catalog – not the same catalog endlessly regurgitated in edition after edition. Uni certainly has some stellar stuff waiting in the wings for a 4K release: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Coal Miner’s Daughter, House Sitter, Death Becomes Her, The Breakfast Club, The Secret of My Success, The Day of the Jackal, Midnight Lace, Tammy and the Bachelor, Pillow Talk, Charade, The Paper, Anne of the Thousand Days, Mary – Queen of Scots, and on and on.  Get busy, Universal. And stop with these ‘essentials’. They’re not! For those not yet in possession of The Sting in 4K. All others can pass.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

Legacy – 4

New - 1