Poker Movies: The Sting
I remember watching The Sting when I wasn’t much into poker yet. In fact, I think when I saw it (simply because my dad had a video and wanted to watch it, so everyone else had to) I didn’t even know how to play poker. Despite that fact, the movie captured the interest of everyone in the room and we all ended up riveted to the screen. With Robert Redford and Paul Newman as the main characters, this came as no surprise.
The movie revolves around Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) trying to avenge the death of his friend and mentor Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones). Coleman was murdered by Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), a notorious racketeer and gambler. In coming up with an elaborate plan to trick Lonnegan and ultimately destroy him, Hooker enlists the help of Henry Gordoff (Paul Newman) who was then considered as the greatest con artist of all time.
In case there are those of you who haven’t watched the movie, I will refrain from spilling out more details and giving spoilers (as I unfortunately did with The Cincinnati Kid). However, let’s just say that the movie believes that there is justice in this world. Is that enough for you guys?
The Sting is indeed one of the best movies you can watch about poker and gambling in general. In fact, thousands upon thousands of people will agree with you as it was one of the most popular movies in the early 70s. It boasts of 7 Academy Awards which includes Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Adapted Score.
Here is more interesting information about the movie taken from Wikipedia’s entry on The Sting:
- Plans were made for a prequel to The Sting. The film was to be based on the early days of Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman). His mentor was to be the infamous 19th century confidence man Soapy Smith, known as the king of the frontier con men. Plans were scrapped after the failure of the sequel, starring Jackie Gleason.
- Harold Gould’s character, “Kid Twist”, shared that nickname (though apparently not the profession) of at least two different mob hit men, Max Zwerbach and Abe Reles.
- At the beginning of the film, Robert Redford finds Paul Newman where he and his wife supposedly operate a carousel in Chicago. As the scene starts, they show the carousel building from a far shot with a city scape in the background. The shot is actually the Carousel on the Santa Monica Pier in California and the city scape in the background has been painted in and over what is actually the Pacific Ocean.
- In the original theatrical release and on the Laser Disc and early VHS releases the scene in the bathroom where Hooker is talking to Gondorff about what happened to him, Gondorff says “Luther didn’t tell me you had a big mouth.” Hooker replies “He didn’t tell me you were a fuck-up either”. In all future releases Hooker’s line has been re-dubbed to be “He didn’t tell me you were a screw up either.” If you watch Redford’s lips you can tell that he did indeed say “fuck up”.
- At the beginning of the film, the Universal Pictures logo from 1936 (the glass Art Deco globe with the words “A UNIVERSAL PICTURE”) is used instead of the contemporary version to establish the film’s time setting.
Andrew Kicak is a poker enthusiast, a writer, researcher, speaker, and consultant. You can visit his blog and sign up free to get 
