BY FRED BLOSSER
To
say that George Roy Hill’s “The Sting†(1973) was a hit is like calling Amazon
a successful little internet business. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, “The Sting†placed second in
ticket sales for its year of release ($159.6 million), surpassed only by “The
Exorcist.†In the Academy Awards
ceremonies on April 2, 1974, it earned seven Oscars, notably honors for Best
Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. The Best Picture award sparked a brief
controversy as to whether the stylish but relatively lightweight film about an
elaborate confidence scheme deserved the accolade. The pot was further stirred during the awards
broadcast, when the screenwriter, David S. Ward, flashed a gesture on stage
after picking up his statuette. It was
the same signal used by real-life con artists to declare victory over unwary
dupes, some observers asserted. Whatever
the merits of the argument, the awards gave the picture a further nudge at the
box office. In Hollywood, such success
traditionally demands a sequel. In 1975,
“Daily Variety†first reported the news that “The Sting, Part II†was slated
for production. That announcement was
followed by a long gestation in which several producers, writers, scripts, and
proposed stars followed one after another on the project at Universal Picture. At times, various drafts were titled “The
Next Sting,†‘Two Guys from Milwaukee,†and a real head-scratcher, “The Sting
II: That’s Why the Lady is a Tramp.†Apparently at no point did anyone propose pulling the plug, even after
the years went on and one iteration was scrapped for the next.
When
the sequel was finally released on February 18, 1983, it was simply titled “The
Sting II.†The original and the sequel
shared David S. Ward as the screenwriter. Both movies were premised around two enterprising grifters who pull a
Big Con on a shady character against a period backdrop of the Great
Depression. Both had opening credits
illustrated by title cards in 1930s Norman Rockwell style. But everything else had changed. Jennings Lang had replaced Richard Zanuck
and David Brown as producer, Jeremy Kagan had moved into the director’s seat
(as Jeremy Paul Kagan), and Lalo Schifrin was credited with the musical
score. Like Marvin Hamlisch’s in the
original, it leaned heavily and anachronistically on Scott Joplin’s jaunty,
early 1900s ragtime compositions. The
most conspicuous change was the absence of Newman and Redford from the starring
roles. The actors had signaled early on
that they had no interest in a sequel. Universal should have taken that as an omen. Ultimately, perhaps it did. February is a notorious time of the year for
dumping movies in theaters after studio executives have lost interest or
confidence in them. “The Sting IIâ€
opened to anaemic box office ($6.3 million) and strongly negative reviews at a
level of indignation usually reserved for political attack ads.
Did
“The Sting II†deserve its fate? A new
release of the picture on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics offers
present-day viewers the opportunity to decide for themselves. People age 30 and under are most likely to
regard it as a curiosity from a time before Hollywood began to cater to kids
and teens with superhero spectacles and the like. In the film, racketeer Doyle decides to get
even with (as in, kill) the team of con artists who soaked him for $500,000 in
the earlier film. He starts by
kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Kid Colors (Bert Remsen), and diverting
suspicion onto a rival hoodlum, Macilinski (Karl Malden). The ruse is plausible because Macilinski is
known for his crude, ruthless methods. Gondorff and Hooker, the ringleaders of the previous sting, decide to
retaliate against Macilinski by scamming him out of $400,000 in an elaborate
hoax involving bets on a boxing match. As they proceed, unaware that they’ve targeted the wrong man, Lonnegan
waits patiently to lower the final boom, enjoying his apparent success in
fooling the two professionals at their own game. Malden’s Macilinski and a slick lady grifter
played by Teri Garr were new characters, and the three leads might as well have
been, too. Newman’s Henry Gondorff was
renamed Fargo Gondorff and played by Jackie Gleason, and Redford’s Johnny
Hooker was renamed Jake Hooker, played by Mac Davis. Oliver Reed assumed the part of Doyle
Lonnegan, originally played by Robert Shaw. Why Ward and Kagan thought to rename two of the primary characters but
not the third, when all three were recast but were all supposed to be the same
ones played by Newman, Redford, and Shaw, is a puzzler. Maybe remnants of previous, contradictory
drafts had found their way into the final shooting script.
Critics
took a dim view of the recastings, as if suspecting Universal of a
bait-and-switch scam of its own against fans of Newman and Redford. Mac Davis, who passed away at age 78 in
September 2020, came in for particularly negative press, although he had
received good notices for two previous movies, “North Dallas Forty†(1979) and
“Cheaper to Keep Her†(1981), and performed capably as Hooker. Davis brought name value as an enormously
successful and well-liked singer and songwriter, and more importantly for
audience demographics, he had a devoted female fan base. A greater disappointment was Oliver Reed,
whose Lonnegan lacked the steely menace of Shaw’s, although that may have been
as much the script’s fault as Reed’s. “The Sting II†isn’t the complete wreck that you would guess from the
old reviews, but it isn’t particularly distinguished either, covering as it
does much the same ground as its predecessor with less energy, inspiration,
polish, and surprise. Still, fans of
Gleason, Davis, and caper pictures will give kudos to KL Studio Classics for
granting it new visibility on Blu-ray. Films like this one risk sliding completely into limbo, now that they no
longer play widely on HBO, Cinemax, and your local TV affiliate’s Afternoon
Money Movie as they once did.
The KL Studio
Classics Blu-ray at least looks gorgeous in hi-def, 1.85:1 color. Special features include the theatrical
trailer and audio commentary by Jeremy Kagan. The director speaks fondly about various aspects of the film, including
the question of whether someone can change a bet on a prizefight after the
match has already started -- a key element in the plot.
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(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)