While fanboys, sci-fi geeks, and fantasy aficionados
flock down to San Diego from July 21-24 for Comic-Con, the American
Cinematheque is having its own “Con” celebrating flim-flam men, smooth talkers,
slick operators, and more than a few swindlers.
“Con-Con: Scams on Screen,” opens July 21 at the Egyptian
with two con comedy classics from 1988: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and A Fish
Called Wanda. The series, which continues at the Egyptian and the Aero through
July 27, also features such comedies as the Best Picture Oscar winner The
Sting, Paper Moon, Trouble in Paradise, and The Lady Eve, as well as the
stark dramas The Hustler and Night and the City and even foreign cons The American
Friend and The Story of a Cheat.
I’ve been keen on con films since I was swept off my feet
at the tender age of seven, when I saw Robert Preston playing the toe-tapping
con artist Professor Harold Hill in the 1962 musical comedy The Music Man. And I have to admit, I even toyed with the
idea of being a librarian like Marian (Shirley Jones) so Preston could sing and dance his way into my
heart. And then came 1973’s The Sting, which screens July 22 at the Egyptian
Theatre. Female baby boomers couldn’t wait to see this stylish Depression-era
con comedy because of its stars Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Truth be told,
I noticed that my grades improved, every time I saw a film starring Robert
Redford! Four years before, I and most of our friends became smitten with the
two actors in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And I was still upset that the duo had gone out in
a blaze of glory at the end. So they couldn’t die at the end of The Sting. But then they did and then they really didn’t. The Sting marked the first
time I was actually conned by a movie.
“I think The Sting was such a popular movie because
there was so much craftsmanship,” said film historian Alan K. Rode. “You had
the appeal of Newman and Redford. You thought you knew what was going on, but
there were layers to the movie.”
Rode will be at the Egyptian on July 24 to introduce two
of his favorite films: The Hustler, Robert Rossen’s 1961 masterpiece starring
Paul Newman as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson, and Jules Dassin’s 1950 noir Night and the City, with Richard Widmark as a con man at the end of his rope.
The taut thriller was not a hit when it was released, but has grown in
reputation over the past six decades. “Widmark is this loser, a con guy who
always thinks he’s going to hit it big,” offered Rode. “He is the prototype of
a film noir loser. He ends up destroying everyone in his orbit and destroying
himself.”
But why do moviegoers have an undying affection for con
films? “I think people like to see things where people survive and prosper
using their wits,” Rode noted. “Basically, the con is something where it’s a
non-violent type of crime. All the people who get cheated in The Sting, you
want to see the screws put to them.”
Paired with The Sting is another 1973 classic set in
the 1930’s, Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon, a nifty comedy about a little
girl (Tatum O’Neal in her Oscar-winning turn) who is every bit the con artist
as her slick Bible salesman father (Ryan O’Neal.) “She cons her father,” said
Rode. “Quite frankly, for someone who is a father and grandfather, there is no
better con artist than children - particularly if they are yours. You are going
to go for it every time.” “Paper Moon," said Rode, “is Peter Bogdanovich’s
valentine to the Depression. It remains a great movie. And kudos for Peter for
filming it in black and white.”
I think the most exciting program in Con-Con is the
triple comedy bill July 23 at the Egyptian, which proves that women can fleece
some poor sucker just as well as the men. The sparkling comedies were directed
by three masters of the genre: Ernest
Lubitsch's 1932 pre-code delight Trouble in Paradise with Herbert Marshall,
Miriam Hopkins, and Kay Francis; Billy Wilder's 1942 The Major and the Minor, starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland; and Preston Sturges’ 1941 masterwork The Lady Eve, with Barbara Stanwyck as a gorgeous con artist and Henry Fonda
as her shy, wealthy mark. Stanwyck, said Rode, “just really epitomized the
sharpie. Even though you know they are going to fall in love, it’s Preston
Sturges, so it doesn't matter if you know or not. It’s kind of savoring each
step the dialogue, the sweetness, light and cuteness that takes you there on
the way.”
For me con movies are a fascinating subgenre that works
within many genres: musicals, Westerns,
comedies and dramas. And I secretly think we would all like to be con
artists and have the wherewithal and gumption to create and put the con in
motion. There’s something sweet in the revenge being playing out. Will they
succeed? Will they get caught? Will they
change their ways? It’s a cinematic cat and mouse game. And above all, a con
movie engages your mind. Attention must
be paid to the complexity of the plot or you’ll miss the clues.
Veteran journalist Susan King wrote about entertainment
at the Los Angeles Times for 26 years (January 1990 - March 2016), specializing
in classic Hollywood stories. She also wrote about independent, foreign and
studio movies and occasionally TV and theater stories. She received her
master's degree in film history and criticism at USC. After working 10 years at
the L.A. Herald Examiner, she moved to the Los Angeles Times.
Follow her on Twitter: @mymackie