Two skilled swindlers manage, with a fixed poker game and a whirlwind of hilarious ideas, to swindle a large sum of money. We are faced with a cult movie from the 70s The Sting which, the following year, won 7 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, Editing and Score). The 1973 film directed by George Roy Hill, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford and Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston and Eileen Brennan, will be shown again this evening at 9.05pm on Twenty Seven.
Set in 1936 in Joliet (Illinois), 60 kilometers from Chicago, this town creates the conditions to organize one of the most famous “stings” of all time. Johnny Hooker, in fact, decides to avenge the death of his friend and accomplice in many enterprises on the edge of the law, Luther Coleman, killed by the boss Doyle Lonnegan. To carry out his revenge, Hooker asks for help from Henry Gondorff, a friend of Luther and master of the art of deception, temporarily retired from business after a failed robbery.
The two begin to put together a plan, maneuvering between criminal bosses, FBI agents and police officers looking for professional redemption. The gangster Doyle Lonnegan is hesitant to trust Johnny, but the prospect of high earnings makes him lose all reserve. The two develop a complicated and very refined plan to take away from Lonnegan a large sum of money that can satisfy Johnny without having to resort to violence. The organization of the deception is widespread and efficient, everyone is ready to lose a good portion of the proceeds of the scam.