Production History (The Sting) The Sting
Ward found his subject while researching pickpockets
Screenwriter David S. Ward stumbled into the world of confidence men while doing research on pickpockets — a subject that led him to David Maurer's 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, which documented real-life grifters including brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff. Ward, a recent UCLA film school graduate, saw the dramatic potential immediately.
"Since I had never seen a film about a confidence man before, I said I gotta do this." — David S. Ward, (wikipedia)
Ward told producer Tony Bill "the gist" of the story in late 1970, and Bill encouraged him to complete the screenplay. Bill brought in producers Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips, who sold the project to Universal Pictures. Ward's script became one of the most sought-after properties in Hollywood. (wikipedia)
The screenplay's debts led to a laundry list of lawsuits
The relationship between Ward's screenplay and Maurer's The Big Con generated the most significant legal disputes in the film's history. In 1974, Maurer filed a $10 million copyright infringement suit against Ward and Universal, charging that the film had "the same names and same plot" as his book.
"There's no doubt about that. I gave permission for the use of a few terms in the book but not to copy the entire story." — Representative of Maurer's original publisher, SlashFilm
Ward disputed the allegation, insisting that The Big Con was one of several historical references and that the screenplay was original work. The case settled out of court in 1976 for $600,000 — of which Maurer received approximately $300,000 after legal fees. Ward resented the settlement for implying guilt through payment. (wikipedia, slashfilm)
A separate suit from Followay Productions, which claimed to have purchased film rights to Maurer's book in 1952, sought $110 million from Ward, the producers, Universal, and parent company MCA. Writer-producer Roy Huggins also alleged that the first half of the screenplay plagiarized his 1958 Maverick television episode "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres." (slashfilm, wikipedia)
Redford insisted on an experienced director, displacing Ward
Ward was originally slated to direct his own script. Robert Redford — by then the most bankable star in Hollywood following Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Candidate — insisted on a more experienced hand behind the camera before he would commit to the role of Hooker.
George Roy Hill, who had directed Newman and Redford in Butch Cassidy, saw the screenplay and asked for the job. Hill brought with him both a working relationship with the stars and a visual sensibility that would shape the film's period aesthetic. (wikipedia)
Newman required top billing and profit participation
Paul Newman signed on with specific demands: top billing, $500,000, and a percentage of the profits. The deal was significant because Newman's previous five films had disappointed at the box office — The Sting represented a commercial comeback that would restore his standing as a first-rank star. (wikipedia)
Nicholson turned down the lead for more interesting work
Jack Nicholson was offered the role of Hooker and declined, choosing instead to make Chinatown and The Last Detail:
"I had enough business acumen to know The Sting was going to be a huge hit, but at the same time Chinatown and The Last Detail were more interesting films to me." — Jack Nicholson, (wikipedia)
Shaw's handball injury became Lonnegan's signature limp
Two days before cameras rolled, Robert Shaw slipped on a handball court and injured his leg badly enough to require a long-term brace. Shaw wasn't certain he could work, but Hill encouraged him to stay on the film and fold the limp into his character. The result became one of Lonnegan's defining physical traits — a visual marker of the menace Shaw communicated through economy of movement. (wikipedia)
Hill built a 1930s film inside a 1970s production
Production began in January 1973 and ran through April. Hill, working with art director Henry Bumstead and cinematographer Robert Surtees, set out to create a film that felt not only like 1930s Chicago but like a 1930s movie about Chicago — a deliberate artificiality that mirrored the con at the story's center.
"Surtees filmed in brownish tones, lending a slight rotogravure look." — A.D. Murphy, Variety (1973)
Bumstead — who won his second Academy Award for the film — devised a color scheme of muted browns and maroons. Surtees employed period-specific techniques including the "iris shot" fadeout, in which the image closes in an ever-decreasing circle, a convention popular in 1930s cinema. Hill deliberately kept extras sparse in street scenes, mimicking the visual language of classic gangster films. (wikipedia)
Edith Head designed the cast's wardrobe of snappy period costumes. Artist Jaroslav "Jerry" Gebr created the film's intertitle cards — hand-painted illustrations in the style of The Saturday Evening Post that introduce each section of the con. Even the Universal Pictures opening logo was replaced with a 1930s-vintage version to maintain the period illusion. (wikipedia, thedispatch)
Filming split between Universal's backlot and real locations
The production shot primarily on the Universal Studios backlot in Hollywood, supplemented by location work in:
- Chicago: Union Station and LaSalle Street Station provided period-appropriate railway interiors
- Wheeling, West Virginia: Additional location shooting
- Santa Monica: The Looff Hippodrome carousel appeared in the film
Co-producer Tony Bill supplied period vehicles from his personal collection, including his 1935 Pierce-Arrow limousine, which served as Lonnegan's car. (wikipedia)
Hill later acknowledged a rocky start to production, reshooting the first week's work because he "didn't like what he did." (wikipedia)
Hamlisch turned a reluctant assignment into a cultural phenomenon
When George Roy Hill approached composer Marvin Hamlisch to adapt Scott Joplin's ragtime compositions for the film's score, Hamlisch resisted. He was a composer of original music and saw adaptation as a lesser assignment. But after viewing a first cut, Hamlisch recognized the material's quality and committed to the project.
His adaptation of Joplin's "The Entertainer" (composed in 1902) became a cultural phenomenon — reaching No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart, spending a week at No. 1 on the easy listening chart, and producing a top-selling soundtrack album. Hamlisch won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and Adaptation and a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. (wikipedia, galaxymusicnotes)
The score's success had consequences beyond the film. Scholar Edward A. Berlin identifies the soundtrack as a catalyst for the broader 1970s ragtime revival, which encompassed Nonesuch Records' classical recordings, the New York Public Library's archival releases, the first full staging of Joplin's opera Treemonisha, and performances by the New England Conservatory under Gunther Schuller. Joplin's work became what Berlin calls "the classical phenomenon of the decade." (wikipedia)
The Variety review offered a dissenting note, finding the score "too thin" — a minority view that the soundtrack's commercial triumph would decisively overrule. (variety)