On December 25th, 1973 a film hit the box office that could perhaps only be a success due to its star power. The nation was reeling from its first true economic crisis in decades. President Nixon’s attempts at price controls (1970) and removing us from the Gold Standard (1971) were not helping the fight against inflation either. So, with Americans enduring high gas prices, long lines, and continuing confusion with the Phillips Curve - how did a Depression-era caper swing everyone to the movies in droves?
Producer Tony Bill called Michael Phillips in 1971 to say he had found the most talented new screenwriter. With degrees from both prestigious film schools USC and UCLA, David S.Ward presented them with part of his script for a pickpocket/confidence man story. In true confidence man style, Ward refused to reveal the ending. Bill, Phillips, and his wife Julia bought the ruse for 3500 dollars.
Over the next year, Ward made several thematic changes and tightened his script. (Another Ward screenplay for “Steelyard Blues” would receive good notices after its release in January 1973.) Titled “The Sting,” the script languished in a pile at Universal until assistant Rob Cohen found it and told agent Mike Medavoy “This is a Great American screenplay.” Needless to say, Universal bought it immediately.
In securing director George Roy Hill, casting would be everything. Ward originally wrote it with Lee Van Cleef in mind. The studio wanted Jack Nicholson. The producers wanted Western star Richard Boone. Hill had previously directed “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.” So bringing Robert Redford and Paul Newman back together would be a high-wattage draw. Redford had courted critical success (1972’s “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Candidate” and “The Hot Rock”) proving he could carry a film. On the other hand, Newman had five straight box office disappointments. Still, the studio met Newman’s demand for top billing and a share of profits. When Richard Boone quit taking calls from the Phillips’, Newman passed the screenplay on to actor Robert Shaw who he thought was a natural choice for the heavy.
While Bill, the Phillips, and Ward were planning this labyrinthian period piece, America was experiencing its first-ever export trade deficit. With more products coming into the US economy from overseas, some took this as a sign that the economy was slowing. The first to suffer was the manufacturing industry which lost nearly 10 percent of its workforce since 1960. Competing with cheaper goods overseas was then overshadowed by the importation of oil. By 1972, 83 percent of imported oil was from the Middle East. In October 1973, in response to skirmishes there, OPEC raised the price of oil from $3.01 per barrel to $5.02 overnight (it was $2 per barrel in 1971 - just above the cost of seeing a movie.) For the first time in decades, Americans saw sticker shock everywhere around them.
The script for “The Sting” was in Ward’s hands and the Phillips were cutting their teeth while making the scrappy “Steelyard Blues.” Over the course of this tenuous shoot, they learned to study the dailies and conclude that the director needs to know the actors just as well as they know the material. More importantly, inbetween sleeping in a trundle bed at Tony Bill’s house and getting locked out of Julia’s office by the studio, they learn the cardinal rule of the film business “everything takes longer than it should.”
Behind the scenes, a revolution was happening. 1970’s “Love Story” and 1972's "The Godfather" changed the method that films appeared in theaters. “Love Story” opened in chunks of 200 theaters from week to week constantly expanding and staying the top-grossing film. “The Godfather” opened in nearly every available theater over 10 days in March 1972 (making 15 million alone from advance rentals.) “The Sting” would open at every possible theater on Christmas Day, 1973, and over its lengthy run grossed 160 million dollars. As the rapturous reviews poured in, it stayed a solid hit into the Spring of 1974. (Also released wide just one day later, “The Exorcist” would take in 180 million.)
As the nation dealt with high prices, the first two consumer goods to suffer were automobiles and color TVs. A 21-inch diagonal color TV in 1965 was $499 (adjusted for inflation today that is $4725.) By 1969, one-third of all households has color sets. In 1972, it would surge to half of all American households. Surviving a slight slowdown in sales, in this brief window films presented an alternative that offered violence, sex, and language which was unsuitable for broadcast. (February 1974's "Blazing Saddles" from Mel Brooks would be a huge box office success with almost no chance of being shown on television.)
"The Sting" almost proved that film was recession-proof. While it was not violent, it was a spectacle. Seeing it on screen (now on your big screen TV) it remains a sumptuous production of lavish costumes from the famous Edith Head held together in chapters with Norman Rockwell-esque illustrations from Jaroslav Gebr. Amazingly, the film was mostly shot on the Universal backlot (with some locations used in Santa Monica (the carousel) and the city where it takes place, Chicago.) In addition, director George Roy Hill (and Paul Newman, as well) feasted on long stretches of classic Thirties films for mood and style. The key moment for Hill was noticing that in many of the gangster films, streets were often empty and characters were gunned down in the most lonely places. Without hundreds of extras to outfit and corral, 'The Sting" was made for just over 5 million (approximately 35 million in today's budget - in other words, just enough to cover a film's promotional needs.)
While Ragtime was not the music of the Depression, scorer Marvin Hamlisch wisely chose it for its thematic unity and lightness. The 1902 rag "The Entertainer" is his centerpiece. It turns out that the music of its composer Scott Joplin was seeing a resurgence. In November 1970, "The Entertainer" and a series of Joplin rags appeared on an album from acclaimed pianist Joshua Rifkin. Over the next year, "Scott Joplin: Piano Rags" would become the biggest selling album in the history of classical label Nonesuch. Hamlisch's reconfiguring of Joplin made the soundtrack from "The Sting" at #1 album and even put "The Entertainer" in the Top 5 of the Pop charts in the Spring of 1974. Eventually, the combination would make Rifkin's album one of the only modern-day Classical releases to go Platinum.
Why did "The Sting" work so well? The Depression provided a familiar backdrop, but Ward's screenplay had enough dazzle to make viewers want to see it multiple times. After studying pickpockets, Ward became consumed with the idea of telling their story with the audience actually in on it - in parts. In addition, while New York Times renowned critic Pauline Kael hated the "crooks as sweeties" motif, audiences loved their camaraderie and cohesion. Like the films of old, it takes a lot of hard-working hands to put on the show. The difference here is that we as viewers are in on the whole thing. So, while the economy is effectively out of our control and world diplomacy/domestic leadership is in question - we are allowed to see both sides of the tense card game. Finally (no spoilers, really,) when we see that both sides are cheating, even with all of the "honor among thieves" implications here - we are allowed to conclude that the knowledge of cheating remains a zero-sum game.
"The Sting" kicked off the buddy film trend as well as a throwback to 20s/30s films (that really never resulted in another true hit.) It wisely stayed away from the events of the day, providing the two things every moviegoer craved in the Winter of 1973/1974 - escape and entertainment. If you look closely, you can see one of the best film crews ever at work (they worked on "Vertigo," "Ben Hur," and "The Godfather." In addition, in between the period-centered transitions and wipes, George Roy Hill and cinematographer Robert Surtees manage to keep it at a modern pace. However, you will not want to. Ward's script and Newman/Redford are unearthing the oldest trick in the book. "The Sting" is prestidigitation swapping modern life for a time was knowing worse but you rarely see the suffering, and just like Newman's card handling you are only left spellbound as to how they managed to do it all.
—
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
