My favorite movie, part 2

(For all none of you, part 1 is below)

In later years, when I would watch "The Sting," every eighteen months or so, the movie had the same effect on me as "The Wizard of Oz": above all else, it became a movie about friendship; in "The Sting"'s case, friendship of an almost paternal type. If you remember, Redford's Johnny Hooker sets after Robert Shaw's Doyle Lonnegan after Lonnegan's hired guns murder his first father figure, Luther Coleman. In that respect, Hooker's journey from Joliet to the big city of Illinois has with it the trappings of a young man leaving home, and of relinquishing one father figure for another.

I watched the subtitled version because one of one question I always had: wasn't Paul Newman, who was after all Redford's contemporary, a little young to be Redford's father figure? As it turns out--as the subtitles make clear--the role was originally written for a man much older, someone so down in the dumps he has become a slob. The person David S. Ward had in mind was Peter Boyle, who had starred in the movie from Ward's first screenplay, "Steelyard Blues." As it turns out, Redford and Newman pulled off the feat by sharing the weight: Newman played about five years older than he was, and Redford played ten years younger. In addtion, some of the supporting characters helped carry the load: note Walston's look of fatherly concern when Redford first enters the fake wire room; or Gould's referring to Redford as "Tootsie,"; or Eileen Brennan acting as den mother for the whole group, right down to applying peroxide to the wound Redford received from Charles Durning.

That was one question I had about the film. I went in search of three more answers, and unfortunately found only one.

1. In the train berth, does Newman do all the card tricks himself? Answer: No. A technical adviser was brought in to teach Newman some tricks, and Newman learned fast, but not fast enough. Right toward the end of the card flourishes, the advisor's pair of hands moves offscreen. Newman's then move on for the coup de grace.

2. How in the world did Newman exchange his four threes for four jacks? Answer: we are never told. Newman's motivation is clear; he has been informed that when Shaw cheats, he usually does so with eights and nines. How the switch is made, we are never told.

3. One thing that always puzzled me. When Redford and Shaw first meet up at Klein's drugstore, we are shown Redford siting at a booth near the back wall. He (and we) wonder if Shaw will show. At quarter two two, Shaw's number two bodyguard enters the drugstore and sits and the counter. Shaw then hears a throat-clearing, stands, then turns around to see bodyguard number one standing behind him, then Shaw in his booth. "Always look to the back, kid," Shaw says.

All right, so how is the set-up possible? If Shaw entered the drugstore before Redford, Redford would have seen him when he entered. If he entered after Redford entered then, of course, Redford would have seen him come in. No back entrance. So what gives? I spent and hour hoping to get an explanation--but nothing. When the scene happened the subtitles were in the midst of the back-and-forth between screenwriter Ward, producers Tony Bill and Michael and Julia Phillips, director George Roy Hill, and stars Redford and Newman. Totally unrelated stuff. So I was left to enjoy the movie--which I did, of course.

Part three next, all none of you.