A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 5 nominations
- Billy Hahn
- (as Steve Goldstein)
- Sgt. Moran
- (as W.H. Macy)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRicky Jay was a sleight-of-hand artist and an acknowledged authority on the art of the con. In an NPR interview, Jay related that when David Mamet needed a short-change scam to be explained in the movie, he asked Jay for details of an authentic short-change hustle. However, Jay did not want to betray the confidence of the hustlers he knew who still used various short-change cons for their "livelihood". The envelope switch seen in the final film is an original switch invented by Jay specially for the film. Later, it was reported that an amateur thief had been caught attempting to use the switch as he had learned it from the film.
- GoofsMargaret Ford takes her smokes from a package of unfiltered "stubby" Camels, but the actual cigarettes she uses are longer (probably Pall Malls) so they'll "read" better on screen.
- Quotes
Joey: The bitch is a booster.
Mike: The bitch is a born thief, man.
Mr. Dean: So, you had her made from the jump?
Mike: I'm tellin' ya. A ton of fuckin' bricks! Show me some REAL con-men.
Joey: Yeah, we showed her some con-men.
Mike: We showed her some DINOSAUR con-men. Some old style.
Joey: Yes, sir.
Mike: Years from now, they're gonna have to go to a museum to see a frame like this.
Joey: That's right.
Mr. Dean: Took her money and screwed her, too.
Mike: A small price to pay.
- SoundtracksFugue
From "Toccata in C Minor (BWV 911)"
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performed by Warren Bernhardt (piano)
[Played during both the opening and end credits]
On the negative side, while the dialogue itself is first-rate, the delivery by several of the actors and especially the Psychiatrist struck me as unnatural and even wooden. I am not sure if this was an intended effect, but it took me out of the story several times.
In my view, the strongest part of the movie was the first half, where we are still introduced to how the con men work. The trouble is that once we are exposed to a few unexpected twists, everything becomes suspect and we begin to expect the unexpected. For instance, there was a scene where Psychiatrist, a medical doctor, fails to tend to man who was shot, and that made me immediately suspicious (at the meta story-telling level). As a result, I was able to predict the twists later in the movie and it became almost a little disappointing (though, to be fair, there was still an unexpected twist in the final scene).
I find this to be an interesting problem which I cannot recall that any previous movie brought to my attention: if a movie is designed to be "twisty", and you as the storyteller are especially successful at delivering the first few, how do you keep the unexpected still unexpected for the remainder?
This film did not succeed at solving this particular problem, but it is a hard one, and the movie is still quite good and worth a watch.
- Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi
- Jan 31, 2022
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- House of Cards
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,585,639
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $116,677
- Oct 18, 1987
- Gross worldwide
- $2,585,639