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The Grifters (film)(Redirected from Grifters (film))
Production HighlightsFrears' second Hollywood production opened to warm reviews in specialized maganizes, but was generally considered less sucessful than his previous feature film, Dangerous Liaisons. According to critics, one of its major achievements lies in Anjelica Huston's brilliant performance as Lilly Dillon, which granted her a third Oscar nomination. Annette Bening was also nominated for her work as Myra Langtry. After Valmont's Madame de Merteuil failed to attract as much attention, this part may be considered a turning point in her career as a serious drama actress. John Cusack stars as Roy Dillon, Lilly's son. Notable supporting performances include Henry Jones as Mr. Simms and Pat Hingle as Bobo. The film also features cameo appearances by J.T. Walsh, Stephen Tobolowsky and Frances Bay in minor roles. The movie was adapted by Donald E. Westlake from the homonymous novel by Jim Thompson. In general terms, the screenplay respects the plot of the book, adding a few action scenes for material which originally consisted of memories or inner thoughts. One of its distinctive marks is the extensive use of sharp, witty dialogues, most of which come directly from Thompson's pages. The choice of film locations reflects the urban atmosphere conveyed by Thompson's novel, and include large American cities in California and Arizona such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. The Turf Paradise Racetrack, where race track sequences were partially shot, is located in the latter. The Grifters was co-produced by Peggy Rajski . Oliver Stapleton was in charge of the cinematography, and Elmer Bernstein composed the original score. AwardsThe Grifters was nominated in 1990 for four Academy Awards:
It lost in all categories. Some magazines remarked that Elmer Bernstein might have deserved a nomination for his original score. The actresses were also nominated for a few notable international prizes, including the BAFTA (Bening) and the Golden Globe (Huston): they were both awarded by the American National Society of Film Critics . Westlake's screenplay was nominated by the Writers Guild of America, losing - as he did at the Oscars - to Michael Blake's Dances with Wolves. Curiosities
The FilmThe PlotThe Grifters tells the story of Lilly Dillon, a long-time female con artist who begins to rethink her life when her son Roy, also a grifter, is beaten following a failed scam. She works for a bookmaker, Bobo, handling playback at the tracks, i.e., betting money to lower the odds of longshots. Driving to the La Jolla races, she stops at Los Angeles to visit Roy, whom she hadn't seen in seven years. She finds him in a miserable state: he had been hit with a baseball bat trying to con a bartender, and has an internal bleeding. At the hospital, Lilly meets and despises Myra, Roy's girlfriend, who also lives on scams. She urges her son to quit the grift and leaves late for La Jolla, missing a race where the winner was paying 15-1. For this mistake, she is later tortured by Bobo, and gets her hand burnt with a cigar. Upon leaving the hospital, Roy takes Myra to La Jolla for the weekend. On the train, she notices him conning a group of sailors, and later reveals that she is also on the grift and looking for a partner for a long-con operation. Roy hesitates at first, but finally refuses her proposition, in fear that she may try to dupe him herself. Myra sees his mother behind Roy's decision and moves for revenge. She hints to Bobo that Lilly keeps a large sum of money stashed in her Cadillac, money she had stolen from him over the years. Lilly is warned by a friend and flees. Myra follows with the intention of killing her. Roy is called by an FBI agent to identify his mother's body, found in a motel room with the face completely destroyed. While sustaining it was Lilly's, he silently notes a cigar burn is missing from her right hand. Coming back home, he finds Lilly trying to steal all his money so that she may keep running away from Bobo. She had shot Myra while being attacked at the motel and arranged things so that it looked like she was the one who got killed. Roy refuses to let her go with his money. In a desperate attempt to get away, she hits him with a suitcase and unintentionally breaks a glass onto his neck, slashing his artery. InfluencesThe Grifters was modeled after B-grade film noirs. Critical reviews pointed out similarities between this movie and genre classics such as Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street, Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly and Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. According to Frears, Bening had based her character in similar roles played by Gloria Grahame. It is also worth mentioning that Westlake's screenplay develops the psychological background laid out in Thompson's novel way beyond the usual cynicism that constitutes the distinctive mark of film noir heroes. The three leading characters are crooks, but it's ultimately their obsessive and often disturbing passions that push the plot towards its inevitable tragic ending. For instance, the film explores the problematic relationship between Roy and his mother, hinting at a level of sexual tension and incest that may also partially acount for Myra's aggressive behaviour towards Lilly. In this sense, The Grifters may be seen as following a subgenre of film noir that enhances the dramatical aspects of character interaction. Movies in this tradition include Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, which had Thompson himself as a screenplay co-writer, and a few pictures by John Huston, Anjelica's father, most notably The Asphalt Jungle and The Maltese Falcon. Memorable Scenes
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