Post by Ace on Jul 6, 2004 10:12:17 GMT -5
Pittsburg Tribune: Some con artists steal our hearts
By Alice T. Carter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW THEATER CRITIC
Sunday, July 4, 2004
There are con artists we've come to love. They're the men and women we find ourselves falling for even when we know we're likely to regret our decision. Con artists fascinate us, fool us and often ultimately betray us. They also bring charm, adventure, romance and occasionally danger into our lives.
Those lovable rogues and rogue-ettes are some of the more colorful and memorable folks in history and fiction.
Here's a few examples:
Harry Gondorff (Paul Newman) and Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) in "The Sting" (1973). Even after multiple viewings, I'm at a loss to explain exactly what their con is or how they achieve it. But it's still fun watching them pull it off.
Lucy Van Pelt: Each fall, this "Peanuts" comic strip character uses false sincerity to con and cajole Charlie Brown into trying once again to kick that football.
Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) in "Paper Moon" (1973). He's allegedly a salesman of the Kansas Bible Company working a Depression-era con in the Midwest, but he ends up having his heart stolen by a young orphan girl (Tatum O'Neal).
Remington Steele: Pierce Brosnan's con man-thief-turned-private-investigator enjoyed being the fictional front man for Laura Holt's detective agency on the television series that bore his character's name.
The "Mission: Impossible" team: OK, they're doing it to keep the world free from tyranny. But it's the planning and implementation of diguises and fool-you, fool-them scenarios, not the end result, that really captures their enthusiasm.
Anna Anderson: Even a decade after her death in 1984, many continued to believe this Virginia woman's claims that she was the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia. DNA testing disproved this in 1994.Whether she was conning us or herself remains one of the unanswered questions of history.
Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain's endearing character talked Tom Sawyer into painting the fence and, if he lived today, could host a political talk show or open a marketing firm.
Dr. Zachary Smith: The "Lost in Space" stowaway who feigned distress ("Oh the pain! The pain!") to get the Robot and children Will and Penny Robinson to do all his work.
Lawrence Jamieson and Freddy Benson: Played by Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the 1988 movie "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," these two con men discover the French Mediterranean seacoast isn't big enough for both of them. They agree to a competition that will decide which one will leave this lucrative turf to the other.
Eric the Red (aka Eric Thorvaldson): Untroubled by the unfortunate fact that it was largely covered by ice, this 10th-century Viking explorer gave Greenland its name, hoping to encourage settlers to move there. More than 450 did.
Bill Starbuck: He's the flamboyant huckster in the stage play "The Rainmaker" and its musical version "110 in the Shade." Lizzie was the only resident of a drought-stricken Western town who didn't believe his blather about his ability to make it rain. But, like Marian in "The Music Man," that didn't stop her from succumbing to his charms.
Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis: This pair of low-lifes attempt to fund a move to Easy Street by convincing Daddy Warbucks that they're Annie's long-lost parents in the musical "Annie."
Madame Flora (aka Baba): In Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera "The Medium," this con artist has no qualms about extracting money from gullible clients who believe she can help them communicate with the dead through seances. It's only when she makes contact with the spirit world that she loses confidence in her abilities and goes mad.
The Wizard of Oz: The entire populace of Emerald City believed he was a wizard until Dorothy's dog Toto pulled the curtain on his act and literally uncovered the truth -- he wasn't a bad man, just a bad wizard.
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Nice to see Steele among the list although Huck Finn doesn't belong there, the true con artist was Sawyer and he tricked other people into painting the fence making them believe it was great fun! Grmph, I guess people do only read Twain when they're kids and forget it.
Ace
By Alice T. Carter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW THEATER CRITIC
Sunday, July 4, 2004
There are con artists we've come to love. They're the men and women we find ourselves falling for even when we know we're likely to regret our decision. Con artists fascinate us, fool us and often ultimately betray us. They also bring charm, adventure, romance and occasionally danger into our lives.
Those lovable rogues and rogue-ettes are some of the more colorful and memorable folks in history and fiction.
Here's a few examples:
Harry Gondorff (Paul Newman) and Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) in "The Sting" (1973). Even after multiple viewings, I'm at a loss to explain exactly what their con is or how they achieve it. But it's still fun watching them pull it off.
Lucy Van Pelt: Each fall, this "Peanuts" comic strip character uses false sincerity to con and cajole Charlie Brown into trying once again to kick that football.
Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) in "Paper Moon" (1973). He's allegedly a salesman of the Kansas Bible Company working a Depression-era con in the Midwest, but he ends up having his heart stolen by a young orphan girl (Tatum O'Neal).
Remington Steele: Pierce Brosnan's con man-thief-turned-private-investigator enjoyed being the fictional front man for Laura Holt's detective agency on the television series that bore his character's name.
The "Mission: Impossible" team: OK, they're doing it to keep the world free from tyranny. But it's the planning and implementation of diguises and fool-you, fool-them scenarios, not the end result, that really captures their enthusiasm.
Anna Anderson: Even a decade after her death in 1984, many continued to believe this Virginia woman's claims that she was the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia. DNA testing disproved this in 1994.Whether she was conning us or herself remains one of the unanswered questions of history.
Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain's endearing character talked Tom Sawyer into painting the fence and, if he lived today, could host a political talk show or open a marketing firm.
Dr. Zachary Smith: The "Lost in Space" stowaway who feigned distress ("Oh the pain! The pain!") to get the Robot and children Will and Penny Robinson to do all his work.
Lawrence Jamieson and Freddy Benson: Played by Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the 1988 movie "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," these two con men discover the French Mediterranean seacoast isn't big enough for both of them. They agree to a competition that will decide which one will leave this lucrative turf to the other.
Eric the Red (aka Eric Thorvaldson): Untroubled by the unfortunate fact that it was largely covered by ice, this 10th-century Viking explorer gave Greenland its name, hoping to encourage settlers to move there. More than 450 did.
Bill Starbuck: He's the flamboyant huckster in the stage play "The Rainmaker" and its musical version "110 in the Shade." Lizzie was the only resident of a drought-stricken Western town who didn't believe his blather about his ability to make it rain. But, like Marian in "The Music Man," that didn't stop her from succumbing to his charms.
Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis: This pair of low-lifes attempt to fund a move to Easy Street by convincing Daddy Warbucks that they're Annie's long-lost parents in the musical "Annie."
Madame Flora (aka Baba): In Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera "The Medium," this con artist has no qualms about extracting money from gullible clients who believe she can help them communicate with the dead through seances. It's only when she makes contact with the spirit world that she loses confidence in her abilities and goes mad.
The Wizard of Oz: The entire populace of Emerald City believed he was a wizard until Dorothy's dog Toto pulled the curtain on his act and literally uncovered the truth -- he wasn't a bad man, just a bad wizard.
==============================
Nice to see Steele among the list although Huck Finn doesn't belong there, the true con artist was Sawyer and he tricked other people into painting the fence making them believe it was great fun! Grmph, I guess people do only read Twain when they're kids and forget it.
Ace
Huck wasn't even in that scene. 
Just imagine what the barbarian looked like, in abcense of proper hygiene, oral and other.