Episode 719: The Grifters (1990)

The Projection Booth

Tv & Film, Film Interviews, Film Reviews, Film History

4.6 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2024

⏱️ 168 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Noirvember 2024 ends with a bang as we delve into Stephen Frears' electrifying neo-noir The Grifters. Adapted from Jim Thompson’s novel by screenwriter Donald Westlake, this razor-sharp film stars Anjelica Huston as Lily Dillon, a veteran con artist manipulating the odds at the racetrack. Her uneasy reunion with estranged son Roy (John Cusack) and his cunning girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening) sparks a volatile triangle of deception and betrayal in the high-stakes world of grifting.

Mike is joined by crime fiction experts Andrew Nette and Jedidiah Ayres to untangle this web of cons and double-crosses. Plus, executive producer Barbara De Fina and producer Peggy Rajski reveal what it took to bring this stylish, unsettling tale to life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hold your ears, folks.
0:06.8	It's showtime.
0:08.6	People pay good money to see this movie.
0:10.9	When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth.
0:17.3	Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
0:20.2	Shut it off.
0:25.5	Turn it off.
0:26.8	Turn it off.
0:31.5	Ah!
0:32.1	Yeah! It begins. It begins with seduction.
1:00.0	The lady?
1:02.0	Or the lute?
1:04.0	It leads to betrayal.
1:06.0	You're working some angler. Don't tell me you're not, because I wrote the book.
1:10.0	What do you sell anyway? Self-confidence. You're not skimming, and don't tell me you're not, because I wrote the book. What do you sell anyway?
1:11.7	Self-confidence.
1:13.0	You're not skimming this bin, really.
1:16.3	Oh, well, you know, clip the buck here and the buck there.
1:23.6	It's getting better.
1:25.5	I can walk away from it any time I want.
1:27.9	I've heard that before.
1:29.4	And it ends with murder.
	...

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