The Sting

These things rarely come off, but the reteaming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford and their director George Roy Hill proved to be a glorious triumph, and this period romp raced away with seven Oscars. Newman and Redford play conmen who, after the death of an old chum, set about fleecing dangerous mobster Robert Shaw out of a fortune. The sting itself is as audacious as it is elaborate, but the real pleasure comes from the easy, charismatic playing of the two leads, the lovingly created 1930s settings and Marvin Hamlisch's inspired reworking of Scott Joplin's music. The excellent supporting cast includes Charles Durning, Eileen Brennan and Ray Walston.

Bright, likeable, but overlong, unconvincingly studio-set and casually developed comedy suspenser cashing in on star charisma but riding to enormous success chiefly on its tinkly music and the general lack of simple entertainment.