The Grifters (1990) on Netflix
Roy Dillon runs cons in Los Angeles. His estranged mother Lilly places bets for a mob bookmaker, and his girlfriend Myra Langtry is a con artist. His loyalties are torn between them.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/1033,738 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Lilly Dillon is a veteran con artist who places large cash bets at racetracks for Bobo Justus, a mob bookmaker, to push down the odds on longshots. On her way to La Jolla she stops in Los Angeles, where eight years have passed since she last saw her son Roy, a hustler who works short cons. She finds him bleeding internally; a mark beat him after a petty scam went wrong, and she gets him to a hospital. There she meets his girlfriend, Myra Langtry, a con artist who trades on her sexuality to get what she wants. Lilly, who also holds back money from Bobo, urges Roy to leave the grifting life. Myra wants a partner for a long con, and Roy sticks to short ones.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Grifters (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A scene in the script where Lilly is beaten violently by Bobo Justus with a sack of oranges alarmed Anjelica Huston with its explicitness, and she was still wavering when her talent agent Sue Mengers told her bluntly that if Stephen Frears wanted her to do something, that was what she must do.
- After shooting the scene where Bobo Justus tortures Lilly for betraying him, Huston was so affected by the rough quality of the scene, which did not make the final cut of the film, that she spent that night throwing up.
- To play Roy Dillon, Cusack studied with actual real-life grifters and learned card and dice tricks as well as sleight-of-hand tricks, including the $20 switch his character performs in the film; while practicing he succeeded with it on a bartender he knew well.
- For the role of Lilly, Frears originally considered Cher, but she became too expensive after the success of Moonstruck, and Sissy Spacek also read the part of Lilly Dillon.
