The Grifters

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

A grifter is someone who cons people illicitly out of their money. Which means that “confidence,” or trust, is gained under false pretenses. The con artist discards legal and social rules for selfish reasons. One of the characters in the movie The Grifters (1990), trying to justify outlaw activity, says, “laws are made to be broken, aren’t they?” People are drawn to that desire of ultimate individual freedom that liberates someone from all restraints. We call these swindlers “con artists,” because there is admiration for their crafty plans and performances. However, that admiration dwindles when we become their “marks,” and then the repercussions of their practices hit home. 

 

The film starts with a written quote from, of all things, the Walt Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, which talks about working a “grift.” Dishonesty even creeps into the “G” rated world of a beloved children’s story, so drawn are we to this renegade lifestyle. Martin Scorsese, producer of the movie, provides the first lines of the film in a voice-over. He says that bookies pay out winnings based on racing track odds. If a longshot comes in, that means a big loss for a bookie, “unless you have somebody at the tracks to lower those odds.” Immediately we are in the world of illegal betting and corrupt practices. 

 

Lilly Dillon (a platinum blonde Anjelica Huston) drives into a racetrack parking lot in New Mexico. She is that “somebody” working for the gangster. Director Stephen Frears uses the split screen technique to show Lilly and her son, Roy Dillon (John Cusack), at another location, checking out stuff in the trunks of their cars. The shot shows that, although these two have not been in contact, they are connected in disturbing ways. The screen splits into three shots to include the third star and person in this weird criminal triangle, Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), getting out of her car.  She wears a sexy, tight-fitting, seductive outfit, just like Lilly. The names of the two women produce “Lilly Langtry,” who was a beautiful actress, attributes a female con artist can use, who had some romantic scandal in her life and was involved in horse racing. The film thus establishes similarities between Lilly and Myra.  

 Roy works a couple of small-time cons on a bartender and a patron, similar to the money duplicity scams seen in another film about grifters, Paper Moon. Meanwhile, Mom is placing thousands of dollars on longshot horses to lower the odds. If one wins, the bookie still pockets a hefty amount which will defray any losses. Myra, who seems playful and innocent outwardly, attempts her own scam when she tries to pass off a piece of jewelry as being authentic. The jeweler (Stephen Tobolowsky) says she is a “valued customer,” (which in the context of the movie is an ironic statement) but the diamonds, set in authentic platinum filigree, are fake. As she leaves, the jeweler says he is open to anything else of value she may have to offer. She is shot looking through the bars on the door, which suggest a prison cell, a possible destination for a thief down the road. She says that he is looking at what she has to offer, which is herself. This attempt at getting cash for sex is met with moral disappointment by the jeweler, who says, “The fine setting and workmanship usually means precious stones. It always hurts me when I find they’re not. I always hope I’m mistaken.” It is an interesting metaphor for a swindler, who appears genuine but at heart is a phony. 

 

Roy repeats his attempt to get change for a twenty-dollar bill when only providing a ten dollar note at a bar. However, the bartender is wise to his ploy, and slams a club hard into Roy’s chest, propelling him against a jukebox, and he stumbles out of the place. Again, the one who is targeted to be a mark reacts with anger, and not appreciation, concerning the con artist’s technique. A policeman finds Roy bending in agony over the hood of his car. He wants to help, but Roy says he just ate bad shrimp and has to see clients. Roy can’t be helped by the law because he will be exposed as someone breaking it.

 

Lilly gathers up the ticket stubs discarded by losing patrons, probably to defray taxes on winnings. She puts money in an envelope for the gangster she is working for, Bobo Justus (Pat Hingle). Bobo’s first name sounds like a nickname for an ape, and his last name appears to be a perversion of “justice,” since the kind that he inflicts is anything but legally sanctioned. Lilly also puts money in a metal box under the trunk carpet, indicating she is skimming off of Bobo’s winnings. If anything goes, then scammers will swindle other scammers. Lilly’s next stop is in La Jolla, so she decides to stop in Los Angeles to see her son. 

 In his apartment, Roy flips coins trying to predict whether heads or tails will show up. It’s as if he is trying to defy the odds of probability, which shows his reckless arrogance. He is delirious from his wound and dreams of his mentor, Mintz (Eddie Jones), who Roy is subconsciously summoning for help, because the apparition asks, “What do you want, kid?” There is a flashback to when Roy met Mintz, who was doing some card tricks at a bus depot. Roy asks how he accomplishes the illusion, and Mintz says the young Roy should be in school. Roy’s witty response is, “I am in school,” which means he is learning the skills of Mintz’s trade. (IMDb notes that the witty dialogue comes right from the book, written by Jim Thompson, on which the movie is based). One of the first things Mintz teaches Roy is not to have a partner, because it, “cuts your score in half right down the middle.” In addition, it’s like, having “an apple on your head,” and handing “the other guy a shotgun.” The partner can expose and frame his supposed ally. So, the thrust here is that if one is a grifter it’s better to be a loner, an outsider. Mintz goes on to say, “Grifter’s got an irresistible urge to beat a guy who’s wise.” It’s the thrill of taking down a formidable opponent that is intoxicating. And the danger is that a grifter may be tempted to take down a partner to get that adrenaline rush, and the partner feels the same way. He goes on to tell him that it’s better to do the “short” con since the “long” variety, implying the big, complicated score, is fraught with the possibility of going to jail. Mintz also tells Roy to lose the flashy leather jacket, since it draws attention. His witty, contradictory comment is, “any blind man could spot you.” 

 Myra has been Roy’s girlfriend for two months. She stops by his place and his injury doesn’t prevent him from being funny when he grabs her breasts and says that “the twins are restless,” and they should be “put to bed.” Later Simms (Henry Jones), the building manager, calls to tell Roy he has a visitor he describes as “a very attractive young lady.” Roy doesn’t refer to her as “Mom,” but addresses her as Lilly, another indication of him not seeing her as a parent. Huston isn’t that much older than Cusack, and the fact that mother is good-looking and there isn’t that much difference in their ages adds an uncomfortable Oedipal element to the story. When she sees him after eight years she doesn’t give him a maternal hug but kisses him lightly on the lips. When barriers to forbidden behavior are knocked aside, dangerous possibilities may enter people’s lives.

 

He is quietly sarcastic about how far from a normal relationship they have when he says he figures she received his Christmas cards, and tells her “I’d have been hurt if you hadn’t dropped by.” When she asks what he’s been doing, he gets defensive, and she realizes he is not well. After confessing to getting assaulted, she drops Bobo’s name with a doctor and bullies the physician (Sandy Baron) to get treatment for Roy, who is bleeding internally. When the doctor expresses doubts about Roy’s prognosis, Lilly says he’ll fix her son or she’ll have the doctor killed. Talk about being a patient’s advocate.

 

The meeting between Lilly and Myra at the hospital is hostile, probably because each woman sees the other as a rival for Roy’s attention.  Myra says she is Roy’s friend. Lilly says, “I imagine you’re lots of people’s friend,” insinuating promiscuity on Myra’s part. Myra shoots back that seeing Lilly in a stronger light shows she is “plenty old enough to be Roy’s mother.” Lilly’s interesting comment is, “Aren’t we all?” She could be implying that all women mother their men, so there is a hint of incest in every male-female relationship. Roy wakes up and assumes Myra called for medical help, but she says his mother saved his life. Lilly says softly to Roy, but humorously, that it was “the second time I gave it to you.” Roy says thanks but is not overly expressive in his gratitude. He tells Myra that he was an inconvenience to Lilly, having been born when she was fourteen, so she called him her brother to avoid the embarrassment, which is what Roy suggests he was considered by his mother. Lilly turns cold again when she doesn’t receive enough warmth from Roy and leaves to go to the track. When he says, “I guess I owe you my life,” she says as she walks out the door that he “always did,” thus reminding him that he will always owe her that debt. 

 

Lilly might feel punished for taking the time to tend to her son because she is late at getting to the racetrack, which results in her not getting to place a large bet on a longshot that wins. Back at the hospital, Myra is intrigued by Roy’s mother being involved with gambling. She doesn’t know that Roy is a con man, but wants to know if there might be some joint venture they can become involved in. Most likely Roy is thinking about Mintz’s advice about going it alone.

 

Lilly returns to the hospital and babies Roy by saying she stopped at his place to pick up the mail and she can handle paying bills. He reminds her he can take care of that himself. She is out of sync as to how to be a mother because of the age discrepancy and the extended time away from him. She knows that he is grifting based on how he is living, and she says he isn’t tough enough for that life, noting he doesn’t have “the stomach for it.” Considering the way Roy sustained his injury, she is literally right. Lilly has hired the nurse who was assigned to Roy at the hospital, Carol Flynn (Noelle Harling), to “take care” of him when he goes home. But Roy tells Carol that his mother hired her so that he would have sex with her and keep him away from bad influences. It is Myra who Lilly sees as a threat, who she probably considers to be someone like herself, a person that will reinforce Roy’s criminal activity. Roy asks if Lilly is jealous, which is a strange thing to say to one’s mother. She basically replies that Myra isn’t worth getting jealous about. Lilly is trying in her clumsy, crude way to protect Roy. However, he is an adult who has been on his own and doesn’t like having decisions made for him. She walks out snarling that she gave him his life and what he does with it is up to him. It appears as if she is telling him that she gave him a chance to pursue a worthwhile life and he is trashing it. He calls Myra and says he’s getting out of the hospital and they should go to La Jolla to enjoy the beach there. That is not the real reason, another deception, since that is where Mom is going. 

 Myra’s landlord, Joe (Gailard Sartain), wants her to pay her back rent. She says she always pays up, “one way or another,” which means she has made him the same offer she presented to the jeweler in the past. Joe says he needs cash this time, and she makes a smiling threat that maybe she could get the money from his wife or from his child’s “piggy bank.” She goes into her bedroom and gets naked. She puts money on her bureau. She gives him a choice of which to take, jokingly saying he can’t have both according to the “Intercourse Commerce Commission.” He picks the “lady” over the “loot.” 

 

Bobo confronts Lilly outside. She stops walking and we know she is scared but she quickly recovers with a fake smile. Bobo is immune to her charms, and is brutal when he says, “I may just flush you down the toilet,” for missing the bet on the longshot. She at first starts to lie about how she didn’t place money on the horse, but after a threat tells the truth about Roy being in the hospital. His response is, “What the fuck are you doing with a son?” It’s unbelievable to him, and maybe to us, that she could possibly think she can play the role of a mother, given her lifestyle. He asks her if she has a long coat she can wear over her dress. She looks nervous now and says she doesn’t, but he says he’ll loan her a raincoat. It’s a strange question, but given how nasty this guy is, it doesn’t bode well. 

 

Back at his house, there is a difficult scene to watch as Bobo punches Lilly hard in the stomach. She doubles over and falls to the floor. This blow echoes what happened to Roy when he messed up, and how she said her son didn’t have “the stomach” to be a grifter. Then he tells her to go to the bathroom to get him a towel. She can hardly breathe but she does as she’s told as he apathetically lights up a cigar. He then knocks over a bag of oranges and tells her to wrap the oranges in the towel. They both know that there is a scam that has an insurance company pay for wounds resulting from beating someone with a towel full of oranges which leaves “ugly” bruises. If the person isn’t hit properly, then Lilly knows there can be “permanent damage” of internal organs. She must be so servile that she has to prepare her own punishment. (Ever since oranges were used in the Godfather films, the fruit foreshadows bad happenings. See Children of Men, Cusack’s Identity, Lost, Big Love, etc.). Bobo doesn’t beat her, only scares her, but throws her to the floor and inflicts a cigar burn on her hand, suggestive of a figurative rape, the large cigar being a phallic symbol. The movie again shows that freedom from any rules of behavior allows the most brutal of human impulses to be unleashed. Afterwards, Lily must still behave in a subservient position to protect herself, complimenting Bobo’s suit. He asks if she is stealing off of him. She knows that if she didn’t admit to some petty thievery, he would suspect that she was planning to take a large amount from him at one point. As she says of any subordinate, “If he’s not stealing a little, he’s stealing a lot.” She recites additional con artist rules supposedly imparted by Bobo himself, since he states one that instructs, “take a little, leave a little.” She says, “A person who don’t look out for himself is too dumb to look out for anybody else,” which means that an employee can’t be trusted to care about the employer’s interests if he’s not protecting his own. Even among this underbelly social world, there must be some rules, even if they are an alternative version of the “straight” life. But, because the specialty of these people is fakery, it’s difficult to discern the truth. Bobo replaces his barbaric behavior with acceptable social etiquette as he asks about Lilly’s son, and says to give him a “hug” for him. With this guy one never knows if that hug will be a crushing bear embrace. He’s like a domestic abuser who one moment tells his partner he loves her and the next strikes her. 

 

Another example of how grifters specialize in false appearances shows up in the next scene where Roy takes a painting off the wall of his place and unlatches the back of the frame to expose rows of stashed cash. He needs some extra money for his trip to La Jolla. Even on the train to the beach, Roy is looking for marks. He pulls the bill switch on the bartender, and targets some sailors (one of whom is played by Jeremy Piven, who will rejoin Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank). Myra sees him cheating the sailors with loaded dice and smiles, as she is impressed since she too is a swindler at heart.

 Later at dinner, Myra drops her ditsy façade and makes Roy drop his act of being a salesman. She tells him she can see he is a grifter, a good one, and they are both short-con operators. The chemistry between then shows that not only opposites attract. They talk the swindler “lingo” now and she wants them to try for the “long con,” which Roy knows requires a partner, something Mintz told him to avoid. She did it for ten years with the older Cole Langley (J. T. Walsh), from whom she took her name. She praises his lack of scruples in her upside-down view of life by boasting, “He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.” They went after rich men looking for investments. There is a long flashback that shows an operation similar to the one in The Sting, only here involving the stock market. There is an expensive set-up and phony FBI agents which culminates in a simulated shooting of Myra. The whole point is to make the illusion look like reality. But the stress of plotting to escape the world’s restraints took its toll on Cole, who became unhinged. Although Myra again tries to hide the truth by saying he retired, Roy knows the location where Cole resides is for the “criminally insane.” Myra says she is great at drawing in the victims, and Roy realizes she is doing the same to him, only her goal is to get him to do the long con with her. She later seduces him most likely to try to seal the deal, and although Roy knows he is being manipulated, she is difficult to resist.

 

Lilly may know how to act submissive when the circumstances dictate it, but she is tough when those weaker than she try to take advantage of her. She elbows a drunk in the throat at a diner who is coming on to her and she carries a gun with a silencer, the sound suppression device being another way of hiding what is actually happening. Roy is able to visit his mother, being in the same town. He wants to give her four grand to repay her for the medical expenses. He doesn’t like being indebted to her. He notices the cigar burn on her hand, which becomes important later. She again tries to get him to stop grifting, saying it has one “go up or down. Usually down, sooner or later.” He says, in response to what turns out to be her ironic warning, “Well, I’ll let it be a surprise, then.” Boy, will it ever. 

 

Myra follows Roy to where Lilly is staying and then she tails her to the racetrack. Borrowing binoculars, she sees Lilly store some of the cash in her hidden metal box (which echoes Roy’s camouflaged picture stash), another example of dissembling. Myra now knows Lilly is skimming. Roy is resistant to teaming up with Myra and she blames his reluctance on Lilly’s dislike of her. Myra is already setting up a job, but Roy tells her “you scare the hell out of me … You’re double-tough and you are sharp as a razor and you get what you want or else. But you don’t make it work forever. Sooner or later the lightning hits, and I’m not gonna be around when it hits you.” Despite his problems with Lilly, he’s actually repeating what his mother said about how grifting eventually goes downhill. But, sometimes, as we see, one can’t escape one's choices. He says he’s okay where he is, and Myra scrutinizes him and sees below the surface of Roy’s feelings. She says it’s Lilly who has a hold on him and suggests that there is an incestuous connection between Roy and his mother. She says, “you like to go back where you been,” which suggests the womb. He smacks Myra and then tells her to get out. The male violence mirrors what happened to Lilly. Myra implies that Roy was conning himself, not allowing to see the truth about how he felt toward Lilly.

 

Right after the confrontation with Myra, Roy calls Lilly and says he would like to visit her and talk things over, suggesting they are older now and could resolve some matters between them. Lilly smiles and seems happy about Roy reaching out to her. After he hangs ups he says to himself, “Well, who’s a boy gonna talk to if not his mother?” That sounds a great deal like Norman Bates in Psycho saying how a boy’s best friend is his mother. And we know how well that relationship turned out.

 Lilly gets a tip from Irv (Michael Laskin), who works for Bobo, that someone told Bobo how she stole from him and hid the cash in her car. (Lilly is wearing a sexy outfit, and it is disturbing to think it could be for Roy’s arrival). Since Myra was threatening to go after Lilly, we know it was she that is exposing the family secrets. Lilly immediately gets in her car and drives off past Myra hiding (of course) in her car. Bobo’s men find Lilly’s place empty and her Cadillac gone. Soon after, Roy arrives and is angry, thinking Lilly stood him up. 

 

Lilly drives off to Phoenix (possibly another reference to Psycho, since Marion Crane stole money in that city and drove away with it, like Lilly), and checks into a motel. Myra followed her. Both women are wearing sexy clothes, and the woman at the motel desk mistakes Myra for Lilly at first when she enters the office. It’s another example of the film mixing sex and motherhood together. Lilly attaches the silencer to her gun, being prepared in case Bobo’s men show up. Myra gets a room and has assorted keys to open doors. She gets into Lilly’s room, jumps onto Lilly in her bed and starts choking her.

 

We jump ahead in the story as Lt. Pierson (Xander Berkeley) greets Roy at the Phoenix airport and says that his mother killed herself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face. He also says the police found a large sum of money in the trunk of her car. Roy has a difficult time believing his mother would commit suicide, given how she put all her energies into surviving. He says, “nothing would make her check out.” Lilly never was caught by the police before so there is no fingerprint record for her. In addition, the wound destroyed the teeth, so there could be no dental match. So, Roy was called to identify the body. But, Roy notices that there is no burn on the right hand of the corpse. Yes, the body is really that of Myra. Lilly killed her and literally changed places with her and faked (a grifter’s strength) her own death. And, the filmmakers conned the audience as well. (Is there maybe another Hitchcock film reference here? In Vertigo, Kim Novak’s character pretends to be another woman who is killed). Roy plays along, sheds crocodile tears and says, “Mom,” which is not a sign of grief but an acknowledgement of Lilly’s scheming. 

 

Lilly had to leave the money she took from Bobo in the car. Otherwise, it would look as if she faked her death and ran off with the cash. So, Lilly needs to replace that money to make sure she can disappear and solidify her bogus death. Where can she get the loot? From her son. She walks into the lobby where Roy lives wearing Myra’s red dress and covers the side of her face to continue the charade so that Simms thinks she’s Myra visiting Roy. (Angelica Huston said that they wanted to make Lilly’s look go from pale to blood red, “clotted,” most likely to suggest the journey to violence). She breaks into Roy’s place since he wanted to give Lilly four thousand dollars to pay her for medical expenses. So, she knows he has been doing pretty well at grifting. She previously noted that the painting of a clown was not his taste, so she finds the cash inside the frame and puts it into Roy’s briefcase. Roy surprises her there, and confirms that the cops believe she is dead. 

 

Lilly tells Roy the truth about how Myra attacked her and then she shot her. She figured it out so that she could get out of the criminal world she put herself in. He tells her she can’t have his money. He acts like depriving her of cash will force Lilly to not grift, but he may just not want to give up his stash. He suggests she use what she has and Myra’s credit cards to go somewhere and get some work. But she is angry because she “never had a legit job” in her whole life on which to fall back on. Roy says she has to go straight and live a quiet life, and he is ready to take her advice and stop grifting. They both seem to want to let go of the life they have chosen, but actions have consequences, and past deeds can catch up to one.

 

She gets them some ice water and she acts like she could have drugged one of the drinks. He says she wouldn’t do that, and she says he has no idea what she might do “to live.” She is telling him she is capable of anything to survive. The warning she gave earlier is closer to home now. She reminds him that she gave him his life twice and she wants him to do the same for her once. He still refuses to let her have his money, and says his funds would run out anyway, and she would be in the “rackets” again, working for another Bobo. She tries another ploy, saying that she is not really his mother and she attempts to seduce him to get her way, just as Myra used sex with the landlord. Again, we have the blending of the two characters. He first returns her kiss and then is horrified by what is happening. She swings the briefcase, which shatters a drinking glass he is holding. A shard slashes Roy’s carotid artery. She screams in agony but still gathers the money up and leaves as her own son bleeds to death. She gave him his life twice and now takes it back. She earlier said that grifting is either going up or down. Lilly is now pictured descending in an elevator on her way to escape. She couldn’t sink any lower, and director Stephen Frears said he wanted to symbolize her descent into hell.

 

In this world of no laws or rules, all types of horrific crimes are possible: theft; beatings; betrayal; incest; murder. When the selfish desires of the individual rule, who is safe?

The next film is Jezebel.