Tonight on Arte: Stop at 1 hour 46 minutes and get a good look at Robert Redford’s hand in L’Arnaque

Con is a 70s movie classic that won seven Oscars. Directed by George Roy Hill, it stars Robert Redford and Paul Newman, a small-time gangster and a con artist, respectively, who together take down Doyle Lonegan, a dangerous New York gangster.

And if the film had a sequel that is best forgotten with Jackie Gleason and Mac Davies, it also has a peculiarity, an amazing detail that can be seen in several moments in the film and which concerns Robert Redford’s thumb!

Stop 1 hour, 46 minutes and 20 seconds

If you pause at exactly 1 hour, 46 minutes and 20 seconds, you’ll notice that Robert Redford is oddly holding a deck of cards. Nothing shocking, but he moved his index finger in front of the cards and covered it with his thumb, which is not an instinctive way to hold the cards. Is it better to get into his character? No way!

In fact, shortly before filming, Redford was injured in a skiing accident that happened some time ago. His right thumb was still healing while filming his scenes in Sting, and it is this injury that explains the way he holds the card board.

Do you have any doubts? Here’s another picture of Redford holding a fork between his index and middle fingers, thumb up, to spare his injured thumb. There are other similar moments in the film where the actor’s right hand is in unexpected positions.

On the other hand, it’s true that once we know it, it’s hard not to look at Redford’s right hand in his scenes, which is a shame because it takes us away from the rest of the film, which is otherwise excellent. It also won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Redford was left empty-handed in the Best Actor nomination, with voters preferring Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger.

Prior to this film, director George Roy Hill had already reunited the two actors in Butch Cassidy and the Kid (1969) and had them work solo again in Eagles Market (Redford, 1975) and La Castane (Newman, 1977).