The Sting is a 1973 American caper film

Heist film

A heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Versions with dominant or prominent comic elements are often called caper movies. They could be described as the analogues of caper stories in film history...

 set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters

Confidence trick

A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...

 (Paul Newman

Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

 and Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw (actor)

Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...

). The film was directed by George Roy Hill

George Roy Hill

George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...

, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman...

.

Created by screenwriter David S. Ward

David S. Ward

David Schad Ward is an American film director and screen writer.-Life and career:Ward was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Miriam and Robert McCollum Ward. Ward has degrees from Pomona College , as well as both USC and the UCLA Film School...

, the story was inspired by real-life con games perpetrated by the brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer

David Maurer

David Warren Maurer was a professor of linguistics at the University of Louisville from 1937 to 1972, and an author of numerous studies of the language of the American underworld....

 in his book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.

The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money.