September 1936 (a crime fiction post)

You may remember that a few months ago, I rewatched The Sting, one of my favourite crime movies and probably my favourite heist film of all time. I'd say it might be the greatest heist film of all time. But I digress. Every time I rewatch an old classic I love, I try to pay attention to things I had not noticed before. I posted about one of these details back in May. Something else struck me on my last viewing: The Sting starts in September 1936. So it's a movie set in autumn. And it struck me that it had a very September, autumnal atmosphere through and through. For those who don't like horror but love crime fiction, this could be a film to watch in autumn.

The Entertainer (Ragtime)

I rewatched The Sting recently. I have a few observations about it. Okay, mainly two. One, what a great movie, I never get bored watching it. I could start it again now and still be entertained. Two, what a great score the film has! Maybe nowadays it's actually more famous than the movie itself. Composed by Scott Joplin in the early XXth century, arranged by Marvin Hamlisch for the movie, it's just so perfectly atmospheric. So anyway, since I was thinking I share too little music on Vraie Fiction these days and since this is in my head a lot, I am sharing today The Entertainer. My brothers and I used to listen to it endlessly playing poker when we were teenagers. True story. But not with real money.

Joliet, Illinois (a crime fiction post)

 From time to time, I rewatch beloved old classic movies, because I love to revisit them and rediscover old things about them. I saw on Netflix that The Sting was available, so I started watching it again. I love, love, love this caper, it made me discover Robert Redford, Paul Newman and... poker (more on the latter in this post). Anyway, I was watching the movie and it struck me that it starts in the city of Joliet, Illinois. And that it might be the only thing I know about Joliet: it's featured in The Sting. Okay, so most of the action is set in the most famous and infamous Chicago, but I like when a work of crime fiction shed light on a lesser known place. Lesser known to someone like me who is not from the US anyway.