No, this isn't a major con-game, con-artist genre film. It's just a smooth flowing, light 1967 comedy about an accidental partnership between a cynical old con man named Mordecai Jones and a young army deserter, with a few perfect little artistic turns by the ones you expect to do them: George C. Scott and Slim Pickens. Both finding themselves in difficulties, the film flam man soon becomes mentor to his protégé, and the fun begins as they set out to pull off a variety of con games across a sleepy, southern county. There's nothing particularly intricate to the cons, but they all have the same theme: that those being conned fall victim to their own greed. Mordecai Jones, grown cynical to human nature, considers himself nearly more a sort of professor of life and dispenser of hard truths, than a criminal. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The twist, of course, is based on Mordecai Jones, through the young deserter (played with a certain charm by Michael Sarrazin in what may have been his first role), finding a bit of redemption by rediscovering that it is possible to have some faith in human nature.***END SPOILER. A bit dated, of course. This was no big budget film even for the time, and Scott's makeup for the old man, for example, is more theatrical than cinematic. But it's a well-crafted film (with a well-done comic car chase) and very well worth watching ... if you can find it.
Review of The Flim-Flam Man
