THE ZING

THE STING (1973)
dir: George Roy Hill

MAD #171, December 1974
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker

Agnew had been out of office long by then and wasn't associated with Watergate, but just as corrupt as Nixon if not more so. This issue would have hit newsstands in September or October right after Nixon resigned, though they would have thought he'd still be President when this cover was made. History has shown they're nothing by comparison to later administrations though.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman were found to be a great duo (i.e. big box office0 with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid so they were teamed up a second time with the same director in a film about two con men during the Depression.

It begins with Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and his partner Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) pulling a grift on an unsuspecting stranger.

A building in the background says “Scott Joplin and Marvin Hamlisch”. The latter arranged the former's music for this.

Luther pretends to be stabbed and tells the stranger he has to drop off $5000 for a gangster and has a deadline. Johnny pretends to be another approaching stranger. Luther asks if one of them can drop the $5000 off in time and the other can stay for help. The mark offers to finish the delivery and they know full well he'll just flee with the $5000 instead of actually making the delivery. Johnny tells the mark he won't be mugged if he just stuffs the envelope down his pants and puts it in an envelope with his own money, showing the mark how to do it. When Johnny does it, he switches the envelopes. The mark leaves, believing he's rich, and finds he has an envelope full of torn up newspapers. Johnny and Luther now have the guy's money. See how it's done? You or someone you know probably fell for a scam like this.

Luther tells Johnny he's getting out of the con business and should look go to Chicago and look up Henry Gondoroff (Paul Newman). Johnny has a hot date that gets angry he blows his fortune, but he doesn't care, he always gets more money. The guy who was scammed isn't happy though. Turns out he works for Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), the worst crime boss in Illinois.

Johnny is being chased by Lt. Snyder (Charles Durning) a corrupt cop who's aware of Johnny's scams and demands kickbacks for them. Johnny comes home to find Luther has been killed by Lonnegan's men and moves to Chicago to track down Henry, who he finds running a carousel in front of a brothel run by Billie (Eileen Brennan).

Henry is on the lam from the FBI and a bit of a has-been (as was Paul Newman). Johnny wants to learn “The Big Con” and pull it on Doyle Lonnegan in retaliation for Luther's murder. First, Henry and his men find out everything they know about him and set up a fake betting parlor. Lt. Snyder comes looking for Johnny.

Next step is winning a game against Mr. Lonnegan on a train ride where he's playing poker. Henry Gondoroff, pretending to be a gambler named Shaw, cheats him out of his money pretending to be really drunk and switching cards, knowing what kind of deck is being used.

Johnny Hooker, posing as an employee of “Shaw” to collect the winnings named Kelly. He approaches Mr. Donnegan telling him that “Shaw” had been cheating. “Kelly” knows how corrupt “Shaw” is and wants to take over the operation, but needs Lonnegan's help at their “betting parlor”.

At the fake betting parlor, J.J. (Ray Walston) is in the back room pretending to be a radio announcer for the horse races but is actually getting the results telegraphed to him. There is a big elaborate scam they need to convince Doyle is not one. Meanwhile, Johnny is running away from Snyder, still shaking him down, and ducks into a drugstore. Snyder catches up to Johnny. He and FBI agent Polk (Dana Elcar) know his association with Henry, and try to use Johnny to take him down.

”Sadie Mafoosky” is Katie Morosky, Barbara Streisand's character in The Way We Were, another hit of Redford's that year.

Johnny starts dating Loretta (Dimitra Arliss), a waitress at a diner, who it turns out is an assassin for Lonegan. He's rescued in time by an assistant to Gondoroff. Now at the fake betting parlor, Lonnegan places a bet, then gets upset he did it wrong. The FBI comes to arrest Gondoroff, and there's a shootout, and it's difficult to explain how this all happens, but what it all amounts to is Gondoroff and Hooker pretend to be shot and gett up when everybody leaves. Maybe this video clip describes this convoluted scenario better.

They wouldn't know who Nixon and Agnew were in England so they just went with a regular cover.

THE STINGER
Cracked # 110, August 1974
a: A. Shamed (John Severin)

The title cards are done in the tradition of painted Saturday Evening Post covers, so here it makes sense they would parody Norman Rockwell's “Self Portrait”, which is probably their best-known one.