The Grifters (film)

The Grifters is a 1990 American neo-noir crime drama film directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Martin Scorsese, and stars John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening. The screenplay was written by Donald E. Westlake, based on Jim Thompson's pulp novel of the same name.

Plot

Lilly Dillon (Huston) is a veteran con artist. She works for a bookmaker, Bobo Justus, making large cash bets at race tracks to lower the odds of longshots. On her way to La Jolla for the horse races, she stops in Los Angeles to visit her son Roy (Cusack), a small-time grifter whom she has not seen in eight years. She finds him in pain and bleeding internally after one of his victims caught him pulling a petty scam and punched him in the stomach. When medical assistance finally comes, Lilly confronts the doctor, threatening to have him killed if her son dies.

At the hospital, Lilly meets and takes an instant dislike to Roy's girlfriend, Myra Langtry (Bening), who is a few years older than her son. Lilly urges her son to quit the grift, saying he literally does not have the stomach for it. Because she leaves late for La Jolla, she misses a race where the winner was paying 70–1. For this mistake, Bobo burns her hand with a cigar.