Screen Hustles, Grifts and Stings

Amy Sargeant teaches in the London Program for Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She was formerly Reader in Film at the University of Warwick and Lecturer in the History of Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her major publications include The Servant (BFI/Palgrave, 2011 - nominated for a BAFTSS prize); British Cinema: A Critical History (BFI, 2005) and (co-edited with Claire Monk) British Historical Cinema: History, Heritage and the Costume Film (Routledge, 2001).

• Introduction1. Lone Operators2. Two-Handers: Buddy-Buddies; Young Upstarts and Double-Dealers3. Aesop and Brer Rabbit4. The Big Store5. The Long ConBibliography

"This book about the con shows an old pro at the top of her game. Amy Sargeant has assembled a rogues' gallery of amoral, (borderline) psychopathic salesmen, Nietzschean self-inventors all, whose strategems evoke both the workings of the dream factory itself and the depthless facade of our collective 'Big Store'. There's a wealth of reference and analysis here: from astute commentary on classics both cinematic and literary (Br'er Rabbit!) to close readings of recent examples of the genre. Presiding 'Master of the Con' is David Mamet, with whom Sargeant shares the rare talent not to waste a word." Tom Paulus, Professor of Film and Theatre Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium, editor (with Rob King) of AFI Film Reader Slapstick Comedy.