Sadly, Graham serves as little more than 'eye candy' here, and that's a shame. Her character is completely unnecessary to the movie, and the relationship between the two characters really goes nowhere, with one left feeling that many of their scenes together may have been left on the cutting room floor. For whatever reason, it chooses to throw a love interest for Gabriel in the middle of the mix, as Heather Graham plays the sister of a friend Caine had back in prison. 'Diggstown' isn't a perfect film, however. The final boxer and the way he's disposed of is such a blindside of fun that you can't help but cheer…first, because it's a rousing ending, and second, because the screenplay has set up that moment so perfectly, and most aren't likely to see it coming. These scenes work really well with viewers, as the audience has no idea who Gillon might be sending out next to fight Roy, with each side having plenty of tricks up their sleeve along the way.
And so, as they say, the con is on, with a climax that takes up the final third of the film, as Roy has to duke it out (and beat) 10 different men in the boxing ring. Roy is reluctant at first to get in on the game, but when he finds out how much over his head Caine has already gotten on the bet (with the total increasing just about every time Gabriel crosses paths with Gillon), he can't resist helping out his old friend. Roy is played by Louis Gossett, Jr., who was about 55 when 'Diggstown' was shot, but the film makes his character 48, so the idea of him being a credible boxer is a little more believable. Now, Caine needs to go track down 'Honey' Roy to get him in on the con as well. By this point, Gillon and Caine have made their way into the room, and Gillon takes the bet, with Caine backing up Fitz (who Gillon doesn't know at this point is already working with Caine). Fitz spouts off that a boxer named 'Honey' Roy Palmer was better than Diggs, and in fact could still beat any 10 of Diggstown's men in a given day. Meanwhile, across the street, Gillon's son has lost a bet with Fitz, leading to a conversation about Diggstown's historically famous boxer, Charles Macum Diggs (Wilhelm von Homburg), who now is in a wheelchair and a vegetable state, the result of his final fight.
#MIDNIGHT STING FULL MOVIE MOVIE#
Caine first runs into Gillon early in the movie in the town's boxing gym, where Gabriel (intentionally) loses a bet as Gillon proves the kind of control he has over the town and its citizens. Of course, for 'Diggstown' to work, it needs an adversary just as smart and cunning as Caine, and it gets one in Diggstown's town 'boss' of John Gillon, who is played by Bruce Dern. His partner in crime as the movie opens is his pal Fitz (Oliver Platt), whose billiards hustle early in the film is just the beginning of a well planned 'long game' from Caine. Woods stars as Gabriel Caine, who is already working on his scheme to 'procure' a ton of money from the small southern town of Diggstown before he gets out of jail. No actor fits that bill better than James Woods, who plays both ex-con (he's released from a local prison early in the movie) and con-man in this title. If you're going to do a movie about con men, you need a fast-talking swindler who still can be likeable to the audience. That's the premise of Michael Ritchie's comedy/drama, and it's pretty much a blast from beginning to end.
Fortunately, 'Diggstown' is smart enough to know that the best hustle to watch is when both sides are trying to out-maneuver the other. Sometimes you'll get great movies like The Sting or 'House of Games', but most of the time you'll get disappointments, like the recently released Focus. The art of the con has always been tricky to capture on the big screen.
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