Vinyl plays with occasional light-crackles (play-graded). Cover looks great; a few creases near edges; light-scuffing and surface impressions (front/back); slight discoloration with darker discoloration spots on back. Inner-sleeve is original (generic white). Spine is easy-to-read (text is crooked) with mild-wear. Minor shelf-wear along top-edge; heavier wear along bottom-edge and corners. Opening is crisp with signs of light use and divots. Black rainbow label. (Not a cut-out.)
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. The soundtrack album, executive produced by Gil Rodin, included several of Scott Joplin's ragtime compositions, adapted by Marvin Hamlisch. According to Joplin scholar Edward A. Berlin, ragtime had experienced a revival in the 1970s due to several events: A best-selling recording of Joplin rags on the classical Nonesuch Records label, along with a collection of his music issued by the New York Public Library; the first full staging of Joplin's opera Treemonisha; and, a performance of period orchestrations of Joplin's music by a student ensemble of the New England Conservatory of Music, led by Gunther Schuller.