Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 19, 2023

Fernando Di Leo's "Nick the Sting" a.k.a. "Gli amici di Nick Hezard" (1976) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video. The only bonus feature on the release is a video essay with critic Mike Malloy. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Is Fernando Di Leo’s Nick the Sting a.k.a. Gli amici di Nick Hezard a shameless copycat? Yes, it is. Di Leo was apparently a great admirer of George Roy Hill’s timeless classic The Sting, but this is not why he directed Nick the Sting. Di Leo agreed to do Nick the Sting three years after The Sting for the same reason countless other Italian directors ‘reimagined’ many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters -- money. What about publicity? In the early 1970s, Di Leo already had a solid reputation as a writer and director, so it is unlikely that publicity was a factor in his decision to do Nick the Sting. Also, it is worth remembering that in Italy these types of copycats usually did not disclose the real name of their creators because they were routinely rushed and shot with small budgets and rarely turned out decent.

The biggest compliment one can give Nick the Sting is that it does not look rushed. Its producers wrote proper checks, too. They booked Alberto Silvestri, who a few years earlier scripted several episodes for the TV sensation Sandokan, and gathered an impressive cast of local and international stars. Roberto Girardi, who lensed two of Italian post-war cinema’s grand classics, The Great War and Marriage Italian Style, was also contracted to do the film with Di Leo. So, while a shameless copycat, Nick the Sting never lacked the ambition to be a legitimately big film.

The big con in Nick the Sting is set differently. In Geneva, Switzerland, a veteran thief delivers a bag of stolen jewels to the most influential criminal in town, American businessman Robert Clark (Lee J. Cobb). However, after he inspects the delivery, Clark orders his men to put the thief in a casket. As the owner of the stolen jewels, Clark then files a massive insurance claim and frames another small-time thief, Nick Hezard (Luc Merenda), who thinks that he has accidentally hit the jackpot following the successful acquisition of a huge ‘missing’ diamond. But the news about the first thief’s execution reaches Hazard and after connecting the dots he turns the table on Clark. At first, Clark refuses to believe that a nobody from the streets is going against him, but when Hezard pulls off a brilliant trick that forces him to write a fat check to his surprising opponent he realizes that he might be in for a bumpy ride. Soon after, Hezard and a motley crew of scammers, impersonators, and other criminal elements ‘arrest’ Clark, ‘transfer’ him to a bogus police station, and officially ‘charge’ him with not one but a couple of different crimes. However, the seemingly perfect plan to humiliate Clark and avenge the death of the veteran thief that was executed by his men unexpectedly begins to fall apart.

It does not seem right to declare that Nick the Sting is a surprisingly effective film because all of the other films Di Leo directed before it are either good or very good. What is surprising is that Di Leo revives the big con in such a unique way that eventually the supposedly obvious trail back to The Sting becomes unrecognizable. But what exactly does Di Leo do differently to erase the trail?

Silvestri’s screenplay introduces several colorful characters and Di Leo carefully creates a gigantic circus environment with them that has a very attractive unmistakably Italian quality. Also, crime, suspense, comedy, and drama are effectively mixed and produce various wonderful contrasts that enrich the narrative. Interestingly, the same year Di Leo directed Nick the Sting Ettore Scola used the same circus environment in the brilliant very cynical comedy Ugly, Dirty and Bad but while working with an even bigger crew of colorful characters.

Nick the Sting was shot in English and overdubbed in Italian for its local theatrical release. (The English language track features some original overdubbing of Italian actors uttering their lines in Italian as well). Most unfortunately, Raro Video’s recent release of Nick the Sting has only an Italian audio track, which rather predictably gives the film a completely different resonance.

Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Nick the Sting arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video.

The technical presentation of Nick the Sting is very underwhelming. While the surface of the visuals is fairly healthy, the entire film looks disappointingly anemic and dated. To be perfectly honest, at times it feels like select sections of the film might have been extracted from a very old 35mm print. The proper density levels, delineation and depth, and especially the lush colors Fernando Di Leo's films are famous for are quite simply missing. In backgrounds, but elsewhere as well, a lot of the fine nuances that a proper 1080p master reveals are either problematic or missing, too. Image stability is good, but I did notice a few shaky areas. The best news is that there are no traces of problematic digital corrections, but given the overall quality of the master that was used to produce this release, this is not something that makes much of a difference. All in all, to look as it should Nick the Sting will have to be properly restored in 2K or 4K. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Nick the Sting was shot in English and overdubbed in Italian for its local theatrical release. (The English language track features some original overdubbing of Italian actors uttering their lines in Italian as well). Most unfortunately, Raro Video's recent release of Nick the Sting has only an Italian audio track, which rather predictably gives the film a completely different resonance. The quality of the lossless Italian track is quite good, but I was able to detect some traces of aging. Regardless, Nick the Sting must be seen with the original English audio track.

Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Video Essay - in this video essay, critic Mike Malloy discusses the prominence of the split screen technique during the 1960s and 1970s and discusses the stylistic appearance and genre identity of Nick the Sting as well as some particular trends in Italian genre films at the time. In English, not subtitled. (24 min).

Nick the Sting Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A discussion of Fernando Di Leo's Nick the Sting should highlight its unmissable connection to George Roy Hill's timeless classic The Sting. However, there is another classic Italian film that was completed at the same time Nick the Sting emerged which needs to be part of the same discussion. This film is Ettore Scola's brilliant cynical comedy Ugly, Dirty and Bad. Di Leo and Scola create an almost identical grand circus environment in these films with a special Italian atmosphere that becomes bigger than the stories they tell. While Di Leo's Nick the Sting is a shameless copycat, it is a very nice film that frequently matches the quality of Ugly, Dirty and Bad. Unfortunately, this recent release from Raro Video does not treat it right. Too bad. If properly restored and presented on Blu-ray, Nick the Sting could be quite the hit among collectors of European genre films.