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"Dedicated to the history of theatrical deception" |
HouseofDeception.com Sacramento 916.451.8170  about us |
The House of Deception is fully aware that the deceptive arts are played out not only in theatrical venues at scheduled times, but also, when one least expects it, on varied stages by singularly clever performers: on the streets and in the bars, in the breakrooms and boardrooms, at the courthouses, country clubs and cocktail parties, and in the faculty clubs and church socials. Below are selected lists of works on a wide array of "theatrical" deceptions. |
Books on Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists |
COPYRIGHT! YOU MAY NOT REPRINT THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY! Please bookmark & link to HouseofDeception.com - New titles are added periodically. |
Links: Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists |
Fraud Tech -- "Dedicated To Beating The Cons At Their Own Game" Professionals Against Confidence Crime -- "An International Organization of Law Enforcement Professionals" Crimes of Persuasion.com -- Les Henderson on telemarketing and investment scams as well as many other swindles Fraud Bureau.com -- free protection for online consumers and investors, including auction fraud Fraud Aid.com -- free online fraud victim assistance and education Elder Angels -- assists victims of financial elder abuse Snopes.com -- "Urban Legends Reference Pages," debunks hoaxes and rumors Hoax Busters -- comprehensive cite on a variety of internet hoaxes Sterling International Speaker's Bureau -- a list of speakers specializing in fraud-related topics |
Videos: Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists |
Matchstick Men (2003) Director: Ridley Scott Rated PG-13 Based on the novel of the same title by Eric Garcia. Runtime: 116 min. Highly recommended by The House of Deception |
The Sting (1973) Director: George Roy Hill Unrated Based on the The Big Con by David W. Maurer Runtime: 129 min. Highly recommended by The House of Deception |
Catch Me If You Can (2002) Director: Steven Spielberg Rated PG-13 Based on the book of the same title by Frank Abignale, Jr. Runtime: 141 min. |
Confidence (2003) Director: James Foley Rated R Runtime: 97 min. Recommended by The House of Deception |
Orson Welles' F for Fake (1972) The Criterion Collection (2005) www.criterionco.com Unrated Runtime: 88 min. |
Photo Gallery of Book Covers: Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists |
Criminal (2004) Director: Gregory Jacobs Rated R Runtime: 87 min. |
*******Opinionated Ratings by The House of Deception******* Highly recommended movies appear in large, bold type. The con is a central theme in these films. Movies that appear in small, italicized type are not recommended (NR). These may be good movies by other standards, but the con is not the central theme. We have not yet viewed the movies listed in plain type, although they appear on other con artist movie lists. We will add our ratings as we get to them. The Thirties, Forties, & Fifties Nightmare Alley. 1933 Poppy. 1936 My Little Chickadee. 1940 (NR: W.C. and Mae West comedy) The Bank Dick. 1940 (W.C. gets conned by fast talker) The Lady Eve. 1941 Nobody Lives Forever. 1946 The Swindle (Il Bidone). 1955 The Rainmaker. 1956 (NR: romantic western) The Sixties Elmer Gantry. 1960 Pocketful of Miracles. 1961 The Hustler. 1962 The Music Man. 1962 The Fortune Cookie. 1966 (NR: insurance fraud comedy) The Flim-Flam Man. 1967 (NR: slap-stick comedy) The Producers. 1968 The Italian Job. 1969 (NR: heist/caper) The Seventies Skin Game. 1971 Orson Welles' F for Fake. 1972 Paper Moon. 1973 The Sting. 1973 The Eighties Vabank. 1981 (NR: Polish fluency required, no English subtitles) Rakenstam. 1983 The Sting II. 1983 (NR: poor sequel to the 1973 classic, the great Jackie Gleason at his worst) Vabank II. 1985 (NR: Polish fluency required, no English subtitles) House of Games. 1987 Spoorloos. 1988 (NR: kidnapping, suspense) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. 1988 Let it Ride. 1989 (NR: comedy, exploits of a track loser) The Ninties The Grifters. 1990 Leap of Faith. 1992 Sneakers. 1992 (NR: spy espionage) Diggstown. 1992 Six Degrees of Separation. 1993 Scam. 1993 DeadFall. 1993 The Vanishing. 1993 (NR: American version of Spoorloos; kidnapping suspense) Stars Fell on Henrietta. (1995) The Usual Suspects. 1995 (NR: heist, murder, robbery, assassination, drug dealing) Primal Fear. 1996 Hard Eight (aka Sydney). 1996 (NR: neo noir crime drama, Reno casino grifters) The Swindle (Rien ne va plus). 1997 The Pest. 1997 (NR: John Leguizamo comedy) Shooting Fish. 1997 (NR: British comedy) The Game. 1997 (NR: psychological thriller with a complex deception) The Spanish Prisoner. 1997 Traveller. 1997 Following. 1998 Blue Streak. 1999 (NR: police station comedy) Simpatico. 1999 (NR: horse racing swindlers) Man on the Moon. 1999 (NR: biopic on Andy Kaufman, eccentric comedian and pro wrestler) The 2000s Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas). 2000 Boiler Room. 2000 The Prime Gig. 2000 Bandits. 2001 (NR: bank robbery comedy; stunts and effects) Birthday Girl. 2001 (NR: internet bride scam; extortion) Heist. 2001 (NR: heist) Heartbreakers. 2001 Ocean's Eleven. 2001 (NR: heist) The Score. 2001 (NR: heist and double cross; Marlon Brando plays an old con artist) Catch Me If You Can. 2002 Confidence. 2003 Matchstick Men. 2003 Shade. 2003 Out of Time. 2003 (NR: Southern police thriller) The Italian Job. 2003 (NR: heist/caper) Criminal. 2004 (remake of Nueva Reinas) Ocean's Twelve. 2004 (NR: heist) The Producers: The Movie Musical. 2005 Color Me Kubrick. 2005 Stories of Lost Souls. 2005 Bluffmaster! 2005 Derailed. 2005 Swindled (Incautos). 2005 Kurosagi. 2006 Lucky Number Slevin. 2006 (NR: assassination and revenge) Con Man. 2006 (documentary) Oceans Thirteen. 2007 Television Racket Sqaud. 1950 (Dragnet-style series dramatizes confidence crimes) Mission: Impossible. 1966-1973 (elaborate con games foil the villian marks) Shell Game. 1975 (pilot with John Davidson & Joan Van Ark) The Ribos Operation. 1978 (episode of Doctor Who) Cheers. 1982-1993. NBC. (Magician Harry Anderson played Harry 'The Hat' Gittes.) The Great Money Caper. 2002 (a Simpsons episode based around grifting) Firefly, The Series. 2002-2004 (character Saffron is a confidence woman in this fine series) The O.C. 2003 (Jeri Ryan played a con artist during the third season.) Lost. 2004 (two characters, James "Sawyer" Ford and Anthony Cooper, are both con-artists.) North Shore. 2004-2005 (Amanda Rhigetti played a con artist.) Con. 2005 (Skyler Stone on Comedy Central) Hustle. 2004-2007 (BBC series) The Real Hustle. 2007 (documentary spinoff of Hustle, BBC) The Riches. 2007 The list above is adapted, edited, and expanded by the House of Deception from Wikipedia Encyclopedia and may be read in its original, uncredited form at Wikipedia.org. Visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for complete information about these films. Please to recommend other videos with con artist themes to add to this group. |
Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists In Movies and Television |
Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man The Red-Headed League, a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, involves a sort of confidence trick used to enable a bank robbery. Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull Confidence Man, The Early Years, an unfinished novel about a German con man. Many of the crime novels of Jim Thompson involve confidence artists. Joyce Carol Oates's My Heart Laid Bare features a family of confidence artists. Eric Garcia's Matchstick Men. Neil Gaiman's American Gods uses a two-man con as a major plot element. O. Henry's collection The Gentle Grafter describes a variety of confidence tricks. Slippery Jim, the protagonist of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat trilogy, uses abundant schemes and frauds. The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man by David Maurer and Luc Sante Judith Ivory's Untie My Heart Jenny Crusie's Faking It features a family of confidence artists. "Children of Lieutenant Schmidt Society", a fictional secret society of pretenders to be sons of Pyotr Schmidt (a Russian revolutionary hero), are described in Ilf and Petrov's The Little Golden Calf. See also The Twelve Chairs by the same authors. The Professor in Spider Robinson's Callahan series John Constantine of DC Comics/Vertigo ongoing series, Hellblazer, created by Alan Moore, uses confidence scams, trickery, and magic to outwit his opponents. Stephen J. Cannell's King Con features a confidence man who successfully performs many of the known cons, as well as some very creative and impressive ones. Tim Krabbe's The Golden Egg (1984) features a chemistry teacher who employs confidence tricks for the purpose of kidnapping. Travis McGee in John D. MacDonald's series of novels frequently uses con games or has them tried against him. Delos D. Harriman of Robert H. Heinlein's novel The Man Who Sold the Moon could possibly be considered a con artist. The novella The Space Merchants by Frederic Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is replete with con games practiced by corporations. The novel The Brethren by John Grisham features a con run within a federal prison in which closeted gay men are targeted for extortion by three incarcerated judges. Terry Pratchett's Going Postal features a convicted and condemned swindler spared execution in exchange for taking on a hazardous government job, to which he applies the principles of the con. Brian Michael Bendis' crime graphic novels A.K.A. Goldfish and Jinx have a con man named David Gold as a main character. Monsieur and Madame Thenardier of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Cruel, wicked, money-hungry, the Thenardiers scam money from whomever they can. Schemes include robbery, fraud, and murder. The list above is adapted and edited by the House of Deception from Wikipedia Encyclopedia and may be read in its original, uncredited form at Wikipedia.org. Please to recommend other literature with con artist themes to add to this list. |
Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists In Literature |
House of Deception Library: Bunco, Swindles, Scams, & Con Artists
| Author | Title | Publication Year | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abagnale, Frank W. | The Art of the Steal | 2002 | Broadway, New York |
| Abagnale, Frank W.; Redding, Stan | Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake | 2000 | Broadway, New York |
| Ashforth, David | Ringers and Rascals: The True Story of Racing's Greatest Con Artists | 2004 | Eclipse, Lexington, KY |
| Blaine, David | Mysterious Stranger | 2002 | Villard, New York |
| Britland, David | Phantoms of the Card Table: Confessions of a Card Sharp | 2004 | Four Walls Eight Windows. New York |
| Byrne, Robert | McGoorty: A Pool Room Hustler | 2004 | Broadway, New York |
| Fenton, Peter | Eyeing the Flash | 2005 | Simon & Schuster, New York |
| Gibson, Walter B. | The Bunco Book | 1946 | Sidney Radner, Holyoke, MA |
| Henderson, Les | Crimes of Persuasion: Scemes, Scams, Frauds | 2000 | Coyote Ridge, Azilda, Ont. |
| Houdini, Harry | A Magician Among the Spirits | 1972 | Arno, New York |
| Huston, Peter | More Scams from the Great Beyond! | 2002 | Paladin, Boulder, CO |
| Huston, Peter | Scams From The Great Beyond | 1997 | Paladin, Boulder, CO |
| Hyde, Stephen; Zanetti, Geno (eds.) | Players: Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers and Scam Artists | 2003 | Thunder's Mouth, New York |
| Jay, Ricky; Purcell, Rosamond Wolff | Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck | 2003 | Quantuck Lane, New York |
| Keene, Lamar M.; Spraggett, Allen | The Psychic Mafia | 1997 | Prometheus, Amherst, NY |
| Leland, Charles Godfrey | Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling | 1962 | University, New Hyde Park, NY |
| Liebling, A. J. | The Telephone Booth Indian [The Library of Larceny Edition] | 2004 | Broadway, New York |
| Lovell, Simon | How to Cheat at Everything: A Con Man Reveals the Secrets of the Esoteric Trade of Cheating, Scams, and Hustles | 2007 | Thunder's Mouth, New York |
| MacKay, Charles | Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds | 1960 | L. C. Page, Boston |
| Marlock, Dennis M. | How to Become a Professional Con Artist | 2001 | Paladin, Boulder, CO |
| Marlock, Dennis; Dowling, John | License To Steal: Traveling Con Artists: Their Games, Their Rules-Your Money | 1994 | Paladin, Boulder CO |
| Maurer, David W. | The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man | 1999 | Anchor, New York |
| Moger, Art (ed.) | Pros and Cons: Incredible True Tales about Famous Con Men, Frauds, Hoaxers, and Beguiling Swindlers | 1975 | Fawcett Books, Greenwich, CT |
| Nash, Jay Robert | Hustlers and Con Men: An Anecdotal History of the Confidence Man and His Games | 1976 | M. Evans, New York |
| Peyton, Richard (ed.) | At the Track: A Treasury of Horse Racing Stories | 2004 | Gramercy, New York |
| Randi, James | Flim-Flam!: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions | 1982 | Prometheus, Amherst, NY |
| Randi, James | The Faith Healers | 1987 | Prometheus, Amherst, NY |
| Randi, James | The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer | 1993 | Prometheus, Amherst, NY |
| Randi, James | Truth About Uri Geller | 1982 | Prometheus, Amherst, NY |
| Rice, George | My Adventures With Your Money | 1986 | Nevada Publications, Las Vegas |
| Rose, Jim | Snake Oil: Life's Calculations, Misdirections, and Manipulations | 2005 | Bartleby, Silver Spring, MD |
| Sifakis, Carl | Frauds, Deceptions, and Swindles | 2001 | Checkmark, New York |
| Sommer, Robin Langley | Great Cons & Con Artists: The Incredible Stories of the Masters of Deceit | 1994 | Running Press, Philadelphia |
| Spurling, Hilary | La Grande Therese: The Greatest Scandal of the Century | 2001 | Perennial, New York |
| Stein, Gordon; MacNee, Marie J. | Hoaxes!: Dupes, Dodges & Other Dastardly Deceptions | 1995 | Visible Ink, Detroit |
| Stowers, Carlton | The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson | 1992 | Palmer Magic, Lake Hughes, CA |
| Stratton, Owen Tully | Medicine Man | 1989 | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Strauss, Darin | The Real McCoy | 2002 | E P Dutton, New York |
| Swierczynski, Duane | The Complete Idiot's Guide To Frauds, Scams, and Cons | 2002 | Alpha, New York |
| Tonken, Aaron | King of Cons: Exposing the Dirty Rotten Secrets of the Washington Elite and Hollywood Celebrities | 2004 | Nelson, Nashville, TN |
| Walker, Kent; Schone, Mark | Son of a Grifter | 2002 | Avon, New York |
| Wallace, Mike | Con Men: Fascinating Profiles of Swindlers and Rogues from the Files of the Most Successful Broadcast in Television History | 2003 | Simon & Schuster, New York |
| Weil J. R. "Yellow Kid" ; Brandon, W. T. | Con Man: A Master Swindler's Own Story | 2004 | Broadway, New York |
| Weisberg, Barbara | Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism | 2004 | Harper, San Francisco |
| Whitlock, Charles R. | Easy Money: The Con Game Exposed | 1994 | Kensington, New York |
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House of Deception Library: Bunco, Swindles, Scams, & Con Artists
On this page you will find: .: a list of books (exposes) on confidence games, swindles, scams and con artists .: a photo gallery of many of the books in the con game bibliography .: a list of useful links to educational sites about bunco and confidence crime .: a list of movies and TV shows with con artist themes and characters .: a list of novels and short stories involving confidence tricks, scams and con artists .: paintings and other works of art with swindling & confidence crime themes Please bookmark & link to HouseofDeception.com - New titles are added periodically. |
Bunco, Scams, Swindles & Con Artists In Fine Art |
The Card-Sharp with the Ace of Clubs Georges de La Tour French Baroque Era Painter (1593-1652) Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX |
The Fortune Teller Georges de La Tour French Baroque Era Painter (1593-1652) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
A Card Juggler Early 19th century Louis-Charles Ruotte France (c.1754-1806) Etching with watercolour The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia |
The Cheat Alcide Segoni Italy (1847-1894) |
Found Out Alcide Segoni Italy (1847-1894) |
A Transfer of Property provenance unknown |
Mary Frith aka Moll Cutpurse, A Notorious Master Thief and an Ugly Who Frequently Dressed as a Man provenance unknown |
Mary Frith aka Moll Cutpurse, A Notorious Master Thief and an Ugly Who Frequently Dressed as a Man provenance unknown |
Young London Thief provenance unknown |
Argument Over a Card Game Jan Steen Dutch Baroque Era Painter (c.1625-1679) Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany |
Die Billiardspieler 2004 Patrick Milbourn American portrait and landscape painter |
Leap of Faith (1992) Director: Richard Pearce Rated PG-13 Runtime: 107 min. Highly recommended by The House of Deception |
Swindled [Incautos] (2005) Director: Miguel Bardem Unrated Runtime: 107 min. Recommended by The House of Deception |
Nine Queens [Nueve Reinas] (2000) Director: Fabian Bielinsky Rated R Runtime: 115 min. |
Innocents and Card Sharpers (A Game of Piquet) 1861 Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier French Academic Painter (1815-1891) National Museums and Galleries of Wales |
Shell Game(1975) Director: Glenn Jordan Unrated Runtime: 190 min. Recommended by The House of Deception |
Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats) Valentin de Boulogne c. 1620/1622 National Gallery of Art, Washington |
The Cardsharks Caravaggio (Michelangelo da Merisi) (c.1594) Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth |
All Rights Reserved Copyright Duff Johnson 2004-2008 No text or image may be copied or reproduced without written permission. |
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Guessing Will Cost Him Money Witch Hazel Extract Ad (c.1930s) Magicol cover, February 2008 |
