The Great Swindle

Made in 1971, The Great Swindle gets high marks for style. But as a film about cons and deceptions, it needs much more substance in addition to its style.

The Great Swindle focuses on Carla, a seductive con artist posing as a high class prostitute. On the job, she meets a fellow con artist named Arturo. The two decide to pull a con together, and swindle a man named Luis. But things get a little complicated with the inclusion of Lola. Lola is beautiful, but poor. She also already knows Carla. Carla and Lola begin a friendship of sorts with sexual implications. But Lola covets Carla’s seemingly glamorous lifestyle. She follows in Carla’s footsteps to become not just an escort, but a con artist. And it’s far too easy for Lola to look at Carla as a mark.

Carla and Lola’s relationship is fascinating almost by accident. The moments of their relationship not onscreen are perhaps the most interesting part. The women go from acquaintances to friends to enemies to ????. Through all of this, there is sexual flirtation though no follow through. Whether or not their sexual attraction plays any part into their larger relationship timeline isn’t stated. Maybe their attraction to each other is a huge factor in choosing to trust or betray by turns. Or maybe, their attraction is just so the film can have two naked women for the price of one. Nothing in The Great Swindle is sketched out with adequate depth. But at least with Carla and Lola, the rough sketch of their relationship intrigues me. These women have a lot of feelings about each other! Shame that they’re so rarely the film’s focus.

I don’t even know what the focus of the film is. Pretty women, I guess. The Great Swindle is such a fun title for a film. And the bones of the plot are fun too! It’s all cons and betrayal. But the film seems almost bored with itself. Scenes of plot development and double-crossing are filmed with far less enthusiasm than scenes of Carla taking her clothes off. There is a genuine plot and arc in The Great Swindle. It’s not exclusively or even primarily nudity. But the nudity definitely gets the most attention. And the lacklustre execution of plot and character further suggests where the filmmaker’s true passion lies.

What keeps it interesting is how stylish it is. This is a trendy little time capsule of the early 1970’s. The shots are all wonderfully colourful. The set design is fun. And the women do look beautiful. The 1970’s was a great time for eyeliner. And I absolutely covet Carla’s collection of short dresses with geometric prints and simple but bold style lines. Carla actress Marisa Mell sure looks great onscreen. The look is so correct. Though it’s hollow beneath this. Underneath that perfectly applied eyeliner, Mell offers no emotion. Maybe the desire was for her to come across as mysterious and inscrutable. Really, she just looks robotic. But, without much emotion, there’s nothing to mess up the glamorous image of her face in meticulous makeup.

I enjoyed The Great Swindle, but I don’t think it was actually particularly good. My enjoyment of it mostly comes from how much I love 1970’s style. But when graded against other 1970’s films, The Great Swindle doesn’t measure up. In the canon of WLW films, it’s unique. There aren’t a lot of con and caper films, especially as vintage as The Great Swindle. But disappointingly, the con is pretty boring. And the lesbian aspect of the film is interesting to me very much in spite of what’s actually onscreen. A somewhat better alternative to The Great Swindle is Amuck. That film also isn’t great but has a little more interest in character and plot. And the lead character has more emotion than your average mannequin.

Overall rating: 5.3/10

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