Movie
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Budget 6,800,000 USD
The hands seen performing card tricks in the beginning of the film belong to writer/director Damian Nieman (who's hand wears a spade ring), R. Paul Wilson, Jason England, and Earl Nelson, all real life card mechanics. Nieman also taught (along with Earl Nelson and R. Paul Wilson) Sylvester Stallone and Stuart Townsend how to perform their card tricks for the film.
Charlie Miller, Max Malini, Dai Vernon/"The Professor", Larry Jennings, Nate Leipzig and Jacob Daley are all famous sleight-of-hand magicians. In fact, nearly every major male character in the film is named for a sleight-of-hand magician.
Bo Hopkins' character is named John Scarne. John Scarne was also a famous sleight of hand artist during the mid-20th Century. He was best known for exposing crooked gambling to the public. In The Sting (1973) he doubles for Paul Newman's hands.
The term "card mechanic" and "card magician" aren't necessarily interchangeable. Card magicians are those who perform for spectators, but card mechanics are those who can "fix" the outcome of a card game. Not all magicians are card mechanics and not all card mechanics are magicians.
In the beginning of the movie, you see a lot of card cheating devices that have been used throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Among them is the Kepplinger holdout device which was the most popular card cheating device used.
"Marlo: Excuse me, I'm vibrating."
"Charlie Miller: [watching Vernon practice] Christ... I can see the brief from here... Vernon: I'm not even dealing deuces, asshole. Charlie Miller: Well, then, they're lousy-lookin' tops."
