Struggling Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) concoct a scam to sell far more than 100 per cent of the cost of putting on a show to investors - old ladies Max has to pleasure for the money. They want to mount the worst production they can find so it closes on opening night, then pocket the rest of the cash. With a musical by a mad Nazi (Kenneth Mars) titled Springtime For Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, how could they fail?

Quote: "Don't be stupid, be a smarty. Come and join the Nazi party."

Trivia: First-time writer-director Mel Brooks later adapted his Oscar-winning script into a stage musical that was a big (welcome) hit and also made into a film, in 2005.

If you like this, try: A Fish Called Wanda, American Hustle.

The Sting (1973, Apple TV, Binge, Foxtel Now):

During the Depression, con men Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) team up to con crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) out of a huge sum of money. But Lonnegan is a powerful and dangerous man. And can con men really trust each other, given what they do? David S. Wards's original screenplay was more serious in tone: director George Roy Hill made it a bit lighter. The film was a big hit and won seven Oscars. The sequel that came out a decade or so later was not a success.

Quote: " What was I supposed to do - call him for cheating better than me, in front of the others?"

Trivia: The film's effective if somewhat anachronistic use of Scott Joplin's ragtime piano music sparked a new interest in the composer's work. Everybody's heard The Entertainer and Solace (A Mexican Serenade) is a beautiful piece.

If you like this, try: The Hustler, Focus.

Paper Moon (1973, Apple TV):

After her mother dies, young Addie (Tatum O'Neal) joins Moze (Ryan O'Neal), a Depression-era con man whose scam involves selling Bibles to widows. He is supposed to take her to an aunt in another state. Along the way she becomes quite a con artist herself. In real life the O'Neals are father and daughter: the movie suggests their characters might be. Filmed in black and white by director Peter Bogdanovich to create a period effect, though some of the content - including some of the language used - would not have been permitted in a movie from the 1930s. Adapted from Joe David Brown's novel Addie Pray.

Quote: "I want my two hundred dollars."

Trivia: Tatum O'Neal, 10, won the best supporting actress Oscar, becoming the youngest competitive Oscar winner.

If you like this, try: Matchstick Men, The Spanish Prisoner.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988, Apple TV):

Con men Freddy (Steve Martin) and Lawrence (Michael Caine) are competing for the attention (and money) of wealthy women on the same turf - the French Riviera - and make a bet to decide who gets to remain and who has to leave.

Quote: "You've been banging on your pots again, haven't you? I've told you... if you keep on doing it, you won't have any pots left."

Trivia: A remake of Bedtime Story (1964) and remade as The Hustle (2019).

If you like this, try: the movies mentioned above - the first with Marlon Brando and David Niven, the second with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, Apple TV, Binge, Foxtel Now, Stan):

Not all cons are fun and games. Some of these movies show the darker, dangerous side and some delve into the psychological aspects of the con and its practitioners. Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel. Impoverished Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) pretends to know Princeton graduate Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) whose father hires Tom to go to Italy and talk the young man into coming home. But Tom falls for the affluent, hedonistic lifestyle and for Dickie himself - in more ways than one - and his lies and deceits multiply. He's a skilled deceiver and forger but can how long can he maintain the facade?

Quote: "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody."

Trivia: Damon, Law and Gwyneth Paltrow later appeared together again in Contagion (2011).

If you like this, try: House of Games, The Grifters.

Catch Me If You Can (2002, Google Play, Netflix, Prime Video, Stan):

After his parents separate, 1960s-era teenager Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) - on whose memoir this Steven Spielberg film is based - runs away and is pursued by the FBI as he engages in a long string of frauds - small grifts like passing bad cheques and, more ambitiously, impersonating a pilot, a doctor and an attorney. Tom Hanks plays the main federal agent, with whom Frank develops a strange bond. This was later adapted into a Broadway musical.

Quote: "I'll tell you what I am sure of. You're going to get caught. One way or another. It's a mathematical fact. It - It's like Vegas, the House always wins."

Trivia: Alan C. Logan's book The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can debunked a lot of Abagnale's book.

If you like this, try: Now You See Me, Ocean's Eleven.

Thanks to reader Robin who noted that the new Netflix version of All Quiet on the Western Front, "a hell of a movie, in every sense".