The man's well-defined profile, highlighted by a duck-wing sweep of graying hair, is sharply etched against the landscape of arid scrub and barren brown hills visible through the window.
The call sheet for AMC's caper series "Hustle" states that the location for this scene is "a Las Vegas diner." Actually, Robert Vaughn — sleek and stylish as ever at 74 — is seated in the booth of a shabby coffee shop on the northeastern fringe of the San Fernando Valley, where stunted palms edge a highway and a railroad track.
Once TV's famed "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," Vaughn stars as Albert Stroller, a smooth-talking con man, in this co-production with the BBC. The slickly made series was set in England but moves to Los Angeles and Las Vegas for the first and last episodes of its third season, premiering Wednesday.
As "the roper," Stroller's job is to wrangle the marks. The victims are then taken for all they're worth by a sexy gang of British grifters, including team leader Danny Blue (Marc Warren), "lure" Stacie Monroe (Jaime Murray), "fixer" Ash Morgan (Robert Glenister), and street-wise Billy Bond (rapper Ashley Walters).
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Producer Jolyon Symonds says that the show deliberately aimed for "a slickness in a good way, not in a disposable way," and that audiences have responded to the charms and wiles of the hustlers, whose first rule of business is: "You can't con an honest man."
Until this season, all episodes were produced on sound stages in London's East End and on locations in the heart of the capital's financial district. But filming moved to Southern California last year.
Symonds says the stateside shooting "enhances the show because we are always giving the nod to and borrowing a lot of things from the best of American movie and TV shows."
Like the intrepid pro he plays, Glenister welcomed the relocation because it would "up the ante a bit" on the look and content of the show.
The first episode of the new season, which takes place in Los Angeles, guest stars Robert Wagner — like Vaughn, a suave icon of American caper television, including "It Takes a Thief" and "Hart to Hart."
Wagner plays Anthony Westley, a wealthy movie memorabilia fanatic whom the hustlers try to sting into buying the Hollywood sign.
Vaughn explains that the new season's final episode, set in Vegas, will have an added element of tension because the powers-that-be recognize Stroller "from the old days when I used to be a grifter and play against the house."
But nobody wants to give away series plot twists, which on this show, Vaughn admits, allow for a little "winking at the camera" and occasionally rely on some suspension of belief by the audience.
On TV
"Hustle" airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday on AMC.
