135 min, No rating, Black & White, Available on videocassette and laserdisc

Paul Newman was only a promising and somewhat successful actor until performing the part of the brash, lonely, love-and-reputation seeking poolshark, "Fast" Eddie Felson. This single role turned Newman's career and made him an overnight superstar.

Synopsis

A young hustler. Street-smart and poolroom-wise, Newman, accompanied by an elderly sidekick and shill (Myron McCormick), plays the come-on game with local shooters. He first allows them to win game after game, making small bets and losing, letting the adversary gloat and inflate his own prowess to the point where the other player suggests raising the stakes. Once the big bets are down Newman goes to work, making enough spectacular shots, seemingly aided by luck, to take the winnings and leave the sucker high and dry. Beginning in California, Newman and McCormick work their way across the country until arriving in New York.

Minnesota Fats. The two go to Ames, a second-story poolroom, the most prestigious poolhall in the U.S., site of great historic matches and the stomping grounds for the most brilliant pool player alive, Minnesota Fats, (Jackie Gleason). Newman hangs around until Gleason shows up and then proposes a game with heavy stakes. Gleason looks over to a sinister-looking man in an expensive business suit (George C. Scott), who nods, Scott is Gleason's backer and the one who gives him the go-ahead. Newman and Gleason begin a Homeric struggle on the green felt table with Newman gaining ground with each game. Hours go by, the games more and more quickly decided by Newman's incredible shots. Flush with victory and tens of thousands of dollars ahead, Newman watches in admiration as Gleason, in dapper dress, pauses to wash and tidy up, applying powder to his face and hands, then giving a gofer some money to buy some expensive liquor. "Fats, you're beautiful," gushes Newman. "All pink, just like a baby." Newman orders some booze and then Gleason, appearing as fresh as when the monumental battle began, says: "Let's play some pool."

When the liquor arrives, the strutting Newman begins to drink heavily, then he starts to miss some shots. Slowly the struggle begins to shift. By dawn the next day Newman and his bankroll are exhausted. He begs the triumphant Gleason for one more game, but Gleason, with a sideways glance at the ever watchful Scott, refuses. It's strictly a cash-and-carry situation. Newman, utterly destroyed, leaves Ames a wreck.

Preparation. Newman later stops in a cheap restaurant and there meets a young and attractive hooker (Piper Laurie) so world-weary that her only desire is to drink. Jaded, alcoholic, and afflicted with a crippled leg, she nevertheless goes off with Newman, taking him back to her apartment where they set up housekeeping. McCormick visits them and Newman accuses him of holding out on him, which he admits, turning over a small grubstake. Newman then tells McCormick to disappear.

Newman goes off on his own, frequenting small, out-of-the-way poolhalls and mean bars with pool tables, hustling the suckers. In one bar another hustler so riles Newman that he pulls out all the stops and utterly devastates his opponent. It's obvious to all that this is a hustler and after Newman picks up his winnings, he is dragged behind a partition where thugs break his thumbs. He shows up at Laurie's apartment in great pain, and she nurses him back to health.

Once recovered, Newman tries to regain his status by becoming a contract pool player for sports promoter Scott, a manipulative, sadistic creature who takes him and Laurie to Louisville during Kentucky Derby week, spending lavishly on them, getting them suites in the celebrated Brown's Hotel. Scott pits Newman against a wealthy player (Murray Hamilton), who takes them to his private poolroom in his mansion. Only then is it revealed that the game is billiards, not pool. "My house, my game," the smug Hamilton says. Scott wants to leave, believing that Newman can't beat Hamilton at billiards, but Newman begs to play and Scott puts up $1,000. Newman quickly loses and Scott is about to pack it in until he sees Newman cruelly reject Laurie's entreaties to leave. He again backs Newman and, with Laurie gone, Newman soundly beats Hamilton.

Back at the hotel, Newman finds Laurie in a drunken stupor and leaves her alone in the room. Scott enters from his adjoining suite and approaches Laurie. In the following scene, Newman returns to his room to find it full of police detectives. Laurie is dead in the bathroom, a suicide, and a bleary Scott is seated on the bed answering police questions. Newman quickly surmises the situation and goes berserk, attempting to attack Scott, but is stopped by the police officers.

Final showdown. Later Newman shows up at Ames, going to a table, opening the case in which he carries his specially made pool cue, and assembling it. He challenges Gleason to another game. Scott nods his approval and Newman proceeds to destroy Gleason in game after game, methodically winning with one brilliant shot after another. He soon pockets an enormous bankroll, his winnings, but Scott yells at him: "You owe me money!" Newman refuses to pay him his percentage, telling Scott that what he has just done, he has done for the memory of the dead Laurie and then indicts himself and Scott for being inhuman and equally responsible for her death. "We killed her, Bert." When some goons make a move to attack Newman, Scott calls them off, telling Newman to go but he warns him: "Don't ever walk into a big-time poolroom again." Newman leaves and so too does Gleason, as the occupants of Ames are caught in a freeze-frame.

Critique

Grim chivalry. Director Robert Rossen, whose personal project this was, offers a grim, dirty world to the viewer here, one where the only bright spot is the top of the pool table, but, in their lowly ways, the leads have their share of chivalry. Rossen became seriously ill following the completion of the film, and told associates that he could now die in peace, that THE HUSTLER was the best film he had ever made (he would make one more film, LILITH in 1964, before dying in 1966).

Excellent performances. The scenes have no waste and the acting is excellent. Gleason is probably the most empathetic of the lot, a cool, detached technician with style, grace, wit, and charm. It is Gleason, with one sad look, who captures a lonely courage in the tawdry poolhall world. Newman's passionate portrayal added a new dimension to his acting ability. Laurie, despite her drunkenness and self-pity, still manages to exude steamy sex and glimmers of schoolgirl hope. This was undoubtedly her finest role. Scott is evil incarnate, a Mephisto in a tailor-made suit, whose hatred for humanity oozes through every pore. His is a role that will also be long remembered.

Background

Practice and superstition. The great pool player, Willie Mosconi, coached Gleason and Newman in their shots, making those himself that were shot in close-up. Newman practiced pool shooting obsessively; he trained at home every night. He would clear his dining room of furniture and roll in the pool table. He later said: "I would spend many happy hours playing with Mosconi. What I called a perfect way to rehearse a part—" The film also remains one of Newman's personal favorites, but then he reportedly has a fixation for any film in which he appeared that begins with the letter 'H,' and some later claimed that he insisted upon having his films begin with that letter for luck. Given the spate of such films—HUD (1963), HARPER (1966), HOMBRE (1967) , and THE HUSTLER, all blockbusters—there might be something to this supposed superstition.

Awards

THE HUSTLER garnered nine Oscar nominations, but won only for Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Black-and-White Art Direction. The other nominations were for Best Picture (won by WEST SIDE STORY), Best Director, Best Actor (Newman), Best Actress (Laurie), Best Supporting Actor (Scott and Gleason), and Best Screenplay.

Clearly, Newman deserved an Oscar for his role here (he lost to Maximilian Schell's rather ordinary performance in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, 1961). Ironically, in 1986, twenty-five years later, he would finally win an Oscar as he again played Fast Eddie Felson in a sequel to THE HUSTLER: THE COLOR OF MONEY.