The Critics' Corner - THE HUSTLER

"Put this high on your list of films worth seeing.... Some of the best acting to be seen in movies this year. Piper Laurie is remarkably convincing, but it is George C. Scott, as the gambler, who does most to give the film its tour de force quality." - Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review, October 7, 1961.

"Artistically speaking, it is an amusingly mangled myth, an epic in a pool hall....Newman is better than usual....There may arise a certain doubt that playing pool is as lofty a theme as Director Rossen seems to think, but he doggedly insists on the point, and in the middle of the picture he carries it with a clutch of phrases...that breathe the smoky poetry of poolrooms and ring true as a struck spittoon." - Time, 1961.

"Despite the excellence of Newman's portrayal of the boozing pool hustler, the sordid aspects of overall picture are strictly downbeat. ... Piper Laurie establishes herself solidly as an actress.... Rossen has directed with a harsh hand, developing his theme satisfactorily and setting a pattern of grimness" - Variety, September, 27, 1961.

"Paul Newman is always a dominant figure in any scene, but there is something extra this time in his intense ardor...." - Alton Cook, New York World-Telegram & Sun, 1961.

"It crackles with credible passions.... Mr. Rossen and Sidney Carroll have provided their characters with dialogue that keeps them buoyant and alive. ... Mr. Scott is magnificently malefic. When he lifts those glasses and squints, it is as though suddenly somebody had put a knife between your ribs. Jackie Gleason is also excellent - more so than you first realize." - Bosley Crowther, New York Times, September 27, 1961.

"Gleason, who fled Hollywood because he could not get good parts, covers himself with glory. Laurie gets her first chance at a serious movie part after a series of syrupy roles as a flower-nibbling enchantress." - Life, 1961.

"Rossen shows the importance of body language, of smiling confidently, of talking smoothly, of holding back the sweat - and how important to a player's style are the various props.... Exceptional editing by Dede Allen." - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic (Simon and Schuster, 1986).

"One of the peaks in Robert Rossen's career; a purposeful examination of the world of the pool-shooters." - Peter Cowie, Eighty Years of Cinema (A.S. Barnes).

"Rossen skillfully creates the harsh and grimy city world of the pool shark, and excitingly conveys the atmosphere and tension of a game played by men whose professional reputations are at stake. Paul Newman's complete portrayal of Eddie - with self-assured pride in his talent and compulsion to prove himself the best - was supported by fine performances..." - The Oxford Companion to Film (Oxford University Press).

"This fine movie...is marred, however, by too conscious an effort at pungent dialogue and some rather murky notions of perversion and corruption. But it's a strong movie, and Newman gives a fine, emotional performance." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies (Henry Holt and Company, 1984).

"The Hustler belongs to that school of screen realism that allows impressive performances but defeats the basic goal of entertainment...Unfoldment of the screenplay, based on novel by Walter S. Tevis, is far overlength, and despite the excellence of Newman's portrayal of the boozing pool hustler the sordid aspects of overall picture are strictly downbeat." - Variety Movie Guide (Prentice Hall).

"It's hard to think of a more equivocal hero than Newman's Fast Eddie Felson...The Hustler has generated its own mythology, and Fast Eddie's alliance with Bert Gordon is said to parallel Rossen's own decision to name names in the McCarthy era...Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986), which teamed up Cruise and Newman, is a case of same bloke, different hat, although it let the Academy give Newman the Oscar® it should have given him for the first film." - The Rough Guide to Cult Movies (Penguin).

"There are only a handful of movie characters so real that the audience refers to them as touchstones. Fast Eddie Felson is one of them. The pool shark played by Paul Newman in The Hustler is indelible - given weight because the film is not about his victory in the final pool game, but about his defeat by pool, by life, and by his lack of character. This is one of the few American movies in which the hero wins by surrendering, by accepting reality instead of his dreams." - Roger Ebert.

"Downbeat melodrama with brilliantly handled and atmospheric pool table scenes; the love interest is redundant." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide (HarperPerennial).

"The supreme classic of that great American genre, the low-life film." - The Observer.

"There is an overall impression of intense violence, and the air of spiritual decadence has rarely been conveyed so vividly." - David Robinson.

"Like the best sports films, The Hustler makes the game look exciting even to outsiders, but Rossen's film is ultimately about a more universal subject than impossible breaks and the heavy spin of masse shots. Adapting Walter Tevis's novel, Rossen made a morality tale without the moralizing. As the figure attempting to force Newman to trade on his talent for a life of compromise, servitude, and easy money, [George C.] Scott may act the part of the devil incarnate, but the film gives the devil his due, even suggesting his course might be more pragmatic than diabolic. It's a world not that far removed from that of Rossen's great 1947 boxing movie Body and Soul, but the blacks and whites have faded into grays, and the strong politics have turned into disillusionment." - Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club (avclub.com).

Awards & Honors - THE HUSTLER

The Hustler premiered in Washington, D.C., in September 1961. Despite an enthusiastic reception, the distributing studio, 20th Century Fox, was nervous about the picture because Rossen's previous film, They Came to Cordura (1959), had not done well. They were also worried that the pool venue would turn off female audiences. On top of that, the studio's money was being drained by the fiasco of Cleopatra (1963). The studio decided to dump The Hustler into wide release with little fanfare. Newman complained about the "limited and unimaginative" marketing campaign - a poster featuring him in a torn t-shirt. But positive reviews helped the film find its audience and better-than-expected box office profits.

The Hustler was also publicly endorsed by Richard Burton, who had worked with Rossen on Alexander the Great (1956) and had tremendous respect for the director. Burton loved The Hustler and arranged for a late-night screening party of it that generated a huge buzz in the film community.

In 1997, the film was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be one of the motion pictures preserved on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

The Hustler received extensive awards and nominations: Academy Awards: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White for Harry Horner and Gene Callahan; Best Black and White Cinematography for Eugene Shuftan; nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Newman), Best Actress (Laurie), Best Supporting Actor (Gleason and Scott), Best Adapted Screenplay (Rossen and Sidney Carroll)
British Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Foreign Actor (Newman); nomination for Best Foreign Actress (Laurie)
Golden Globes: nominations for Best Actor (Newman) and Best Supporting Actor (Gleason and Scott)
Directors Guild of America: nomination for Rossen
American Cinema Editors: nomination for Dede Allen
National Board of Review: Best Supporting Actor (Gleason)
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Director
Writers Guild of America: Best Written American Drama
The film also won several other awards, including Best Actor for Newman, at the Mar Del Plata (Argentine) Film Festival.

Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford