(SYNOPSIS) "Fast" Eddie Felson and his partner-manager Charlie have been hustling pool around the country for a few years; they set up a con in which the highly skilled Eddie pretends to be a mediocre amateur to sucker other players into higher-stakes games. But Eddie is no mere two-bit hustler; he's an expert player who longs to take on the best in the business, the legendary Minnesota Fats. He gets his chance at the famous Ames Pool Hall in New York, challenging Fats and beating him game after game. The difference between the two is that Fats knows how to pace himself, while the headstrong and cocky Eddie goes beyond his limits and loses every penny of the $18,000 he initially won from Fats. Abandoning Charlie, who wants to return to hustling on the road, Eddie falls in with Sarah, an attractive but depressed alcoholic. The two move in together and begin to find some semblance of happiness, although Eddie cannot commit to anything beyond his desire to defeat Fats and be recognized as the best pool player in the business. Eventually, he contacts Bert Gordon, a shrewd, highly skilled gambler-promoter, who agrees to promote his career and the stage is then set for another match against Minnesota Fats.

A lot was riding on The Hustler for both the director and the major cast members, and the picture paid off in a big way for all of them. Besides the critical accolades and the film's enduring popularity, it introduced the style and language of the pool hall to a wide audience and created characters so indelible that real-life pool players clamored to be identified as the inspirations for these fictional creations. The Hustler also received nine Oscar® nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (Paul Newman), Best Supporting Actor (both George C. Scott & Jackie Gleason were honored), and Best Director. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (by Eugene Shuftan) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Harry Horner and Gene Callahan).

Director Robert Rossen had a promising career, first as a screenwriter of several notable films of the late 30s and early 40s, then as director/producer of hard-hitting dramas such as Body and Soul (1947) and the Oscar®-winning All the King's Men (1949). But it all went sour in the 1950s. Refusing to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), Rossen found himself blacklisted. Tortured by his inability to work at the art and profession he loved, Rossen relented in 1953 and confessed his former Communist Party membership, naming other party members to Congress. Though his career had recovered somewhat, his projects in the following years didn't quite live up to his earlier potential. With The Hustler he found at last a story with which to explore his characteristic themes: power, corruption, the lure and dangers of fame and success, and the study of a professional who through talent and ambition rises to hero status in his field, only to be laid low by flaws in his character and the exploitative system around him. It was a project Rossen - as co-writer, producer and director - could make truly his own, and he found the best collaborators to make it happen.

The ensemble cast also seized the opportunity to make this a breakthrough movie for them. Piper Laurie got the chance to break the mold of pretty ingénue parts she had mostly been offered for a decade. Jackie Gleason, whose film career had gone nowhere in the 50s, was able to prove he was a dramatic actor to be reckoned with and not just a popular TV comedy star. New York stage actor George C. Scott added another outstanding performance to his early film career, and garnered perhaps the best reviews of the picture (today, many people consider Scott's and Gleason's performances to hold far more interest than that of the leads).

But the person who gained the most from The Hustler was Paul Newman. Although he had survived his disastrous debut in The Silver Chalice (1954) to become a popular leading man and male sex symbol, Newman's performance in The Hustler propelled him into the top ranks of actors and made him the reigning male superstar of the next decade. The role, and Newman's performance of it, also paved the way for the rebel anti-heroes of the 60s, the tormented, less-than-sympathetic characters who would be the central focus of many films and performances by the likes of such 1970s successors to Fast Eddie as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.

Producer/Director: Robert Rossen
Screenplay: Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen, based on the novel by Walter Tevis
Cinematography: Eugene Shuftan
Editing: Dede Allen
Production Design: Harry Horner
Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins
Cast: Paul Newman (Fast Eddie Felson), Piper Laurie (Sarah Packard), Jackie Gleason (Minnesota Fats), George C. Scott (Bert Gordon), Myron McCormick (Charlie Burns).
BW-135m. Letterboxed.

by Rob Nixon