The Hustler (1961) - film review

Eddie Felson is a small-time pool shark with big-time ambitions.  Fed up of taking pin money from suckers, Eddie decides to challenge legendary pool player Minnesota Fats, playing for the highest stakes he can afford.  Eddie proves himself a worthy opponent, but Fats takes back the money he has won when alcohol and over-confidence have done their worst.   Penniless, Eddie walks out on his friend Charlie and chooses to go it alone.   He meets a lonely young woman, Sarah, in a bus station bar and strikes up a friendship with her.  They make an unlikely combination - he an arrogant hustler obsessed with proving himself, she a crippled alcoholic who lives off an allowance supplied by her father - but they become lovers.   Professional gambler Bert Gordon sees Eddie’s potential and offers his services as a manager, in return for 75 per cent of his winnings.  Eddie initially rejects the offer, but having been beaten up by another pool shark, he accepts.  The two men travel to Louisville with Sarah and come across wealthy socialite Findley.  After a party, Findley invites Eddie to play billiards at his house.  Even though he has little experience of the game, Eddie accepts Findley’s challenge.  This time he intends to win, and win big...

Robert Rossen’s superlative adaptation of Walter Tevis’s powerful novel is a compelling existentialist drama which provided Paul Newman with the most challenging role of his career and made him an instant Hollywood icon.  The subject matter and almost relentlessly bleak mood of The Hustler have much in common with classic film noir, and Newman’s Fast Eddie is easily recognised as the flawed noir anti-hero.  But the characters are far more convincingly developed than in your typical film noir and the film avoids most of the noir conventions in its dogged pursuit of realism.  The film was for Newman what A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was for Marlon Brando, and there are some striking similarities between the two films - both explore the darker, less savoury side of human nature with an uncompromising willingness to embrace the truth rather than replay the old movie stereotypes.

In what is arguably the finest performance of his career, Paul Newman brings a sordid, even brutal reality to his portrayal of Eddie Felson, which is beautifully counterpointed by Piper Laurie’s delicate interpretation of Eddie’s sensitive alcoholic lover Sarah.  The other male characters are played as Teflon-coated macho-types who appear to be completely lacking in emotion and morality (the one exception being Eddie’s friend Charlie).  George C. Scott’s despicable Bert Gordon is as hard as they come, a tough gambler who destroys everything he touches, whilst Jackie Gleason barely appears to be human as the implacable pool player who succeeds in humanising Eddie in the film’s now legendary pool sequences. 

On its first release, the film was a major critical and commercial success.  It was nominated for nine Oscars (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role) but won awards in just two categories, for its cinematography (supplied by the great Eugen Schüfftan) and set design.  Newman was honoured with an Oscar for his reprise of the role of Eddie in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed sequel The Color of Money (1986) - many saw this as a belated recognition of his exceptional work on The Hustler.  Whether you are an ardent pool fan or not, this is a film that is just to good to be missed.

© Steve Chandler 2011

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?