The Hustler ***** (1961, Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C Scott) – Classic Movie Review 870

Paul Newman is outstanding as small-time pool hustler ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson, in the 1961 classic film The Hustler, and Piper Laurie is memorable as Newman’s troubled, alcoholic lost girl, Sarah Packard.

In co-writer/director Robert Rossen’s 1961 classic film The Hustler, Paul Newman is outstanding as small-time pool hustler ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson, a character he revisited 25 years later in the sequel, The Color of Money (1986), for which he finally won his long overdue Oscar, the very one he should have won for The Hustler. He plays the archetypal thrusting young contender who may or may not have the psychological right stuff to become the champion: he’s naturally charismatic and super-talented but has a wilful self-destructive streak.

Felson challenges the legendary pool champion ‘Minnesota Fats’ (Jackie Gleason) to a high-stakes match, but loses to the old champ in a nerve-jangling marathon. Broke, his confidence shot and abandoned by his manager, he hits rock bottom and agrees to join up with ruthless manager Bert Gordon (George C Scott), who takes him on the road to get him back in the game.

This emotionally scalding, searing yarn is imaginatively filmed in dazzling monochrome by Eugen Schüfftan, who won an Oscar for his Best Black-and-White Cinematography, and the startling images are accompanied by a fine, jazz score by Kenyon Hopkins. The dingy, down-at-heel atmosphere of the twilight poolroom world is brilliantly evoked by director Rossen, while the story (based on Walter Tevis’s novel) bites throughout its changes of mood and pace in a lengthy running time.

And it’s all brilliantly illuminated by one of Newman’s finest performances. There are three other memorably outstanding displays of all-time-great acting– from George C Scott as the nasty promoter, Jackie Gleason as the big man ‘Minnesota Fats’, and Piper Laurie as Newman’s troubled, boozing lost girl Sarah Packard. There’s an outstanding support cast too – including Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, the boxer Jake LaMotta (as one of the bartenders), Vincent Gardenia, Stefan Gierasch and Michael Constantine.

This is a triumphant adult, mature drama from Hollywood, equally successful as a popular entertainment and as an American art movie. Nominated for nine Oscars, it was the winner of two, the second for art direction (Harry Horner)-set decoration (Gene Callahan). And it’s a far, far better film than the sequel, with Newman way more impressive in it.

Newman never held a pool cue before; he swapped his dining room table for a pool table to practise. It was the second of seven failed attempts at an Oscar for Newman till he finally won for the wrong movie, The Color of Money, at the Academy Awards in 1987, with two more nominations after. He didn’t attend the awards ceremony and nor did he when he won an honorary award the previous year ‘in recognition of his many and memorable and compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft’.

Paul Newman died on September 26 2008, aged 83. The ever-cool Newman burnt his tuxedo on his 75^th birthday because he said he was fed up with formality.

Oscar-nominated Piper Laurie (real name Rosetta Jacobs) didn’t make another film for the next 15 years. She was offered no substantial movie roles after The Hustler, so she and her husband moved from Hollywood to New York, raising her only daughter.

She made her comeback in 1976 in Brian de Palma’s Carrie (1976), earning her second Oscar nomination. Still working, she was 90 on 22 January 2022. She has a third Oscar nomination for Children of a Lesser God (1986). She is also known for the TV series Twin Peaks, for which she won a Golden Globe in 1991.

Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs on 22 January 1932) died in Los Angeles on October 14, 2023, aged 91, after a long illness. Though Oscar nominated as Best Actress for The Hustler and Best Supporting Actress for Carrie and Children of a Lesser God, she did not win an Oscar.

Her alcoholic character Sarah Packard tells Newman’s ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson: ‘Look, I’ve got troubles and I think maybe you’ve got troubles. Maybe it’d be better if we just leave each other alone.’

LaMotta has just one line, ‘Check’, said three times. LaMotta’s story is told in Raging Bull (1980).

The 2016 American biographical sports film The Bronx Bull stars William Forsythe as LaMotta, with Paul Sorvino as his father, and is written and directed by Martin Guigui. It is a prequel and sequel to Raging Bull (1980).

LaMotta died on September 19, 2017, from complications of pneumonia in a Florida nursing home, aged 95.

Giacobbe ‘Jake’ LaMotta (July 10, 1922 – September 19, 2017).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 870

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