Retrospective 2016

The Hustler

Robert Rossen
USA 1961
130 min
V'16

THE HUSTLER examines the rise of small-time pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson who is getting involved with the wealthy and cynical manager Bert. The pool shark played by Paul Newman 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. But the test of Newman’s character comes not so much at a pool table as in his relationship with Sarah, whose story is told as fully as Felson’s own; That’s the real contest in THE HUSTLER: not between Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats, but between Eddie’s love for Sarah and his self-destructive impulses. (Roger Ebert)

Credits
  • Jackie Gleason - Minnesota Fats
  • Piper Laurie - Sarah Packard
  • George C. Scott - Bert Gordon
  • Myron McCormick - Charlie Burns
  • Murray Hamilton - Findlay
  • Paul Newman - «Fast» Eddie Felson
  • Robert Rossen
  • Sidney Carroll
  • Eugen Schüfftan
  • James Shields
  • Dick J. Vorisek
  • Dede Allen
  • Kenyon Hopkins
  • Harry Horner
  • Ruth Morley
Rossen Films, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Hollywood Classics Linton House, 39/51 Highgate Road London NW5 1RS, Großbritannien T 207 424 7280 geraldine@hollywoodclassics.co m

35 mm
bw
Related Movies