Film noir at its best, cool and cunning

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2002)

The hustler combines action and suspense with deep character development in a movie that has drama, comedy, and action. The quintessential hustler is played by Jackie Gleason(minnesota fats), while the arrogant young pool huslter Paul Newman(fast eddie felson), is at first hustled by the best in spite of his superior talent, for as George C. Scott(bert gordon) later tells him "it takes more than talent to play big league pool for 40 hours straight, it takes character and thats something you don't have" The movie develops as fast eddie realizes his lack of character and eventually finds it the hard way. Eddie's love in the movie is Sarah, who has character problems of her own that must be overcome. The cast is great and the story is profound, while also having its lighter moments, one of the most underrated movies of all time.