Great, Classic Film

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2015)

One of the all-time great classics. Great dialogue, great direction, plus great acting, cinematography and film score make this a great, timeless film.
Eddie Felson is such a trainwreck that it truly is impossible to feel empathy for him. He takes perfect opportunities to win and turns them into disasters. Perfectly self destructive behavior of the first order. So, naturally, he hooks up with Piper Laurie's character Sarah, who does nothing but drink all day. However, we quickly learn that Sarah has much more soul and humanity than Eddie could over hope to have.
Robert Rossen's writing and direction are first rate. Eugen Schüfftan's cinematography features beautiful compositions and great black & white contrast. One of the highlights for me was getting to see the cities, trains and places of that time. Kenyon Hopkins' jazz score provides excellent background for the sleazy goings-on.
Given what a great movie this is, it was so disappointing that Martin Scorsese turned Felson and the pool shark story into such a routine, mannered and just plain run-of-the-mill movie like 1986's "The Color of Money." Definitely skip that, but please see "The Hustler!"
********** (10 out of 10 Stars)