Evocative drama

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2006)

Tough film with hard-bitten characters: smart aleck billiards shark "Fast Eddie" Felson meets his match in poolroom kingpin Minnesota Fats. Acclaimed picture from director Robert Rossen has some show-off acting but is nonetheless a compelling movie with vivid black-and-white cinematography by Eugen Shuftan (who deservedly won an Oscar, you can almost smell the pool-cue chalk in the air). Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason (and in a smaller dimension, George C. Scott) look great on the screen, but since part of Rossen's process as a director is showcasing technique, a few sequences lapse into melodrama and the second-half of the film isn't as strong as the first. Piper Laurie's love-interest (her last role on film until "Carrie" in 1976) is interesting without being terribly important. Harry Horner and Gene Callahan also won Oscars for their art direction. Followed in 1986 by "The Color of Money", where Newman won the Best Actor Oscar he arguably deserved here. **1/2 from ****