Overblown by Today's Standards

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2019)

Paul Newman plays a pool hustler facing Jackie Gleason a pool champion and Piper Laurie (who later makes an acting comeback in the award-winning television series Twin Peaks (1990)) and George C. Scott that echoes themes from The Day of Wine and Roses (1962) starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. Perhaps at the time, this film would have appeared to be somewhat more sophisticated than its contemporary movies, yet the plot hasn't aged well with its unnecessary over-dramatization that seems to detract from the more vital action mystery as to the billiard competition while blasting out the message of relationships as more important. There are even some residual lingering themes that were echoed in The Cutting Edge (1992) with D.B. Sweeny and Moira Kelly about figure ice skating competition in a much softer presentation. The dialogue used in The Hustler seems more staged as a theatrical production than a film and while powerful, it comes across more harsh and bitter than poetically beautiful as a movie. Compare this movie to Paul Newman's more nuanced performance in Cincinnati Kid (1965).