Hustling The Hustler

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2015)

Paul Newman stars along George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason and the reclusive Piper Laurie as his neurotic girlfriend, who will ultimately prove her mettle by being nominated for no less than three Oscars for three movies, including the mother of a very special girl in Carrie two decades later. Newman is still in his raw, just-becoming-a-star period of his career, having completed The Long Hot Summer, and then Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and having finally figured out his tumultuous love life, leaving his wife and kids for Joanne Woodward, with whom he would forge a lasting relationship of fifty years.
Newman cements his position as one of Hollywood's finest leading men with Hustler, although the script leaves him a little bit short of material. But Hustler is considered a classic, with nary a mediocre performance in the bunch. The cinematography is a bit short on the pool hustling scenes, with the later remake (albeit in color) better succeeding in dramatizing the action and flow of the pool games.
For buffs who are watching this slightly darker movie after the Tom Cruise version, The Color of Money, where Newman trades places with George C. Scott to play Cruise's handler, it bears noting that this black and white classic is a bit slower paced, taking the necessary time to build up the characters and their associated pathologies, although younger viewers may find this off-putting, having been fed altogether too much action in the first five minutes of everything cinematic while just ignoring character depth.
Consider that The Hustler is a must see, just like Breakfast at Tiffanys or Raging Bull, in that it marks the beginning of a screen acting legend and suggests his future prowess, while providing a gripping storyline along side some really talented actors, and suggesting its rightful place in cinematic black & white classics.