Poolhall scamming and psychology, with Newman, Gleason, Scott, and yes, Piper Laurie!

Rating: 8/10 (24 April 2010)

The Hustler (1961)
An archetypal man's movie in the poolroom. It's about power, and bluffing, and class. It really isn't about pool, or billiards, though there are some great shots by the leads, especially Paul Newman (and some great trick shots, too, not showing who is shooting them for the camera). But it is a little bit about poolrooms and poolroom ethics, and poolroom hustling.
Hustling is the art of scamming, and it gets applied to pool in particular because it's a classic place to bluff your way in as a mediocre player and then win big at the end of the night. But as easy as this seems to keep an eye out for, or to avoid by playing your best no matter what, it gets to be a complicated mind game. And a game of plain old violence in the bathroom, where losers win in the end. Sort of.
Jackie Gleason plays the great Minnesota Fats and does both of them justice (Gleason is stoic, sharp, and overweight, all important counterpoints to Newman's Fast Eddie). The third player is the ugliest character, the money man behind the players and ruthless, played with more restraint than usual for this actor, George C. Scott. Yes, three great male actors in a beautifully filmed, black and white, Cinemascope gem. And look for the actual ex-boxer great, the Raging Bull himself, Jake LaMotta as bartender. (No coincidence that the sequel to The Hustler and Raging Bull about LaMotta are both Scorsese's, but that's another tale.) Director Robert Rossen might be better known for some top notch screenplays, but among his other films is the great boxing story, Body and Soul (1947).
As much as Newman is amazing, a defining presence in nearly every scene, it is the one woman in the movie, Newman's girl Sarah, who gives it depth and, oddly, life. Piper Laurie bounced between the stage and screen for decades before and after The Hustler, and managed two Oscar nominations in that time, including here. She not only gives her character believable depth and pathos (when she is allowed to--many scenes she's just sitting and watching), but she brings out the human side of Newman. My favorite scenes are when the two of them have something of a life together.
Director Robert Rossen might be better known for some top notch screenplays, but among his other films is the great Body and Soul (1947), about boxing.