The Hustler (1961) on Netflix
Fast Eddie Felson makes his living hustling pool with his partner Charlie Burns. At Ames Billiards in New York City he faces the champion Minnesota Fats in a high-stakes match.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.9/1090,541 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Eddie Felson travels from town to town with Charlie Burns, making a living by concealing how well he shoots. Charlie does not want him to take on Minnesota Fats, who plays out of the Ames in New York City, but Eddie wants to test himself against the best. In New York he meets Sarah Packard, who drinks first thing in the morning, and moves into her apartment. Charlie comes there to urge him back on the road, and Eddie turns him down. Bert Gordon, a professional gambler Eddie met at the Ames, offers to put up the money for the match in exchange for seventy-five percent of the winnings.
Cast
- Clifford A. Pellowas Turk (as Cliff Pellow)
- Gordon B. Clarkeas Cashier
- Alexander Roseas Score Keeper
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Hustler (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bobby Darin was offered the part of Fast Eddie after director Robert Rossen saw him on The Mike Wallace Interview, but Paul Newman, whose agent had turned the part down, got it when Elizabeth Taylor dropped out of Two for the Seesaw over Cleopatra's shooting overruns. Newman accepted after reading only half the script.
- No one from the production told Bobby Darin or his representatives that he had lost the part of Fast Eddie; he learned of it from a member of the public at a charity horse race.
- Pool champion Willie Mosconi, the film's technical advisor, shot many of the trick shots in place of the actors; all of Jackie Gleason's shots were his own and were filmed in wide-angle to keep actor and shot in the same frame.
- Director Robert Rossen hired actual street thugs, enrolled them in the Screen Actors Guild and used them as extras, in pursuit of the style he called "neo-neo-realistic".
- The film crew built a dining area set so realistic that confused passengers sat there and waited to place their orders.
- The Hustler is credited with sparking a resurgence in the popularity of pool in the United States, which had been declining for decades, and with bringing recognition to multiple world champion Willie Mosconi.
- Real-life pool hustler Rudolf Wanderone, then known as "New York Fatty", took the nickname Minnesota Fats after Willie Mosconi said the character was based on him, and parlayed the association into book and television deals and other ventures.
- Paul Newman returned as Fast Eddie Felson in the 1986 sequel The Color of Money and won his one and only Academy Award, which observers and critics suggested was belated recognition for The Hustler and his other nominated roles.
