The Hustler (1961)

Starring: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, and Piper Laurie, with a small role from Jake LaMotta
Grade: Classic

The final shot of everyone calmly going back to what they were doing after such an explosive, life-threatening conversation, and George C. Scott’s Bert going back to sitting on his throne like the devil overlooking Hell is a hauntingly epic finish that I don’t think gets enough credit.

Summary

After dropping his car off with a mechanic, “Fast Eddie” Felson (Newman) and his partner Charlie (Myron McCormick) enter a pool hall across the street. They sit at the bar and have some drinks while telling the bartender they are pharmaceutical salesmen going into Pittsburgh for a sales convention tomorrow. Charlie mentions how Eddie is going to win an award because he sold $17,000 worth of product last month, calling him the “fastest boy in the territory”. Since it’s hot, the bartender suggests they wait the heat out since they’re only two to three hours from Pittsburgh, so they decide to waste some time playing pool. They play for some time, and Eddie loses again. He’s down $60 or $70, and people are starting to watch the two play. Eddie has been drinking nonstop, but he wants the next game to be for another $10. Eddie ends up hitting a miraculous shot, and Charlie calls it luck because of the difficulty of it, so Eddie bets him $20 he can hit the same shot twice and sets the balls back up to where they were. Despite his confidence, Eddie misses the shot, though he demands another shot at it. Charlie declines since Eddie’s drunk and they still have to make the convention in the morning. The bartender decides to bet Eddie he can’t hit the shot, so Eddie has the bartender set it up. Eddie collects the $105 from the table and puts it all in, so the others who are watching now want a piece of the action. Eddie declines because he just wants the bartender. The bartender gets his money from the till and matches it just as Charlie exits to wait in the car. With ease, Eddie nails the shot, collects the money, and him and Charlie are out of there.

The two are actually pool hustlers, and this is something they do regularly.

Eddie and Charlie arrive in Ames, Iowa at the Ames pool hall. Everyone there is quite serious and into the game. There isn’t even a bar inside of it. Even so, Eddie couldn’t be more confident, talking aloud about how he’s going to win $10,000 tonight because no one can beat him. One man approaches to confirm that he is Eddie and what game he likes to play. Eddie doesn’t confirm who he is at first and tries to downplay things, but the man is no idiot. He knows it’s him and he’s not looking to be hustled. He assumes Eddie came out here to play straight pool with Minnesota Fats (Gleason), and he’s right. Despite Charlie saying they have enough money to play Fats, the man’s advice is to walk away because Fats hasn’t been beaten in 15 years and is the best in the country. Eddie smiles and corrects the guy to say that he is actually the best and welcomes the matchup. Wanting to know where to find him, the guy tells Eddie that Fats is there every night at 8PM on the nose. Also, Fats will be the one to find him, so there’s no worry. At 8PM, in walks a confident Fats. After taking off his coat and lighting up a cigarette, he locks eyes with Eddie who’s playing with Charlie. He walks over and compliments Eddie’s game. Not long after, they correctly assume who the other is. Surprisingly, Fats has heard of Oakland, California native Eddie and has also heard that he’s been looking for him. They decide to play, and Fats suggests $100 a game. Making good on his nickname of “Fast Eddie”, Eddie thinks it should be $200 a game, and Fats wholeheartedly accepts. The entire pool hall takes notice and sits around to watch. Now, it’s time for Eddie to get serious and Charlie makes sure he’s feeling alright. Eddie breaks and jokes that he didn’t leave Fats much. However, this is when he gets his first taste of who Fats really is. Just enough is left to where Fats finds his opening and practically clears the table. Eddie isn’t even mad. He’s impressed at the way the large man moves on the table.

They play a lot of games that night. At one point, Charlie tells Eddie to back out because Fats is too good, but Eddie thinks he’s taking him. Right after, Eddie goes on a hot streak and cannot miss. He’s eventually up $1,000. Feeling himself, Eddie challenges Fats to shoot the next game for $1,000. Hearing this, Fats has Preacher (Stefan Gierasch) go out and get him some White Tavern whiskey, a glass, and some ice. Eddie adds on by wanting Preacher to get him some J.T.S. Brown bourbon, no glass, and no ice. The stakes have officially been raised. Preacher goes out and gets everything and stops by to tell Bert Gordon (Scott) the game that’s happening, so Bert comes out to watch after leaving a card game he was at. Both Eddie and Fats continue playing into the morning and continue drinking. Unfortunately, the liquor is getting more to Eddie than Fats, especially since Fats is more sipping on his. Even though Eddie is starting to get agitated by simple things like Bert not moving from his seat for hours, which Bert responds by moving his seat over an inch to the left, he’s still winning. At that moment in time, he’s up $11,400 according to Charlie. He could leave now, but Eddie tells Preacher to go out and get some breakfast for him. Charlie tells him to call it quits since he passed his goal of $10,000, but Eddie refuses. The only person who can end it is Fats. That’s what Eddie wants, and he makes sure everyone in the room knows it. Despite his confidence, Bert tells Fats, “Stay with this kid. He’s a loser”. Eventually, it gets to the point where they’ve been playing for 25 hours straight. Eddie is exhausted, but Fats looks completely fine. Eddie asks Charlie to get him a drink. Charlie tries to refuse, but Eddie demands it. After he takes another swig as the watchful eye of Bert looms, Charlie reminds Eddie that he’s up $18,000. He tries to override Eddie and end things there, but Fats comes out of the restroom and is ready to play some more. This is enough for Eddie to be goaded into continuing.

Charlie’s words are no use, as an angry Eddie demands the money so he can continue playing. Now completely drunk, Eddie loses every game following this and Fats calls it once Eddie only has $200 left. Fats walks out the winner and hands some money over to Bert on the way out. Eddie pleads for Fats to give him another game before passing out.

In the hotel, Eddie leaves the last of the money on the bedside table for a sleeping Charlie and heads out after apologizing. Eddie goes to a bus station, freshens up in the bathroom, takes out some things in a locker, and stops in at the diner there. He sits nearby a woman who is reading alone named Sarah Packard (Laurie) and tries to engage in conversation with her. She’s also waiting for a bus, but it doesn’t come for a while. She doesn’t give him much, despite his attempts and buying her a coffee along with his, so he leans his head back against the wall and dozes off. Eventually, Sarah pays for the bill and exits. Afterwards, the asleep Eddie is woken up by the waitress and is told his bill was paid for by Sarah, so he leaves. He goes to a bar to get a shot of his signature J.T.S. Brown and is surprised to see Sarah there as well. She wasn’t taking a bus either. It’s just a place to go to in the early hours of the morning, which is why Eddie was there. They sit down and talk, and Eddie buys them a couple more drinks. Apparently, Sarah only lives three blocks from the bar they’re at. When she asks where Eddie lives and he says “around”, she outs him for living out of the locker in the bus station. He changes the subject to inquire about if she always drinks in the morning. She deflects but admits she sometimes can’t sleep without a drink. Bartender Mac (LaMotta) usually trusts her if she’s broke and will enable her, and if she’s not broke, she does have a bottle at her place. That’s when she can sleep well. Sarah used to be an actress, but she’s back in college, despite being a bit older. The days she isn’t in class, she drinks. Now that she’s finally tired enough to sleep, she gets up to go, but Eddie wants to get to know her better. He offers to take her home and get a bottle of scotch on the way, so she accepts.

They go back to her apartment, but before she opens the door, she wonders why he chose her. Eddie kisses her. They make out for a moment, but she pushes him off soon after because he’s too “hungry”. Deflated, Eddie gives her the bottle of scotch and leaves. He gets a room for a $1.50 and then gets all of his stuff from the locker at the bus station, looking over at the diner where he first met Sarah. She isn’t there, so he leaves. Next, he buys a bottle from the liquor store and goes back to his cheap room to collect himself. Following this, he heads to a pool hall to try and hustle, but the guy he approaches to play saw him play Fats at Ames and declines since Eddie is way too out of his league. He makes some money at another hall instead and heads back to the diner at the bus station. While there, Sarah shows up and is shocked to see him. She walks over to him but doesn’t say a word. Eddie grabs the liquor bottle he bought off the table, turns her around, and walks her home. This time, they have sex. Everything seems fine afterwards, and Eddie promises to come back after he goes out for a bit. Unfortunately, Sarah comes to the conclusion that they both are a lot of trouble, and it might be better if they leave each other alone. Eddie ignores this and talks about bringing his stuff from the hotel over, but Sarah isn’t too sure about all that. Even so, they start kissing again. Sarah goes out and gets some groceries and is more chipper than usual. The two discuss her schooling, if she’s read all the books on her shelf (she has but the info from them are little mixed up when she’s drunk), and what Eddie does throughout the day, though he only responds in jest and doesn’t talk about pool. While she prepares some food, she cuts her finger, so Eddie gets a band aide from his suitcase for her. As he gets it out, Sarah asks what it’s in the longer case, as it holds his pool stick. He jokingly says it’s a machine gun. The two start to kiss when he applies her band aide, but they are interrupted by Charlie who managed to track Eddie down after asking around.

He sees Eddie like a son and can’t believe he just walked out on him without a message or anything. Charlie tells Sarah how he’s known Eddie since he was 16 and saw how smart and talented he was, but Eddie wants Charlie to focus the conversation on him. Charlie wants Eddie to go back on the road with him, but Eddie isn’t feeling it anymore. He’s had it with that kind of life. He does say he’ll get Charlie’s money back though, so Charlie assumes he wants to go back to Ames to face Fats again. He’s right, as it’s still very much in the back of Eddie’s head. Charlie doesn’t care about the money. He’s just worried about Eddie and doesn’t like the idea of him going back to Ames to get his ass kicked. Finally, Charlie turns to Sarah and talks about how Eddie is the greatest pool hustler she’d ever see, “a real high-class con man”. He goes on about how Eddie can charm anyone into anything and how they had everything on the road like good eating, sleeping late, whiskey, and women. Charlie suggests Sarah come with. Plus, they don’t even have to start right away. They could go to Miami for a couple of weeks and chill out. Eddie is confused how they’d have the money for such a thing, but Charlie says he’ll raise it. Realizing Charlie held out on him, he wants to know how much. It was his 25%, which equates to $1,500. Eddie is incensed because he knows that’s all he needed to beat Fats, so he demands the money right there to play Fats again. If Eddie agrees to come on the road with him again, Charlie will give him the money, but he’s not going to give it if he’s just going to lose it to Fats. Eddie is angry because of Charlie’s small-time thinking and how it will probably lead to Charlie ditching him at some point to run a pool hall back in Oakland. Charlie admits he’s getting older, and he does want to run a poolroom, but Eddie has no sympathy.

He tells him to lay down and die.

Sarah tears up at Eddie’s aggressiveness with Charlie. After Charlie exits, Eddie and Sarah share a drink together. Neither are happy with what transpired, but they still kiss. Though at his lowest, Eddie will build himself back up again with the help of a bankroll from Bert, but it will take some convincing because of the shady character Bert is. However, Eddie’s relationship with Sarah and the businesslike Bert will threaten to stop Eddie in his tracks.

My Thoughts:

With the game of straight pool as a backdrop, The Hustler takes us on a journey from pool halls to bars to more pool halls, with our lonely protagonist looking to redeem himself as a player once he takes an outstanding loss because of his own character flaws. In pursuit of a rematch with the final boss, he has his fair share of solid wins and devasting losses both within the game and in his personal life. Beating the absolute best is his goal on the surface, but it’s not until he comes to grips with the realities of life around him where he understands the concept of winning and all of the layers that come with it. Along with a moody, jazzy score, top notch performances from the main cast, and excellent direction from Robert Rossen, the audience is given insight into the life of a hustler and the trials and tribulations that can come with it when life outside of the dollar is forgotten about.

The Hustler manages to be great in two different categories, as a sports movie and as a dramatic, Oscar-worthy endeavor deservingly considered as one of the best movies of the 1960s. As a sports film, it’s one of the greatest of all time and fantastic in showing the dedication the players have to the sport itself, the stark contrast between good and great players, and the unpredictability of the day-to-day life the players live, especially at that time. Famously, The Hustler is also looked at as the reason for pool’s resurgence in the mainstream, which should tell you all you need to know about its impact on cinemagoers. It’s Paul Newman, it’s the creative and on-the-nose nicknames for the best players, and it’s the seedy and thrilling lifestyle of potentially making a lot of money or getting into a fight over a game. There is a coolness factor that is a huge part of The Hustler‘s legacy. There is something about the combination of a pool hall, the smoke-filled atmosphere, the mood lighting, the playing of the game itself, the amazing and difficult shots the players connect on, the importance of focus, strategy, and stamina in the game when real players are going toe-to-toe, the excitement of gambling in such close and confined quarters, and the constant presence of alcohol that create for such an exhilarating atmosphere that makes the viewer want to be a part of it. That is the automatic effect of watching a movie like this. It’s inspiring. Much like Pumping Iron or Rocky was for people looking for inspiration to workout and become the best they can be, The Hustler makes you want to find the nearest pool table to start practicing. That’s how powerful it is, despite all the catastrophic events Eddie Felson goes through. There is something undeniably cool about the world of pool hustlers and the characters that thrive in the danger of it and are willing to risk it all for money, instant gratification, or glory of some sort. Keep in mind, it doesn’t try to glorify the lifestyle Eddie lives. In fact, the story that takes place is showcasing the exact opposite and forces us to look past the surface-level attraction that got us to view the movie in the first place. Even so, it’s a big takeaway from the film and is a part of its lasting legacy. If a movie impacts the sport itself, it’s a factor that needs to be celebrated and arguably even studied by future screenwriters and filmmakers.

Moreover, the issues and themes touched on cannot be forgotten either. Alcohol plays a big role in the story. Along with Eddie Felson’s general personality that leads to him pushing as far as he possibly can which inevitably leads to the biggest loss he’s ever taken up until that point, it’s alcohol that plays a huge factor in the second half of the first matchup between Eddie and Fats and the deterioration of Eddie’s life afterwards until he accepts the reality he tried so hard to ignore. Once there is an intermission in the nearly two-day series Minnesota Fats plays “Fast Eddie” in, he calls for some higher-class White Tavern whiskey, prompting Eddie to respond by demanding his signature bourbon J.T.S. Brown. With this, the stark contrast between the two all-time pool players is seen and it is why Eddie takes the loss early. The professional in Fats gets his better-quality whiskey and has a glass of ice to accompany it. Throughout, he takes his time with it, sipping on it but not relying on it or going too far. He’s not here to party. He just needs a little something to keep him going. Because of his experience and the big money at play, Fats knows he needs to stay sharp but could possibly need a little liquid courage to keep his edge when Eddie takes the early lead on him and is beating him handily to the point where Bert Gordon takes notice. With this, we can see that alcohol isn’t necessarily fuel for the player, but it can be used as a tool for the top dogs. On the other hand, Eddie’s recklessness is shown with his choosing of the cheaper alcohol in which he takes many powerful swigs straight from the bottle until he’s noticeably drunk and shoots himself out of the game. It wasn’t talent that beat Eddie. It was the mental side of the game, and he wasn’t prepared for it. Then again, maybe he’s just prone to messing up a good thing because he is in fact a “born loser”. It seems as though Fats asked for his whiskey to test Eddie, as someone like Fats doesn’t get to the zenith of pool players without having a strategy that extends past his pool cue. He wanted to see how Eddie would respond. Eddie came into that pool hall with a vendetta and wanted Fats’s head at all costs. Nevertheless, winning isn’t enough. He wants to destroy Fats and beat him at his own game.

If Fats orders some whiskey with some ice, Eddie wants to prove he can outlast him by getting a bottle of bourbon and drinking it straight. Eddie got hustled, and it didn’t even happen on the table. That’s the understated genius of the Minnesota Fats character.

In a dramatic role that is really only in the beginning and ending of the movie, Jackie Gleason is just as iconic as our protagonist’s formidable opponent as Paul Newman is as the star. Gleason has always had an imposing figure, and director Robert Rossen emphasizes it with the way he frames and lights The Hustler. With a flawless suit and a professional and smooth demeanor, the striking and intimidating Gleason commands the attention of the entire film when he walks into the pool hall. Minnesota Fats isn’t a mean or angry person. He’s just serious about the sport and his opponent, and he considers every challenge a significant one, despite playing it off as no big deal. When someone does that, you know he’s the one to look out for. Every character takes notice when Fats enters the building. As confidence oozes from his pours, the viewer’s hair raises as the tension is felt from the large, imposing, self-assured, and poised man walking in and eyeing the best player in the room almost immediately. The character of Minnesota Fats is a pro, and it’s not even questioned, despite Gleason’s star power being well known. In the few sequences he shows up to play, Jackie Gleason is Minnesota Fats, the best pool player in the country. It is said that all of Gleason’s shots on camera were his own too, which only adds further to the character’s legend and the movie’s legacy. What’s intimidating about Fats is that he’s not going to hustle anyone outright. He’s the best, everyone knows it, and he doesn’t need to flaunt it either. It’s this calm and understated confidence he possesses that you almost have to respect because he’s so polite with it, rather than having the cocky demeanor one would expect and even understand because of his known prowess of the game. This is probably why Eddie is so adamant on beating Fats into submission. Fats’s skill and how he goes about things without any bells and whistles to throw his opponent off eats at him because Fats doesn’t need to throw it in his face. If you’ve ever played any competitive sport, you know exactly the type of player I’m talking about.

At times, this type of opponent irks you just as much as the loudmouth.

Regardless, if you come at Minnesota Fats, you better be ready to play. He didn’t get the unofficial crown of being the best in the country for no reason. What is powerful about Fats is that even when he isn’t on screen, his presence and name value rings over the head of Eddie and eats at him every day, as he’s reminded how near he was in winning the game of his life. It’s like Fats is the king of the jungle, and Eddie was this close to slaying him and taking the crown until he got in his own head. Now, every waking moment and matchup is only practice to get him back to the big dance, and it’s something that stays with him because though it seems close, it’s still further away than Eddie likes to admit. He can’t move on in life until he gets one more chance to overcome Minnesota Fats, as well as himself. Jackie Gleason was perfectly cast as the thunderous, overarching obstacle that will make or break the protagonist. At the same time, he’s not even the villain. He’s just an antagonist by proxy, even further evidenced by the mutual respect him and Eddie share for each other after the final game. It’s really professional gambler Bert Gordon, played deliciously vile by George C. Scott. Possessing a smug presence with him like he owns the underground world of gambling itself, Bert can read people like the back of his hand. It’s proven time and time again, like how he readies Eddie for their interaction with Findley and how he handles and responds to him with expert precision to steer the conversation into getting what he wants. Reading people and predicting their next move is the mark of a true gambler who makes his entire life about betting for big money, and Bert is a high roller, not just a regular gambler who takes huge risks to go for it all. This is his life, just as much as pool is for Eddie. Actually, it’s more so, which is why his ruthlessness and focus on making as much money as possible (and smart calculated money) results in Eddie coming to terms with what’s important in life.

Though it’s arguably a little too late because of what happens to Sarah, someone who could see the deviousness and slimeball tendencies of Bert almost immediately upon introduction and was something Eddie chose to ignore because of his goal blinding him to his reality, it’s still enough to change his life forever. As soon as Eddie makes it loud and clear that he wants Fats to call the game himself the first time around, Bert reads “Fast Eddie” like a book and tells Fats to stick with it because Eddie is a loser. Like a true career gambler who bets on human interaction virtually every day, he knows Eddie’s type. He puts the house on him messing up and is proven correct in his assumption. Bert takes his gambling serious and admits to studying players like him, which allows for Bert to get a new car every year. After seeing Eddie’s type and figuring him out quickly, Bert made enough off him at Ames that he can pay for his current car “twice over”, hitting him with the memorable line, “Eddie, you’re a born loser”. He knows Eddie has undeniable talent to compete with the best and even calls him the best, but it’s his character that is the problem. Eddie won’t let Eddie win because that’s who he is. Though Bert acknowledges Eddie playing 40 straight hours of pool with Fats, he doubles down and tells him that Fats has more character in his finger than Eddie has in his whole body. This was the first time in ten years Bert saw Fats on the ropes, but Eddie let him off because of his character and the inevitable downturn that comes with being “Fast Eddie”. When Bert has money on the line and is working, he drinks milk. It keeps his eyes on the prize, and he doesn’t allow for himself to have an excuse if he loses, motivating him to win at all costs. When Eddie is playing pool and adds alcohol to the mix, he gets an unofficial excuse for losing. Possibly without realizing it, Eddie is giving himself an out to save face, but just admitting such an excuse is putting the potential for losing in his subconscious and that’s what makes Eddie such an intriguing character. He knows he’s the best, but he gives himself too many outlets to fail and then come up with an excuse to blame his losses on.

It’s like Bert says to him, “No trouble losing when you got an excuse”. Eddie allows himself the opportunity to lose when winners don’t do that. Winners try to control everything they can to put themselves in the best position to win. Why give yourself an out? If you put in the work, you should expect and crave the best results possible. It’s not something Eddie realizes until he meets with Fats again in the climax of the film. Going back to his first conversation with Bert, Eddie does try blaming his loss to Fats on getting drunk but getting drunk is entirely Eddie’s fault. Plus, Bert counters by saying Fats had just as much whiskey as he did. Though the working relationship between Eddie and the money-obsessed Bert is Faustian by design, Eddie actually needs it to overcome himself and acknowledge the failures of his life to “win”. He needs to come face to face with the dark to find the light on the other side, which is why though his heart breaks for something he loves in the finale, he comes to terms with the threat thrown at him and concedes to win, a rarity in storytelling. Part of Eddie’s journey is also rooted in filmmaker Robert Rossen’s battles with the House Un-American Activities Committee and his initial refusal to give them names of his friends and colleagues in the Communist Party until he was blacklisted. Afterwards, he caved and gave them 57 names in sort of a Faustian deal to regain his standing in Hollywood. It’s a fact that once it’s learned, it becomes a new lens to view the picture and cannot be ignored afterwards because of the similarities.

Paul Newman was blessed with a wealth of memorable roles over the course of his career, but only someone like him could make a “born loser” like “Fast Eddie” Felson such a cool, endearing character despite his faults. With Eddie, he wants it all. He has the talent to be the best pool player in the country, but it’s his personal character that holds him back from reaching his potential not only as a player but as a fulfilled human being. Part of it is ego and an unsatiated hunger as a competitor, but it’s more how his mind is constructed as being the problem. He chases the goal and spends a lot of his time enjoying the path to get there because it drives him, but he’s also someone who can’t fathom not having the chase anymore. He doesn’t have a serious answer when he’s asked, “What happens when the liquor and the money run out, Eddie?”. He doesn’t know and it more than likely scares him to even broach the subject. He knows his goal and what he wants to do, but what happens afterwards? If he achieves the ultimate objective in front of him in taking down Minnesota Fats, then what? What does he have left? What is there to do? Can he still be fulfilled in his life if he does accomplish what he set out to do, does the chase matter more, or does he need to comprehend that there is more to his life? In the first act, we see why Eddie, despite being at his absolute best, manages to fail. With a charming confidence, he goes straight into Ames Pool Hall and goes straight for the king in Minnesota Fats because he wants to drive the stake through his heart to take the throne. Why waste time? He practically wants to end the movie here. Unfortunately, his “loser” tendencies take over. It’s not being a loser in the sense that you lose games. It’s having the mentality of a loser even when one is winning. Eddie doesn’t have the ability to realize when he wins, and it’s time to stop so he can ride off into the sunset with a smile on his face. Just like Sarah points out when he goes in for the kiss, Eddie is too hungry. He’s too aggressive in his approach that he can’t take the win and leave.

As the first act goes through an intensive 40 straight hours of pool between Eddie and Fats, you’d think we’ve already reached the finale because the protagonist has the “best” right where he wants him. How could he screw this up? At his highest point, he’s up $18,000, but why quit while you’re ahead when you could have it all? The temptation is there for Eddie to want more instead of respectfully accepting his win and claiming the top spot. In front of all his peers that were sure Fats would put Eddie in the dirt, Eddie knows he can have the big-time money but more importantly, he can have the bragging rights of putting down the best. He makes it known to the room that he won’t stop until Fats concedes victory to him, and he accepts failure. It’s supposed to be about the money in pool, but once Eddie was in the heat of the game, he wanted more. With this new acrimonious intention known, Fats stops giving Eddie an inch and turns things around by taking a series of competitive games into a lesson of how important the intangibles are in being considered good and actually being great. Fats has the character already, but Eddie doesn’t, which is why his evolution and story begins after their first matchup.

The melodrama with Sarah Packard does slightly take away from the best of the film. From her overly dramatic Shakespearean fate to all the questions surrounding her relationship to Eddie, her role switches from pivotal to helping Eddie comprehend why he can be a winner to an all-around nuisance because she has a tendency to do something stupid right when the pool playing gets good or she just overreacts like in the restaurant scene (He literally says he’s leaving for a week and she can’t handle it? Grow up). At the same time, their developing relationship never gets over the hump for us to want to see them together. He can’t even say the words “I love you” to her when she tries to get Eddie to say it back to her in the picnic scene. He just deflects and tells her she’s going to marry a college professor and write a book about him some day. Eddie doesn’t realize the impact she has on him until it’s too late, and then he gets it. Sarah pinpoints the problem herself during one of their hangout sessions with, “We never talk about anything. We drink and we make love. We’re strangers”. They really are too. Despite their future arguments and the profound affect her demise has on Eddie, there’s not enough given for the viewer to care for Sarah or discern her importance to the story other than giving someone else to argue with Eddie other than Charlie. In the case of the audience, we don’t see her real value until Eddie does. Though it’s possible that the screenplay was written to achieve this desired effect, it still doesn’t make her antics any less annoying. Every time we go back to one of her key scenes or speeches, the movie slows down almost to a halt. With that being said, Piper Laurie’s performance is tremendous. Her struggling mightily with her alcoholism, and how her relationship with Eddie and how they are doing at the moment reflects directly on her turning to drink or not, is done in a very authentic way, especially for the time period. The emptiness and pain behind her eyes are unmistakable as she is introduced to the audience as someone who can’t sleep without drinking. Her trying to fight it as she attempts to help Eddie come to his senses while she is still struggling is very powerful.

She acknowledges her personal problems and isn’t shy about them. Nevertheless, once Eddie becomes this crucial figure in her life, she does her best to try and overcome the demons of addiction (and Bert) to try and wake Eddie up to reality before it’s too late for him. Sadly, the stress and the situation she finds herself in engulf her, and Eddie turning a blind eye to it to focus on his game changes him. Before Bert is in the picture, there are early signs of Sarah attempting to stop relying on alcohol. After Turk Baker breaks Eddie’s thumbs (Bert was right. The word was out on him) and Eddie comes home to a drunk Sarah, she understands her responsibility because she does love him, no matter how short he can be with her. As the depressed Eddie has moments of weakness because of his casts and throws a coffee cup on the ground in anger and has Sarah take his shirt off because he’s hot and can’t do it himself, she does her best to help him with no questions asked. She doesn’t protest anything, despite Eddie being a dark cloud over her at a time when she could use his support in kicking her habits and melancholic mindset. Even at their most heated of exchanges, they share an uncomfortable kiss to avoid the reality they both need to face. Here, it’s almost like Sarah wants to push back and can’t because she knows how Eddie’s temper is as short as it’s ever been, and it gets a little uncomfortable. It’s a toxic relationship of two on/off drunks, but when one tries to get better, the other slips up and vice versa until they are cognizant of the issue or admit they messed up. During the timeframe where Eddie’s thumbs are broken, he’s more of a problem than she is, which isn’t something the viewer foreshadows based on how problematic Sarah’s never-ending drinking seems to be at first. That’s how bad he gets. He can’t help but blame everyone and everything until he’s flat on his back and starts looking for help in Bert, agreeing to a 25/75 split of earnings just so he has some money to play with again and get back on the road to Fats. It didn’t matter if Sarah was with him or anyone else. His laser focus on his losses stopped him from moving on, and he looked right past her to Bert, despite Sarah trying to help him. He did love her, but he “traded her in on a pool game”.

Sarah’s lies about her life don’t make any sense to me though. It doesn’t affect their relationship at all and comes off as completely unnecessary. I’m not sure what the goal was here. There was no reason why she couldn’t tell him from the beginning any of the information she reveals. It would have changed nothing. Even when she didn’t need to be dramatic, she chooses to unravel and refuses to get a grip when it’s absolutely possible. This is why Bert’s argument that her fate was going to happen regardless because that’s who she is, he kind of has a point. Side note, I loved the Derby Week matchup in Louisville between Eddie and fellow loser and billiards player James Findley who is wealthy and likes to face hustlers. Findley’s basement was beautiful. That was a man cave you could only dream of!

Despite the drama, all of it leads to a bone-chilling climax. This time, the energy in the room changes when Eddie walks in for his revenge game for a change, and everyone at Ames takes notice. Putting his life savings on the line and offering to go back to Oakland if he loses again, he goes for all the marbles out of anger and the tension felt in the final five minutes are everything it needs to be (“How can I lose?”).

Even with a few missteps in its melodramatic romance, The Hustler is one of the greatest sports films of all time. From the excellent casting, the well-developed characters, and a layered screenplay that engrosses from start to finish, The Hustler is one of those films that will live forever.

Fun Fact: Bobby Darin was in line to take the role of “Fast Eddie” Felson after Paul Newman turned it down initially because he was going to star with Elizabeth Taylor in Two for the Seesaw. However, when she was tied up with shooting overruns because of Cleopatra and dropped out, Newman was free to take the role.