THE HUSTLER: NEW 35MM PRINT

Posted by keelsetter on February 15, 2009

Gleason & Newman.

When Paul Newman passed away last year on September 26th several film festivals and other film exhibitors wanted to pay their respects and Criterion Pictures did their part by issuing new 35mm prints of both The Hustler (1961) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). I programmed both of these for my film series and we just screened The Hustler last Thursday. The print was in mint condition, thus allowing me to really sit back and enjoy the beautiful black-and-white, CinemaScope, Academy Award-winning cinematography by Eugen Schüfftan, not to mention everything else going on in this classic powerhouse of a film.

Paul Newman & George C. Scott.

New York City, seedy bars and pool halls, boozers and brawlers, broken souls and broken hearts, card-sharks and pool sharks… I practically broke out like Julie Andrews to sing “These arrre a fewww of myyyy fayy-vo-rite things.” And I wasn’t alone. Here’s a brief email exchange between me and one of our regulars:

Gregory: OH man, The Hustler was SO beautiful. I’m glad I can appreciate it now. I was just transfixed. Funny to see Pa as a young, cocky punk-rebel. He out Brando-ed Brando! Great performances throughout and the cinematography was masterful. B&W, such a lost art. Each shot was like a 4 page paragraph from a Jack Kerouac Novel. All the Subterranean layers of paint and dank brown… Nice indictment of the American Dream and McCarthy’s neo-neo realist legacy riding on the wave of Camelot… even a pic of Jackie in one bar.

Me: I couldn’t help but also think of Marlon Brandon! It just oozed method acting. Loved it. So do you think Paul was given the Deliverance treatment? Or was it just broken thumbs?

Gregory: Well, he was walking kinda funny…..Funny how 1/2 the movie was in NY which isn’t such a good place to hustle. Funny how the pool table was next to the bathroom… I could smell the urine.

Another theme about salvation haunts me: pride comes before the fall and the church/morgue/pool hall. Early on there was one shot resembling DaVinci’s last supper… many Edward Hopper’s too.

Piper Laurie & Paul Newman.

Wikepedia provides fun information regarding the lengths that director Robert Rossen went to for capturing authenticity:

Rossen filmed The Hustler over six weeks, entirely in New York City. Much of the action was filmed at two now-defunct pool halls, McGirr’s and Ames Billiard Academy. Other shooting locations included a townhouse on East 82nd Street, which served as the Louisville home of Murray Hamilton’s character Findley, and the Manhattan Greyhound bus terminal. The film crew built a dining area that was so realistic that confused passengers sat there and waited to place their orders. Willie Mosconi served as technical advisor on the film and shot a number of the trick shots in place of the actors. Rossen, in pursuit of the style he termed “neo-neo-realistic”, hired actual street thugs, enrolled them in the Screen Actors Guild and used them as extras.

Jackie Gleason

Speaking of acting, I know I’m not alone in confessing to a bit of a man-crush on Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. If Newman couldn’t help but make me think of Brando, Gleason takes charge of his scenes with the brio of a young Orson Welles. And George C. Scott is one of those actors who I could enjoy even if he was just reading me some warning label on a pharmaceutical product. Later there’s scenes with Murray Hamilton as Findlay, and it gave me a secret pleasure to imagine that Findlay was really the first incarnation of Charlie Evans from Seconds. Medusa gave some great coverage of Hamilton in a previous blog you can link to here:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2008/03/25/talk-about-your-veteran-character-actors/

Putting Valentine’s Day in the rear-view mirror; I’ll end with a snippet of heart-crushing dialogue between Fast Eddie and Sarah Packard (played by Piper Laurie):

Sarah Packard: I love you, Eddie.

Fast Eddie: You know, someday, Sarah, you’re gonna settle down… you’re gonna marry a college professor and you’re gonna write a great book. Maybe about me. Huh? Fast Eddie Felson… hustler.

Sarah Packard: I love you.

Fast Eddie: You need the words?

Sarah Packard: Yes, I need them very much. If you ever say them I’ll never let you take them back.

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5 Responses THE HUSTLER: NEW 35MM PRINT

Posted By Medusa : February 16, 2009 8:53 am

This is one of those classic films that I’ve never watched. Shocking! I will have to look this one up and have at it, much too belatedly! What a cast! Maybe I never was attracted to the pool aspect of it, but this shows that you’re never too old to discover something wonderful when you’re talking about movies!

Thanks for reminding us of this movie — and what a hep trailer!

(I always loved Myron McCormick (and Murray Hamilton) from the film of “No Time for Sergeants” too!)

Posted By Al Lowe : February 18, 2009 11:25 pm

One of my all-time favorite movie scenes is in The Hustler.
Its when Felson (Newman) first encounters Fats (Gleason) in the film and they pretend like they don’t know each other’s reputation. Felson asks Fats if he shoots pool.
Felson finally admits he has been seeking Fats out so he can play him. Fats asks the pool hall owner, “Big John, you think this boy is a hustler?”
Fats chuckles. Felson has a big grin on his face.

Prior to acting, Newman was an encylopedia salesman and he was considered one of the best. He would have been an incredible pool hustler in real life.

It is hard to believe they were considering using Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak in the Newman and Piper Laurie parts.

Posted By keelsetter : February 19, 2009 10:29 pm

Despite my strict “no solicitations” policy, I would have bought a stack of encyclopedias from Newman. I’m on my way out the door right now to see him at the theater in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! (A film I first saw at the drive-in as a double-feature with McCABE & Mrs. Miller.)

Posted By JimL : February 25, 2009 3:50 pm

I am a big Paul Newman fan, after Jimmy Stewart, he is my favortie classic actor. I have only seen “The Hustler” once, I have seen “The Color of Money” several times and I think “Fast Eddie” Felson is one of Newman’s great characters. The original is definitely better than the sequel, it has better actors and a more compelling story, so I hope TCM will program this classic again in the near future.

Posted By Ro Soo Hoo : April 30, 2012 10:31 am

While in UC Berkeley, in the middle of the Flower children and Hippies fad, and about a year after the movie came out, it seemed like every other guy had a pool cue and was going to The Blue Cue, Kips, Town and Country and other local joints. The adventure in pool hustling ended when during the following summer, the backer of our opponent exposed the pistol in waistband…maybe it was intimidation. We left the money behind and went back to our middle class lives and Viet Nam…with our thumbs intact and walking very normal…Along with a copy of the movie, I still have the old pool cue and Jackie Gleason will always be Minnesota Fats…methinks this could be the basis for a screen play about how a generation of young men reacted to the movie…you got Hippies, Free love Flower kids, pool hustling, Vietnam, Campus riots etc. As for your audience, think of all those baby boomer old guys who once owned a pool cue…

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