The Hustlin' Hustler
Pool Halls. Billiard Rooms. Bus Depot Lockers. Rundown Hotel Rooms. A Sharp Smile To Lure Them In. What is the sum of all these pieces? 1961's The Hustler. A somewhat faithful adaptation of a pretty good novel. Though after having read the novel for the first time, the film seems to have taken the easier route and focus far more in the melodrama that could be created with a woman in the middle of the story more so than focusing on the character of Eddie Felson himself.
Nine Corner Pocket
The boring US poster
The film deals with Eddie Nelson. A pool hustler traveling from Oakland all the way to Pittsburgh to play a game of straight pool against one of the best. Minnesota Fats. Hustling along the way to make some traveling money and get his practice in. Arriving around 15 or so minutes into the movie, we get this match of the century. Money matches that go on and on. Hours passing as the title of winner and loser changes hand after every game. The game going on for a solid 24 hours with Eddie burning himself out with JTS Bourbon. Minnesota Fats keeps it clean and simple. Doing what he needs to do to keep on playing. Eddie though doesn't stand a chance and after riding the high of winning 12 thousand dollars, ends up walking out of the place with around two hundred bucks to his name.
He wakes up hungover and tired in a hotel room. His traveling partner Charlie, his sidekick in all the hustles, snoring on the other bed. Eddie leaves him a hundred and an quick apology and makes his way out to the streets of Pittsburgh. Going to a bus depot to drop off his luggage and pool cue. Eddie is one of those players walking around with a leather satchel that carries his own personal pool stick.
At the bus depot, he meets up with Sarah and a budding relationship grows. Mostly over alcohol as there ain't much there really between the two beyond being two people on the down-end trajectory that life is providing at the moment.
Eddie goes around and tries to get some more cash to go up against Minnesota Fats again but he's already made himself a well known figure when it comes to the Pittsburgh scene. He ends up by chance meeting Bert, Minnesota Fats money man, and strikes up a conversation on the nature of being a winner and a loser. Eddie can be a winner but he's got to get himself some true character of a winner because at the moment, he's just a loser with talent. Eddie believes Bert as he himself tells Eddie that he can beat Minnesota Fats but that his character just gets in the way. Bert's talking gets Eddie interested in wanting to work together but the split of 75 to Burt and 25 to him doesn't fly so he gets upset and leaves.
He hustles and bustles to win a couple bucks here and there but one night in particular goes wrong. He loses his cool and shows off his skill to a couple of street toughs when he should have played it smart. Instead, he gets his hundred bucks and some broken thumbs to go with it.
He ends up in bad shape but Sarah is there to help mother him back to good health. He gets his thumbs back in action and makes a deal with Burt to play on his terms. Burt gets a game going in Kentucky during the Kentucky Derby. He tells Sarah his plans on leaving town for a week but she gets upset and in a turn from the source novel, joins Eddie to Kentucky.
Bert and Sarah have enormous friction towards each other the entire trip and Eddie doesn't notice or doesn't care enough to notice as he gets involved in a game of Billiards in this rich dudes basement. Sarah has a drunken explosion of emotion right before as Bert said something to her that the audience couldn't hear but was something upsetting as she threw her drink at him and made a scene. Eddie takes her upstairs and then heads downstairs into the basement to the man cave. The name of the game is Billiards. It looks like pool but there are no pockets on the table for the balls to go into. Weird fucking game but they don't go into the rules so I accept the weirdness without hesitation.
Eddie thinks he can win but loses. Bert cuts off the money faucet and Eddie starts begging. Sarah comes down and they get into a fight but then Bert sees the real Eddie and tells him to play the man again. Eddie gets into his hustling mode and ends up winning them 12 thousand. The two leave to the hotel with Eddie wanting to walk and Bert taking the taxi.
Bert catches Sarah about to leave and then seduces her with a drink. She ends up killing herself and Eddie walks into a crime scene when he arrives. Wanting to kill Burt for what he's done.
The movie comes to an end with the rematch between Eddie and Minnesota Fats though its lackluster. Eddie giving a monologue on the essence of being a true man or something along those lines. Denouncing Burt while praising Sarah and what it means to be alive. Minnesota Fats declares Eddie the best and Burt lets Eddie leave without having to pay his cut after what happened to Sarah but also warns Eddie to never walk into another big-time pool hall. Eddie and Fats give their nods of approval to one another and Eddie leaves.
The Novel and The Adaptation
the copy I read
I had seen this movie before but it never really ignited anything in me. It was one of those films you would hear people not shut the fuck about and when seeing it, come out going 'meh'. That was in my earlier film watching years. Feels like a different movie seeing it now but also, far more interesting to critique after having read the novel. The movie watching experience now has been upgraded from MEH to official ALRIGHT.
Overall the film seems to be moving at a better pace than I remembered. I had originally felt like the film was going at light speed in those first 20 minutes then slowing down to a snails crawl when Eddie loses and gets into the relationship. Now though, its all more bearable and feels far more genuine, though still flawed, then how I originally perceived the film.
Though the quantum shift in focus that the novel has of Eddie being this existential hero having to solve and overcome the internal problems of oneself to now being the victim of ego that created this tragic romance where the death of the woman being what brings him to be able to achieve redemption or growth. It's problem the biggest problem when it comes to the film as a while.
Though the novel is not perfect, its desire of pondering and ruminating on ideas and such of what it means for an individual achieving their ultimate goal and the sense of how futility it all has when doing so is far more interesting than what the film ultimately achieves. Though in the film it reaches that same place but more so at this forced contrivance of a suicide of the only female character in the film which just doesn't mesh well with me. Especially when it comes to a character like Bert who isn't interested in people beyond what they can provide for him.
Beyond this drastic differences of the two, the movie pretty much follows the same narrative as the novel except with that increase of the melodramatic.
Though what the film does achieve minus its faults is something truly spectacular.
The Film In of Itself
The look and feel of the film is what sells it. Set dressing here is just the way it was back then. The dust on the furniture. The smoke in the air. The dirt and grim on the walls. Nothing here feels staged or inauthentic. The clothes the men wear are the kind you don't see anywhere these days. Casual garbs that are pulled off effortless and would make you look like a dork if you were to wear them today because you aren't cool like Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, or George C. Scott. If anything the film shows off the less than polished realities of the late 50's and late 60's New York where it was shot. Though the setting of the film is Pittsburgh and Chicago in the novel. Its always fun to see pieces of history like this since the devolution of men's wear is one issue that I take seriously.
The soundtrack really invokes a far more underground feel than that of say an orchestra piece to this world of pool hustling. Jazz going good with just about every moment and this choice of music instead of pop hits of the time is probably one of the biggest pluses since the soundtrack manages to be one of the few that you could listen to outside of watching the film.
The performances are good and all but sometimes this dialogue just falls flat. There is scene specifically written in this film that has Paul Newman, who is great as Eddie Felson, giving a monologue about what pool means to him and how it just makes sense when he plays the game. Asking Sarah if he is a loser and she just replying that he is a winner. The two then excited in their appreciation and positive reinforcement of one another. A real nothing burger of a scene that stifles the actual relationship a pool hustler and a lush older college student would have. Just feels so awkward of a moment that was thrown in to create some organic resonance in their budding relationship.
What Else is There?
An alright adaptation of a pretty good novel. There is something wanting when it comes to seeing an adaptation of the novel that the film ignores for the sake of the doomed relationship. You can see it easy that another adaptation shot in black and white going the distance and just follows the character of Eddie Felson but that would have to be a period piece more so than something of the time like when the film first came out. Something impossible really but one can dream of a better movie.