--- title: "The Hustler" year: 1961 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-hustler" fi1m_score: 88 critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-20T04:01:51.342077+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T04:02:21.346882+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Hustler (1961) Directed by Robert Rossen · 2h 14m · MPA NR · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 82 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* He plays pool for a day and a night and loses to a man who stopped to wash his hands > Robert Rossen’s pool-hall drama is nearly as good as its reputation: Paul Newman has rarely been this alive, George C. Scott is quietly poisonous, and Eugen Schüfftan’s black-and-white halls look like real rooms. It says the word loser out loud a little too often. ## Synopsis Eddie Felson (Paul Newman), known as Fast Eddie, and his manager Charlie Burns (Myron McCormick) drive from town to town working roadside bars. Eddie plays the drunk salesman who has never held a cue, bets too much on a trick shot, and takes the money. What he wants is a game with Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), the best straight-pool player in the country, who holds court at Ames, a pool hall in New York. Eddie finds him, and the two men play through a night and a day while a gambler named Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) watches from a bench and says little. Eddie wins a great deal and then does not stop. Afterwards, alone and nearly broke, he meets Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie), a woman drinking in a bus station at dawn, and moves into her flat. ## Review Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) and his manager Charlie Burns (Myron McCormick) make their living in roadside bars. Eddie pretends to be a salesman who has had a few, bets too much on a trick shot, and takes the money. What he wants is Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), the best straight-pool player in the country, who plays at Ames in New York, and Robert Rossen’s opening stretch is the night Eddie finds him. *The Hustler* is superb, and we recommend it with one caveat: it does not always trust its own pictures. The game against Fats is the film’s great sequence. Fats arrives in a good suit with a flower in his lapel, chalks his cue and says almost nothing. Eddie talks. Eddie drinks. Eddie wins, and the more he wins the more he needs Fats to admit it. Dede Allen cuts the hours down to their turning points: a clock, a ball dropping, Fats going to the sink to wash his hands and coming back with his tie straight while Eddie’s collar is open. That was the moment that got us: we had been enjoying Newman’s cheek, then saw Gleason’s face and knew what was coming twenty minutes before Eddie did. Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) sits at the side in dark glasses and offers one word on Eddie, and it is not a kind one. Eddie, alone and nearly broke, meets Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie) in a bus station at dawn. She walks with a limp, drinks before breakfast, and is writing something she will not show him. Laurie plays her without asking for pity. The scenes in her flat, two people who have each decided not to want anything and are failing at it, are the quietest in the film and moved us more than the pool did. Rossen and Sidney Carroll, adapting Walter Tevis’s novel, give her the hardest lines in the script, and Laurie makes most of them sound like things a person would say. Eugen Schüfftan shoots it in black and white on a wide frame, and the halls look like halls: high windows, dust in the light, tables lit from above so the men bending over them are mostly hat and shoulders. Harry Horner’s production design keeps everything worn without making it picturesque. Ruth Morley puts Eddie in a suit that spends the marathon coming apart, jacket off, tie gone, and puts Bert in a coat he never seems to take off. Kenyon Hopkins’s score is thin jazz and stays out of the game itself; the click of the balls does that work. Bert is the part everyone remembers and Scott plays him small. He explains to Eddie what Eddie is and what it would cost to be otherwise, and the offer is so reasonable it takes a moment to see the leash in it. Murray Hamilton arrives later as Findley, a rich man who can afford to lose, and the second half follows the money out of the halls. We will not say where it goes. The trouble is the talking. Characters keep saying loser, winner and character out loud, as if Rossen were afraid we would miss the point, and Sarah is handed speeches that stop her scenes dead. Variety found it sordid and long; the sordidness is the point and the length mostly earned, but there are ten minutes we would give up. The ending is fast; we see why Rossen wanted it that way and still wished for one more scene. Rossen had made *Body and Soul*, about a boxer, and *All the King’s Men*, about a politician, and this is the best of them because the arena is smallest. The stakes are a few thousand dollars and a man’s opinion of himself. Jake LaMotta, who knew something about that, is behind the bar in one scene. At 134 minutes it is a film for a late night. Do not expect to like Eddie, and watch Gleason’s hands. *Fi1m score 88, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics rate The Hustler highly, and the praise settles on the acting. Paul Newman’s Fast Eddie Felson is singled out in nearly every review, with George C. Scott’s gambler and Jackie Gleason’s dramatic turn close behind, and several reviews name Piper Laurie’s Sarah as the film’s tender centre. Robert Rossen’s handling of the smoky pool-hall world is admired for feeling authentic rather than dressed up, and the reviews agree the film is about character and self-respect more than about pool. The spread is wider than the average suggests. The New Yorker finds the story overambitious and sprawling, collapsing under complications it does not need, though still worth seeing. Variety, the one negative notice, objects to the downbeat, sordid realism and the length, while conceding the performances. The Guardian, otherwise approving, notes an abrupt ending and a speeded-up clock device. The 1961 reviews are cooler than the later ones. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Radio Times**, Adrian Turner (5/5): This is hailed as a masterpiece and showcase for one of Paul Newman's best performances. The critic singles out the perfectly captured seedy pool-hall atmosphere and the sparks between Newman, Gleason and Scott. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-8xihrb/the-hustler/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): The film centers on Fast Eddie Felson’s journey of self-discovery through pool, where his lack of character ultimately defeats him more than any opponent. Ebert praises the deep character development, especially Piper Laurie’s Sarah, and the way the story reveals inner strength beyond the game itself. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-hustler-1961) - **Slant Magazine**, Arthur Ryel-Lindsey (4/4): The critic describes it as the loneliest American movie with the purest examination of an athlete’s internal struggle, highlighting Newman’s force-of-energy performance and the story’s Cinderella-Faust blend. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-hustler/) - **Empire**, Rob Fraser (90/100, inferred): The critic calls The Hustler one of the coolest movies ever made but stresses it has more substance than style alone. Rossen uses the pool-hall world to explore male machismo and existential themes, with Piper Laurie’s role adding a tender heart to the cynical tone. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/hustler-review/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, James Powers (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film provocative, powerful, odd, and serious, an important and satisfying experience outside usual Hollywood fare, with a daring structure that Rossen pulls off through vital sequences and authentic pool scenes. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hustler-review-1961-movie-1146976) - **The Guardian**, Philip French (85/100, inferred): Philip French calls The Hustler Robert Rossen's greatest film, a stylised fable about loyalty, betrayal, character and self-respect set in a smoky pool-hall underworld. He praises the superb performances from Newman, Scott, Gleason and Laurie, along with the Oscar-winning black-and-white photography, while noting minor flaws in the abrupt ending and speeded-up clock device. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/17/paulnewman.drama) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (80/100, inferred): The review praises the film as a morality tale without moralizing that makes the game exciting while exploring universal themes of disillusionment and the world's harshness, with strong performances and a shift from Rossen's earlier work. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-hustler-dvd-1798197634) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (80/100, inferred): The review finds the film positive and alive under Rossen’s direction, with credible passions and sharp points in its account of a young hustler’s emancipation. It singles out George C. Scott’s magnificently malefic performance as the evil gambler for particular praise. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1961/09/27/archives/review-1-no-title.html) - **Time Out**, CPea (80/100, inferred): The review praises the film as a wonderful hymn to an era of serious pool playing. It highlights the strong performances, especially Newman's, that carry the concentrated, enclosed scenes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-hustler) - **The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill (60/100, inferred): The critic notes the film’s overambitious sprawl causes it to collapse under unnecessary complications, though it remains well worth seeing despite the faults. Strong performances by Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and George C. Scott are highlighted as standout elements. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1961/09/30/east-and-west) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (40/100, inferred): The review criticizes the film’s downbeat, sordid realism and overlength, which defeat pure entertainment despite impressive performances. Newman’s believable portrayal of the pool shark and Gleason’s potent dramatic turn are noted as strengths amid the unpleasant characters and dingy settings. [Read](https://variety.com/1960/film/reviews/the-hustler-1200419872/) - **Collider**, Rob Vaux (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Paul Newman's iconic performance as Fast Eddie Felson and Robert Rossen's gritty direction that captures the seedy world of pool hustling. The Blu-ray release highlights the film's timeless quality and strong supporting cast. [Read](https://collider.com/the-hustler-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Robert Rossen - **Director:** Robert Rossen - **Screenplay:** Robert Rossen, Sidney Carroll - **Novel:** Walter Tevis - **Cinematography:** Eugen Schüfftan - **Editor:** Dede Allen - **Music:** Kenyon Hopkins - **Production design:** Harry Horner - **Costume design:** Ruth Morley - **Producer:** Robert Rossen - **Cast:** Paul Newman as Eddie Felson; Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats; Piper Laurie as Sarah Packard; George C. Scott as Bert Gordon; Myron McCormick as Charlie Burns; Murray Hamilton as Findley; Michael Constantine as Big John; Stefan Gierasch as Preacher - **Runtime:** 2h 14m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 25 September 1961 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $8 million ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $17.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, SE, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1962: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Art Direction, Black and White (won); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (won) - BAFTA Film Awards 1962: Best Film (won) - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film 1961: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film (nominated) - Golden Globes 1961: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (nominated); Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (nominated); New Star of the Year – Actor (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Color of Money* (1986): Newman picks Eddie up twenty-five years on; Scorsese shoots the pool like a chase. - *Fat City* (1972): Huston’s Stockton boxers are Eddie’s poorer cousins, and the bars are just as sad. - *Bob le flambeur* (1956): A Montmartre gambler with better manners than Eddie and the same bad habit of not stopping. - *The Cincinnati Kid* (1965): Poker instead of pool, McQueen instead of Newman, and Edward G. Robinson as the wall he hits. - *Sweet Smell of Success* (1957): Another black-and-white New York night where everyone owes somebody and nobody sleeps. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-hustler