(U.S., 1961, 134 minutes, b/w) Directed by Robert Rossen.

 

Hollywood icon Paul Newman stars in this all-time classic about an up-and-coming pool player, “Fast Eddie” Felson, who risks it all in a match with pool champion “Minnesota Fats,” played by Jackie Gleason.

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The film was nominated for 9 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay, winning for Cinematography and Art Direction. It frequently appears on lists of the best films of all time. Film and theatre historian Ethan Mordden has identified "The Hustler" as one of a handful of films from the early 1960s that re-defined the relationship of films to their audiences. This new relationship, he writes, is "one of challenge rather than flattery, of doubt rather than certainty".

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Shown in association with a visit by legendary book editor David Rosenthal at the 4th Annual Albany Film Festival on Saturday, April 6th. Rosenthal is the editor of Paul Newman’s candid, posthumous memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, a New York Times bestseller first published in 2022 — 14 years after Newman’s death in September 2008.