MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Down 341 this week

The Hustler (1961)

 -  Drama | Sport  -  25 September 1961 (USA)
8.1
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 8.1/10 from 40,329 users  
Reviews: 142 user | 82 critic

An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), (screenplay), 1 more credit »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2173 titles created 6 months ago
 
a list of 442 titles created 28 May 2011
 
a list of 1130 titles created 24 Jun 2012
 
a list of 1006 titles created 8 months ago
 
a list of 60 titles created 20 May 2012
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Hustler (1961)

The Hustler (1961) on IMDb 8.1/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Hustler.
Top 250 #196 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 14 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Rocky (1976)
Drama | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the heavy-weight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

Director: John G. Avildsen
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young
Speedway (1929)
Certificate: Passed Drama | Romance | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

Bill Whipple is a happy-go-lucky mechanic for MacDonald who thinks that he is the worlds greatest driver and lover. Mac has treated Bill like a son since he took him in. One day at the ... See full summary »

Director: Harry Beaumont
Stars: William Haines, Anita Page, Ernest Torrence
Drama | Romance | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

A toreador's familial and social life is threatened when he has an affair.

Director: Fred Niblo
Stars: Rosa Rosanova, Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi
Drama | Romance | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

A washed up pitcher flashes through his career.

Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Plain, repressed spinster falls for a dashing young medical student, but he prefers the wilder life, until it's too late.

Director: Peter Glenville
Stars: Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, Rita Moreno
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

Joel and Priscilla have been in love since they were children. Mark announces his engagement to her without obtaining her permission. While Joel and Mark are at sea Mark is abandoned in ... See full summary »

Director: William Nigh
Stars: Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence
Way Down East (1920)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

Director: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Lillian Gish, Josephine Bernard, Mrs. Morgan Belmont
The Sheik (1921)
Adventure | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

A charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert.

Director: George Melford
Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ruth Miller
Drama | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.9/10 X  

Fast Eddie Felson teaches a cocky but immensely talented protégé the ropes of pool hustling, which in turn inspires him to make an unlikely comeback.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Certificate: Passed Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Childhood friends are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other once fiercely loved.

Director: Clarence Brown
Stars: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter
Summertime (1955)
Romance | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

A lonely American woman unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.

Director: David Lean
Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
...
...
Myron McCormick ...
Charlie Burns
...
Findley
...
Big John
...
Preacher
Clifford A. Pellow ...
Turk (as Cliff Pellow)
...
Bartender
Gordon B. Clarke ...
Cashier
Alexander Rose ...
Score Keeper
Carolyn Coates ...
Waitress
Carl York ...
Young Hustler
...
Bartender
Edit

Storyline

"Fast" Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary "Minnesota Fats" to a high-stakes match, but he loses in a heartbreaking marathon. Now broke and without his long-time manager, Felson faces an uphill battle to regain his confidence and his game. It isn't until he hits rock bottom that he agrees to join up with ruthless and cutthroat manager Bert Gordon. Gordon agrees to take him on the road to learn the ropes. But Felson soon realizes that making it to the top could cost him his soul, and perhaps his girlfriend. Will he decide that this is too steep a price to pay in time to save himself? Written by <jgp3553@yahoo.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

They Called Him "Fast Eddie" See more »

Genres:

Drama | Sport

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

25 September 1961 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Robert Rossen's The Hustler  »

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Westrex Recording System)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

An early example of a Hollywood movie with a pre-credits sequence, a rarity at the time. See more »

Goofs

After thugs break his thumbs, Eddie wears cast on his hands that remain sparking white for weeks - an impossibility because casts are dirt magnets that quickly become dingy-looking under the best of conditions and he's seen spilling coffee on them, lives in a seedy apartment, goes outside for a picnic and so on. See more »

Quotes

Minnesota Fats: Do you like to gamble, Eddie? Gamble money on pool games?
See more »

Connections

Featured in 20 to 1: Hollywood's Hot List (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

"Hustler Theme"
(1961) (uncredited)
Music by Kenyon Hopkins
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

Best Sports Movie Ever
2 October 2004 | by (Richland, WA) – See all my reviews

I think "The Hustler" is the best sports movie ever made. Fast Eddie Felson is perhaps the most talented pool shooter in the country and yet, at his core, he's a born loser. Why is Eddie so self-destructive? He has Minnesota Fats, ostensibly the country's greatest player, beaten in the first marathon match only to drink himself into insensibility and let Fats off the hook.

Throughout the movie Eddie is surrounded by other people who are self-destructive or only interested in making a buck off of him. Even Charlie, his original manager (Myron McCormick in a terrific role)needs him for a meal ticket. Bert, his second manager, is a slithering, calculating parasite who uses everyone around him. Sara, Eddie's pathetic girlfriend, is going through life in an aimless, alcoholic haze.

The movie really lets you into the lives of these people who live on the margins of society. The cinematography is outstanding, the settings and mood of the movie draw you in totally. The acting is uniformly outstanding from top to bottom. Great movies get great performances from the minor characters, too. Vincent Gardenia, Michael Constantine, Murray Hamilton and McCormick are perfect in the smaller roles while Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie (all getting well-deserved Oscar nominations) and George C. Scott are indelible in the major roles. Even boxer Jake LaMotta has a cameo as a bartender.

Can Eddie finally overcome being a born loser? Can love redeem any of these lost people? What makes a person a champion? Is it talent alone or does a champion need some inner demon that can only be defeated by pursuing victory at all costs?


34 of 48 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
What did Bert Gordon whisper to Sarah? kag2-1
The thumb breaking scene? pinealrapture
Fats employed every trick to beat Felson; otherwise he loses. isolated_ions
Top ten Greatest Actor Performances seanmicsu
George C Scott or Jackie Gleason? kag2-1
Best Newman Performance? scrapiron215
Discuss The Hustler (1961) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?