Country: USA
Year: 1961
Duration: 134'
A talented pool player, young Eddie Felson makes a living by betting on his own ability, an occupation he oversees with his manager. Defeated by the best pool player of all, the victim of his own arrogance, and which results in his fingers getting broken, he will rise again but will lose his love. “A postnoir melodrama with metaphysical trimmings” (Jonathan Rosenbaum), it is one of the masterpieces of 1960s American cinema, the expression of a Hollywood that was changing and becoming modern by blending dirty documentary realism and an expressionistic use of Cinemascope. Paul Newman in his most famous role, to which he returned in Scorsese’s sequel, The Color of Money.
Biography
film director
Robert Rossen
(New York, USA, 1908 – Hollywood, USA, 1966), director, screenwriter, and producer, the son of Russian Jews, he grew up in the Lower East Side, began working as a theatrical director on Broadway, and, in the mid-1940s, moved on to Hollywood. He began directing movies in 1947, recounting with realistic tones the world of boxing and rackets (Body and Soul, Oscar for Best Film Editing), and political corruption (All the King’s Men). A victim of McCarthyism, he first refused to collaborate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, then gave in, naming various people and leaving the United States. After a parenthesis in Italy, during which he also directed Silvana Mangano (Mambo), he returned to the United States to write and shoot his masterpiece, The Hustler, starring an extraordinary Paul Newman.
FILMOGRAFIA
Johnny O’Clock (A sangue freddo, 1947), Body and Soul (Anima e corpo, 1947), All the King’s Men (Tutti gli uomini del re, 1949), The Brave Bulls (Fiesta d’amore e di morte, 1951), Mambo (id., 1954), Alexander the Great (Alessandro il Grande, 1956), Island in the Sun (L’isola nel sole, 1957), They Came to Cordura (Cordura, 1959), The Hustler (Lo spaccone, 1961), Lilith (Lilith - La dea dell'amore, 1964).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Robert Rossen. STORY: from the novel by Walter Tevis. SCREENPLAY: Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eugen Schüfftan. FILM EDITING: Dede Allen. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Harry Horner, Gene Callahan. COSTUME DESIGN: Ruth Morley. MUSIC: Kenyon Hopkins. CAST: Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason, Vincent Gardenia, Murray Hamilton, Myron McCormick, Stefan Gierasch, Jake La Motta, Clifford A. Pellow. PRODUCTION: Robert Rossen for 20th Century Fox, Rossen Enterprises.
CONTACT: Park Circus www.parkcircus.com
