The Hustler - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Hustler or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Hustler

[frances]

Robert Rossen became ill while making The Hustler and only lived long enough to complete one more movie, Lilith (1964).

[marc]

Robert Rossen had been a pool hustler in his youth and even tried to write a play about it called Corner Pocket before stumbling across Walter Tevis' novel The Hustler and deciding Tevis had done a better job.

[michele]

Piper Laurie kept mostly to herself during shooting. "It was just a working set," she recalled. "Just intense work- not particularly fun at all. I never met Jackie Gleason, although I visited the poolroom. It was fun to meet George C. Scott. It was really just a working set- some fun, some anger."

[tom]

The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Paul Newman and George C. Scott; and three Oscar nominees: Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie and Vincent Gardenia.

[beth]

According to editor Dede Allen, an entire scene from this film was omitted after much deliberation between Allen and her director Robert Rossen. Even though both agreed that the scene, an impassioned speech by Paul Newman in the pool room, was possibly the best part of his entire performance, they had to throw it out because "...it didn't move the story." Newman, though Oscar-nominated, later claimed that the deleted scene most likely cost him the Academy Award.

[bernice]

Paul Newman agreed to make the film having read only half the script. He knew at that stage that it was a great project for him.

[chad]

Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason established a friendship on the set. At one point, Newman got a little cocky about his newfound pool skills and challenged the much more experienced Gleason to a $50 bet on a game. Newman broke, then it was Gleason's turn. He knocked all 15 balls in and Newman never got another shot. Gleason recalled that the next day Newman paid him off with 5000 pennies.

[christina]

Except for some shots done inside Union Station in Los Angeles, the film was shot on location in New York. The scenes of Eddie's matches against Fats were done in the famous Ames Pool Hall near Times Square.

[ivan]

Although this movie finally gave Piper Laurie the chance to be regarded as a serious and accomplished actor, she got married shortly after and quit acting to raise her children. She didn't appear in another film until Carrie (1976).

[linda]

Prior to the premiere, Richard Burton hosted a midnight screening for the casts of various Broadway shows. This generated a lot of positive word of mouth, forcing 20th Century Fox - who hadn't been actively promoting the film - to step up their promotional activities.

[ronnie]

When it was necessary to show some of the trickier shots, 14 time world billiards champion Willie Mosconi (who was also the film's technical advisor) would play the stunt hands.

[ella]

Early shooting put more focus on the pool playing, but during filming Robert Rossen made the decision to place more emphasis on the love story between Eddie and Sarah. Despite the change in emphasis, Rossen still used the various pool games to show the strengthening of Eddie's character and the evolution of his relationship to Bert and Sarah, through the positioning of the characters in the frame. For example, when Eddie is playing Findley, Eddie is positioned below Bert in a two shot but above Findley while still below Bert in a three shot. When Sarah enters the room, she is below Eddie in two shot while in a three shot Eddie is still below Bert. When Eddie is kneeling over Sarah's body, Bert again appears above him but Eddie attacks Bert, ending up on top of him. Eddie finally appears above Bert in two shot when Eddie returns to beat Fats.