Hustler-Collectors Edition (1961)

"A wonderful hymn to the last true era when men of substance played pool with a vengeance.  Derek Adams, Time Out
"...so much better than Martin Scorsese's belated sequel The Color of Money that they don't even belong in the same category.  Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"Newman is outstanding...in this incisive film.  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"Dingy atmosphere and great performances make this a standout.  Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"Rivetingly atmospheric, and exquisitely photographed.  VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever

Editor's Note An arrogant and amoral hustler haunts pool rooms to get a crack at bringing down Minnesota Fats. When he starts to have real feelings for a woman, he's faced with a dilemma. See THE COLOR OF MONEY, an excellent sequel made 25 years later, for which Newman won Best Actor. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor, Paul Newman; Best Adapted Screenplay.

	George C. Scott
	Jackie Gleason
	Paul Newman
	Piper Laurie
	Dede Allen - Editor
	Eugen SchŸfftan - Cinematographer
	Harry Horner - Production Designer
	Kenyon Hopkins - Original Music By
	Robert Rossen - Director
	Robert Rossen - Screenplay
	Robert Rossen - Producer
	Sidney Carroll - Screenplay
	Walter Tevis - Based On Novel By

Entertainment Weekly
"...Newman bravely reveals the demons lurking beneath his devil-may-care exterior..." 06/07/2002 p.53

Total Film
"...Shot with virtuoso pace, the tussles between Eddie and Minnesota Fats are superb..." 11/01/2003 p.128

Uncut
4 stars out of 4 -- "[A] powerful character study of a man at war with himself, wrestling win back his self-respect." 10/01/2006 p.156

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "THE HUSTLER marks the birth of an anti-hero in Newman, and is a dazzling, provocative and seminal piece of American cinema." 10/01/2006 p.120

ReelViews 10 of 10
There are some who wrongfully assume that The Hustler is about pool. It is a natural assumption: much of the action takes place in billiards rooms and pool halls, but this movie is no more about pool than Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is about boxing. Lead character Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) is a pool shark, but change him into a poker player or a golfer, and The Hustler would play out pretty much the same. Robert Rossen's film is far less about Fast Eddie's confrontations with other players than it is about his war with his own demons and his struggle to define the intangible meaning of "character"...The public's fascination for Fast Eddie was so great that Martin Scorsese teamed up with Newman (and Tom Cruise) to bring back the character in 1986's The Color of Money, an inferior film that nevertheless offers its share of small pleasures...Yet, as intriguing as the character is in the Scorsese film, that cinematic representation of the pool shark pales in comparison with the one presented in Rossen's The Hustler, one of the most compelling character-based films to emerge from the decade of the 1960s. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
There are only a handful of movie characters so real that the audience refers to them as touchstones. Fast Eddie Felson is one of them. The pool shark played by Paul Newman in "The Hustler" (1961) is indelible--given weight because the film is not about his victory in the final pool game, but about his defeat by pool, by life, and by his lack of character. This is one of the few American movies in which the hero wins by surrendering, by accepting reality instead of his dreams...The film provided Paul Newman's breakthrough into the first rank of Hollywood actors, but it is instructive to see how important the other actors are..."The Hustler" is one of those films where scenes have such psychic weight that they grow in our memories...Among the male faces in the movie, most of them old, weathered, cold or cruel, Paul Newman's open and handsome looks are a contrast. But the casting is correct. He isn't too handsome for this ugly world, but a hustler who trades on his boyish grin and aw-shucks way of asking if anybody feels like a game. His face has gotten Eddie almost as far as his pool skills. He doesn't look like a hustler, but then the best ones never do. - Roger Ebert