The Hustler (20th Century Fox) (1961)

PUBLICITY [72 austier,” prAma oF comPuLsion Tense Tale Of A Pool-Shark's Lust To Be Champion Features Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie Piper Laurie anxiously awaits the return of obsessional pool-player Paul Newman in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope drama “The Hustler,” co-starring Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Myron McCormick, on view .... at the.... Theatre. Mat 2C Piper Laurie Gives Authenticity To Role of Lame Street Girl Piper Laurie returns to the screen in the role of Sarah, a strange and lonely young woman who attempts to hide from realities behind a bottle and offers her affections to a man who cannot love her in return, in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope drama “The Hustler,” on view....atthe.... Theatre. A serious, introspective girl who rarely smiles and is willing to let long pauses slip into her conversations, Piper Laurie is that comparatively rare phenomenon who managed to turn television into a showcase for her abilities. It was the lead in “The Hustler,” that persuaded Piper to return to motion pictures. In the film she falls in love with Eddie Felson (PAUL NEWMAN), an intensely ambitious young man who is determined to become the top pool player in the country. Sarah sees in him a chance to find her own security, but, she cannot overcome his blind obsession for the game. Having lost his love, she loses her desire to go on living. It is the kind of difficult and demanding role that Miss Laurie appreciates and in which, in its many finely-shaded moods, she can do her best acting. Piper got the role because Robert Rossen, producer-director, remembered her in an Actors Studio performance of “Rosemary.” Her sensitive characterization remained in his memory and when it came time for casting, she was the first actress he contacted. During the filming of “The Hustler,” Piper was seen continuously limping around the set. Seeking to add realism to the role of the lame girl, she declared, ““When I limp in the picture I don’t want to act it. It’s something that has to be a part of me, something of which Tam no longer conscious apart from its being a physical defect. I must be able to limp as if I had had a bad foot from birth.” Pool Player's Glum Manager Played With Realism By McCormick It is a long and often difficult road that brought Myron McCormick from Albany, Indiana to Broadway and Hollywood. One of America’s most gifted character actors he is co-starred in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope production ‘The Hustler,” which opens . stabether ts. Theatre. McCormick’s role as the loyal friend and manager of a young pool shark is essentially different from any the veteran performer has tried to date. In “The Hustler,” he plays Charlie Burns, aman who never made the grade as a top pool player but who finds satisfaction in developing Eddie Felson (PAUL NEWMAN) from a smart alec amateur to a selfconfident hustler. Everything is fine, until “fast” Eddie gets it into his head to challenge the undisputed champion Minnesota Fats (JACKIE GLEASON). Charlie and Eddie come to New York where Felson, lost in his blind desire, meets his downfall and the two men end their long friendship. McCormick’s career started in the early thirties when he appeared in top Broadway plays, “Yellow Jack,” “Paths of Glory,” “Thunder Rock,” “Wingless Vic| tory,” “Winterset,” and “State of the Union.” It was as Luther Billis, the roisterous Sea-Bee in “South Pacific’ that Myron stepped into the real limelight. He played the Rogers and Hammerstein hit musical for a record 500 performances. McCormick has appeared in “No Time For Sergeants,” in which he recreated his Broadway Myron McCormick as a has-been pool player in the 20th CenturyFox CinemaScope drama “The Hustler,” co-starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie and George C. Scott, arriving ....atthe.... Theatre. Mat 1B role, “The Man Who Understood Women,” for 20th Century-Fox; “Three For the Show,” “Winterset,” and “Not As A Stranger.” Much of his time in recent years has been taken up with television. His performances on “Omnibus” and “The Play Of The Week” won serious critical praise. Authentic New York “Hustler” Background New York has always fascinated film-makers. Latest to be attracted to the sights and moods of the metropolis is Robert Rossen whose CinemaScope drama “The Hustler” will open... at the.... Theatre. The locations for this 20th Century-Fox film, based on a novel by Walter Tevis, range from dingy west-side tenements, across the bright lights of Broadway to the elegant areas of the upper east side. Early weeks of production were spent at Ames Billiard Academy on the corner of 44th Street and Broadway. The poolroom, with its twenty-five tables, was once a Chinese restaurant. It has a balcony, a feature which impressed Rossen, because it enabled the cameras to shoot from widely varied angles. Owner Abe Ames closed his establishment to the public during the filming, but many of the “regulars,” including members of the Lambs Club next door, stayed around to play interested onlookers. One of the biggest and most complicated sets for “The Hustler” was the Greyhound Bus Terminal in mid-town Manhattan. The Rossen company took it over for an entire day and worked late into the night as crowds jostled and gaped, A row of lunch booths was constructed in front of the regular terminal lunch counter. It looked so real that passers-by sat down and waited for their orders to be taken. One sequence was__ photographed at the Neutral Corner Bar on Highth Avenue. It was a long and narrow room and it presented many technical difficulties. The bar is a hang-out for fighters who work at what used to be Stillman’s Gym. An atmosphere of elegance arose when the company moved into a town house on East 82nd Street in Manhattan. One hundred extras, dressed in chic sports clothes, populated the three floors of the town house, which had been furnished and decorated especially for the scene. The sequence was an afterthe-races party in the Louisville home of a rich sportsman. “The Hustler,” produced and directed by Rossen, who also wrote the screenplay with Sidney Carroll, stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott and Myron McCormick. It is the story of a young pool player with a passion for perfection and a driving urge for success that blinds him to decency and integrity. George C. Scott George C. Scott, who has a lead role in the Robert Rossen-20th Century-Fox CinemaScope drama “The Hustler,” seems slated for a fast ride to stardom. “The Hustler” is Scott’s third film, and yet he is firmly established as one of the most personable young actors on the screen today. In “The Hustler,” he plays Bert, a devious gambler, who manages pool hustlers for a percentage of their take. Realizing the obsession of Eddie Felson (PAUL NEWMAN) to get ahead at all costs, Bert picks him as a principal target for exploitation. George graduated from the University Of Missouri, joined a stock company in Columbia, Mo., and later did summer stock in Toledo, Ohio. On Broadway he was seen in “Children of Darkness,” “Comes A Day,” and most recently “Andersonville Trial” and ‘The Wall.” In 1959 Otto Preminger cast ne him in “Anatomy of A Murder” | in which he played Claude Dancer, James Stewart’s courtroom nemesis. It was this incisive, sharply etched portrayal that became the turning point in Scott’s career, (Newspaper Advance) The driving and ruthless lust of a young pool shark to become the nation’s all-time champion is the crux of Robert Rossen’s fast-paced production “The Hustler’, opening .... at the.... Theatre. The CinemaScope film stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott and Myron McCormick, and was shot against the authentic A crucial 26-hour game between Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman is about to begin in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope story of a pool shark with an obsession for fame, “The Hustler,” co-starring Piper Laurie, George C. Scott and Myron McCormick, opening... . at the.... Theatre. Mat 2B Paul Newman Is Super-Charged As Obsessed Young Pool-Shark Paul Newman’s role of pool-shark in the Robert Rossen-20th Century-Fox drama “The Hustler,” is a far cry from his recent characterization of the dedicated soldier in “Exodus.” As Eddie Felson, ambitious pool hustler caught between his obsession with the game and the love desperately offered by a strange young woman, (PIPER LAURIE), the actor is in a not unfamiliar setting. In 20th’s “Long Hot Summer,” he was Ben Quick, a drifter who caused unrest in a small southern town. Fox’s “From The Terrace,” allowed Paul to portray a man without principles, a social climber who ended in self-ruin. An urge to become champion in the field brings Felson into conflict with the legendary, undisputed champion ‘Minnesota Fats” (JACKIE GLEASON). Allowing himself to be exploited by a bigtime money man (GEORGE C. SCOTT), Felson loses his girl, his partner (MYRON McCORMICK), and his self respect. The role of Eddie Felson is important to Newman, because he sees here a figure cut from the fabric of our time. “With Eddie it’s a question of commitment. He is so wrapped up in his drive to win and be somebody, he has no time to give of himself that which others need. It is a disease of our time, both the ambition and the isolation. I want him to be understood.” Realism was added to the tense poolroom scenes. Through the expert coaching of Willie Mosconi, world champion of pocket billiards, Paul was able to make all the difficult shots by himself. Shooting on love scenes between Paul and Piper often began as early as 9:00 a.m. “I don’t mind making love in the afternoon. In fact, I like it. But, being romantic right after breakfast, well—that takes acting,” says Newman. Newman maintains residence with his actress-wife Joanne Woodward in Hollywood and in New York. He is an “alumnus” of the famed Actor’s Studio in Gotham, and still attends classes whenever he can. Paul enjoys sports, particularly riding, swimming and diving. He reads anything he can get his hands on, fancies himself a first-rate amateur cook and gets a kick out of drawing caricatures. Suave Sinister Pool Champ Superbly Cast With Gleason Jackie Gleason, who has ®— brought joy into millions of | ment upbringing, Jackie mainhomes via TV, turns dramatic | tained an infectious humor which actor in the Robert Rossen-20th | earned him at 15, top honors in Century-Fox CinemaScope pro| one of Brooklyn’s Halsey Theater duction “The Hustler,” scheduled to arrive....atthe.... Theatre. Gleason has made movies before, but the role of Minnesota Fats, the pool room champion, marks his first serious part on the big screen. Realism is the hallmark of this portrayal. In real life, Jackie’s something of a champion with the cue stick and, at one time, was able to run 96 consecutive balls off the table. In “The Hustler,” Gleason accepts a challenge from the outof-town hustler Eddie Felson (PAUL NEWMAN). A 26 hour nerve-grinding battle ends in victory for the older, more experienced and graceful, (despite his weight), Fats. Despite the rigors of a tene amateur night contests. In 1935, Gleason entered the nightclub circuit. After a long engagement at Jack White’s Club 18 in New York, he landed a movie contract, and made five pictures, none of them memorable. The new medium of television beckoned and, in 1952, he signed a long term contract with CBS. His programs were viewed by more than 50 million people each week; and his ‘“Away-y-y we go!” and “You’re a dan-dan-dandy!” became national catch phrases. In October, 1959, Gleason opened on Broadway in the musical hit, “Take Me Along,” based on Eugene O’Neil’s “Ah Wilderness.” backgrounds of New York’s thousand levels of life, its multiple underworlds, its fashionable and pseudo-elegant society, the daily flow and flux of the world’s greatest melting pot. “Fast” Eddie (PAUL NEWMAN), has arrived in the big city with his friend and manager Charlie Burns (MYRON McCORMICK) after a hustling career in the west. Obsessed with one aim only, to take on the legendary Minnesota Fats (JACKIE GLEASON), undisputed champion in the field, Eddie is equipped with cash and a cold resolve that beats out all other loyalties. The game is on, a nerve-grinding, exhausting battle of skills, wits and stamina. Eddie loses, but he has been watched by Bert, (GEORGE SCOTT), a big-time money man who exploits poolroom talent for percentages. Defeat draws Eddie into the aura of a desperate street waif named Sarah, (PIPER LAURIE), a strange, lame, humiliated girl whose own insecurity has turned her toward alcoholism and isolation. Her understanding of Eddie’s blind need to be a winner, gives Sarah a new purpose, and she attempts, through love, to awaken some instinct of decency in him. She gives him shelter, nurses him when his thumbs are brutally broken by a _ tough water-front pool-room gang, and strives to steer him away from Bert, to whom he has sold himself in a betrayal of his old manager. Failing to reshape Eddie, her will to persevere is lost in the welter of poverty and perversion that have overwhelmed all of them, and she takes her own life. It is in this act that she accomplishes the regeneration of Eddie, who, now aware of the waste of human life for which he has been responsible, returns to beat Minnesota Fats in a climactic and perfect game, and, in a showdown with Bert, regains his personal self-respect. Paul Newman delivers an incisive and electrifying performance as the game-crazed young shark to whom winning is a compulsion and a passion. Piper Laurie’s wistful and_ sensitive Sarah is as fine a characterization as any in the current film year. Jackie Gleason is suave and sinister as the mountainous Minnesota Fats, against whom no player can match wits without coming to disaster. The screenplay by Robert Rossen and Sidney Carroll is based on a novel by Walter Tevis. Jackie Gleason stars as legendary pool champion Minnesota Fats in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope production “The Hustler,” co-starring Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott and Myron McCormick, opening ....at the.... Theatre. Mat 1C Page Three