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A movie that's been running intermittently in the FXM rotation is The Hustler. It's on again tomorrow at 3:35 AM and 11:05 AM. Since I had recorded it off of TCM when they ran it during the "Stay at Home Festival" back in April, I decided to watch it this weekend to do a post on here.

Paul Newman plays Fast Eddie Felson, who's been living an itinerant lifestyle with his friend Charlie (Myron McCormick). Together, they go to pool halls, where Eddie "hustles", getting other patrons to play for stakes, with Eddie cleaning up because he's that good at the game. The best in the game is Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), so Eddie and Charlie go to the big city to seek him out and get a match against him.

Eddie is good, but he's also undisciplined. The match between the two turns into a marathon, and Eddie is only a sprinter. So while he takes an early lead and is up quite a bit of money, in the end he drinks himself into not being able to play well, and Minnesota Fats cleans him out.

If this were The Cincinnati Kid, this would have been the end of the movie, with a bunch of other stuff in between the opening and the match with Minnesota. But this is a different movie, so the match with Minnesota ends maybe a half hour in. Eddie keeps his things in a locker at the station, which is where he meets Sarah (Piper Laurie). She's got a self-destructive streak and sits with the hard-drinking Eddie.

Eventually, it's going to lead to the two of them starting a relationship and living together out of wedlock, which is a bit of a surprise for an early 1960s movie. Eddie still wants to hustle pool and get a rematch with Minnesota, but he doesn't have the money for it. Indeed, trying to hustle for the money gets Eddie into a fight with some thugs who feel they've been had, and they break Eddie's thumbs.

This is where Bert (George C. Scott) comes in. Bert has the money, and more importantly, also has the discipline. But he also wants a heavy price to get Eddie that rematch. And that's not just a large percentage of the take, but wondering whether Eddie can do it with Sarah around. Still, Sarah accompanies the two when they go down to Louisville to hustle during the Kentucky Derby since there are a lot of wealthy dilettantes (and some pretty darn good players there. But it may just be disastrous for Eddie and Sarah, even if it does get Eddie that rematch with Minnesota.

The Hustler is a well-made movie with excellent performances from all of the stars. Newman and Gleason apparently did most of their own pool shots during the movie, while Laurie is very good. The one issue I had with the movie, however, is that it ran very slowly. It's 134 minutes, and I couldn't help but think a good half hour could have been cut off without the movie really suffering.

The Hustler did get a DVD release, but seems to be out of print. (Don't confuse it with other films that have the same or very similar titles.) It is however available on Amazon Prime streaming if you can don the streaming thing.