|
Forceful pool hall drama about hustler "Fast Eddie" Felton (Newman), who after a few small time hustles makes his way to the renown Ames Billiard Hall in New York hoping to enter the big leagues. He seeks out famed, high class pool player Minnesota Fats (Gleason) and challenges him to a series of high stakes games. Fats is an extremely talented player, but after many hours of intense playing, Fast Eddie is thousands ahead. They keep playing, and Eddie starts to get worn out and drunk. Minnesota Fats on the other hand still looks fresh and is going strong, and Fast Eddie eventually looses almost all of his money and the game is stopped. After his defeat, Fast Eddie gets involved with a hard drinking disabled woman (Laurie) and starts some low money hustles to try to raise enough cash for a rematch with Fats. He soon learns that he cannot raise enough money on his own and takes the offer of cold and calculating Bert Gordon (Scott) to be his backer. Eddie sacrifies his principles and his girlfriend for the opportunity to beat Fats, and he soon raises enough money and heads back to New York, a changed man, for the rematch. The acting by the four principles is very strong and they each subsequently got Academy Award nominations for their roles. Gleason is especially good as the cool and calm pool legend, and his portrayal of Fast Eddie raised Paul Newman's career to a new level. The legendary pool player Willie Mosconi acted as adviser for the film and he appears in a cameo, as does "Raging Bull" boxer Jake LaMotta.
|
