Willie Mosconi Movies
- 1980
James Coburn is "The Baltimore Bullet", a legendary pool player who's seen better days. Coburn "adopts" aspiring pool champ Bruce Boxleitner, teaching him practically everything he knows. As we know it must, the plot requires Coburn and Boxleitner to face each other in the climactic winner-take-all match. As much fun as Baltimore Bullet is, the film can't help but be dwarfed by the 1986 Hustler sequel The Color of Money. Ronee Blakely proves an appealing heroine, while several real-life pool greats (Willie Mosconi, Irving Crane, Steve Mizerak etc.) show up in cameo roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Omar Sharif, (more)
As The Hustler's "Fast" Eddie Felson, Paul Newman created a classic antihero, charismatic but fundamentally flawed, and nobody's role model. A pool player from Oakland, CA, as good as anyone who ever picked up a cue, Eddie has an Achilles' heel: arrogance. It's not enough for him to win: he must force his opponent to acknowledge his superiority. The movie follows Eddie from his match against billiards champ Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) as he falls in love with Sarah (Piper Laurie), an alcoholic would-be writer and sometime prostitute, and falls under the spell of Bert Gordon (George C. Scott), a successful gambler who offers to take Eddie under his wing and teach him how to play in the big time. However, when Sarah joins Eddie and Bert on a trip to Louisville for a high-stakes match with a dandy named Findlay (Murray Hamilton), the consequences prove tragic. Along with a classic performance by Newman, The Hustler also features turns by Scott, Laurie, and Gleason, in a rare dramatic role. Cameos from pool champ Willie Mosconi and boxer Jake LaMotta add to the atmosphere of Harry Horner's grubby production design and Eugen Schüfftan's camerawork. Director Robert Rossen, who had been working in films since 1937, was to direct only one more film, Lilith (1964), before his death in 1966. In 1986, Newman returned to the role of "Fast" Eddie in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money, for which he finally earned an Academy Award as Best Actor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, (more)
