Film oddities or coincidences in The Hustler

Biloxi Boy said:
Raging Bull was a great movie, I never saw Breaking Away. Did either one attract people to the subject sport?

I thought of another movie which greatly affected a sport -- Urban Cowboy. I remember "cowboys" and "cowgirls" and bucking machines suddenly appearing everywhere. Don't know if it affected rodeo, but there are folks out there who can answer. Travolta struck twice -- perhaps he would have been better than Cruise for TCOM. (I'm not a fan of either one.)
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By the time this all got started I had broken about a dozen horses cowboy style. People tried to get me on a bull or a mechanical bull many a time. Neither one needs breaking and the only time I even sat on a mechanical bull I made damned sure it was unplugged, held the plug in my hand!

I helped other people get on bulls and mechanical bulls, opened gates, no interest in climbing on a live bull. I was helping a friend work cattle in an old wooden pen with a wooden chute, no squeeze gate. Roland was handling the posts thrown through the chute to stop a cow and he was giving shots and a few things. The cattle weren't real crazy about this and would jam in the chute. I had climbed up top and was fighting the cows forward. I had turned around and as I worked had let my butt settle on a cow. I looked around to see what I was sitting on. A brahma! It was comfortable but I decided to move before it realized what was on it's back.

I worked cattle on weekends for fun or profit. One weekend I cut 99 calves off the mommas and into separate pens based on sex of the calf in under two hours. I had a good little bulldog quarterhorse off of foundation stock I was pretty proud of. Irked me that there wasn't one more calf so I could say I cut a hundred in under two hours. Close but no cigar!


The primary motion of a mechanical bull is set or altered with a dial, however the operator is the one that makes it swap directions. Not something I wanted involved with! Funny story, when they were super popular one of the big events like the quarterhorse congress had a mechanical bull. A friend had a four year old boy, a heavy duty little country boy. He wanted to ride the mechanical bull. They started off very gentle but he wasn't having none of it. A few rides and the bull was running wide open, although no stupidity with jerking it back and forth, direction changes were gentle. The tyke stuck like glue! Like smaller bullriders, the machine had less leverage to work with and the four year old couldn't be thrown.

I have been thrown more times than I can remember! A couple I remember like the one that shattered my shoulder. Another time I didn't exactly get bucked off, I just went up high enough and long enough the horse had wandered off by the time I came down.

Old bull riding tale. Lots of kids want to be bull riders and ask how to get started. The bullriders tell them put ten marbles in your mouth before getting on a bull. When you have lost all your marbles you will be a bull rider!

Hu
 
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ShootingArts said:
There have been tons of car movies. One of my favorites for the action scenes was I think Clark Gable driving champ cars on dirt before roll cages. I have been on a kick watching some of the old stock car movies that Fabian, Annette Funnecello(sp) and others cranked out. Teen flicks and not much but like Lemans they spliced in real racing footage and it made for great action scenes.

There were a handful of good horse movies too. Same thing, real racing spliced in. Also jumping horses. National and International Velvet. Not my thing but I think they were big movies in their day. Brian's Song and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof about football. Overboiled but I liked the Newman/Taylor/Ives version as a youngster. Later I read there were one or two better versions. I remember a football movie about a coach and little girl going back to leather helmet days I believe.

I'm trying to remember, it would seem there have to be other great sports movies but they aren't coming to mind. There were some great stories about olympic heroes but great movies don't come to mind. Staying up until the wee hours watching old movies with my grandmother used to be a big deal when I was young. She would nod off and wake up when the closing credits were rolling. "How did it end?" "What happened just before that?" "Before that?" Finally it would be, "that was the opening credits Gramma." She had emphysema all of my life and had to sleep sitting in a chair. A few hours in bed early morning and off to the businesses she owned. Quite a lady, she owned most of a small town.

Back to movies, seems like there must have been some great ones but if I wasn't playing or doing something I didn't watch it on TV or at the movies unless a big star was in it. John Wayne made at least a few. The first version of The Longest Yard wasn't bad. Seems like there have to be other really great sports movies but Lemans is the best coming to mind from my viewpoint. I have a truly vicious hangover this morning. Considering it has been half a lifetime, well over thirty years, since I have drank anything that hardly seems fair but old habits die hard.

I keep trying to think of a great sports movie with superstars of the day but nothing comes to mind. Just thought of Spartacus, one of the greatest racing sequences ever filmed but a wee bit dated! Ah, a cult thing, On Any Sunday. More of a documentary but with Steve McQueen I believe. Which reminds me, there have been a ton of rodeo movies, some pretty good with serious stars.

Wasn't there a few baseball movies that picked up major awards?

Seemed like Biloxi Boy was reaching a bit talking about The Hustler at first but offhand I can't think of a sports movie with the breadth of star power top to bottom, great actors, great character actors. I cheated a bit to jog my memory. Tin Cup, the original Rocky, Field of Dreams, several Hockey movies.

There have been some great sports movies over the years but I have to say BB is right. The Hustler matched or surpassed them. I keep going back to Lemans too. I watched it every time I saw it was on for years.

Hu
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'Wee Geordie, 1955. Not a true story, nor a great movie, but entertaining, and very inspirational for young kids.
 
Twocylndr said:
I believe if the actor doesn't have a speaking roll, they don't get a credit. Actor/extra gets paid "minimum wage" in a non-speaking roll. If they have 2 lines pay goes way up(scale?). TV or movies all the same.
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I thought Joey talked more than that but maybe I am wrong. He might have a card too, I have never asked.

A chuckle I just remembered about Johnny Carson. The entire run of the show guests got minimum scale, $200-$250, whatever it was. From the biggest to the most unknown, anyone appearing other than spectators got the same. I think people in the crowd he talked to got paid too. He used to delight in causing cameramen, grips, and other normally off camera crew members to get caught in shots. Then he made sure they got the same pay as anyone else!

Hu
 
Todays casting in movies are not random.

Any chance there is more to the making if The Hustler than just reading lines?

Furniture and fashion pool room culture was the internet. Writers hid behind anonymous papers. Gamblers are seasoned intelligence agents.

President Grant was a billiard player.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Has any other sport ever been the subject of a movie that was on a par with the Hustler? (I can't think of one.) Every time I see the movie, or a clip, I am impressed and grateful that our sport was graced with such a tour de force. Mosconi, Gleason, Newman . . . the gems in this crown just go on and on. And I know nothing about "film" beyond what I like, but it seems to me that those involved in producing the Hustler put something extra into it -- the stars sure seem to align.
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Very interesting trivia of 'The Hustler'.
www.imdb.com

The Hustler (1961) - Trivia - IMDb

The Hustler (1961) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more...
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
 
Bob i wonder will we ever get passed this, In our pool lives... Guy
Bob Jewett said:
Well, of course I did. Fortunately for me, my current mail app looks for the words "included" and "attached" and if I haven't included anything before trying to send, it wonders if maybe I might like to. Here's the clip with the 'interesting" shot by Fast Eddie....

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I believe that there is a organization that pays tribute to the top fifty persons in the United States, That have change our culture in the most profound ways. I once had a friend that got this award, RIP Ed Roth... Guy
 
Guy Manges said:
I believe that there is a organization that pays tribute to the top fifty persons in the United States, That have change our culture in the most profound ways. I once had a friend that got this award, RIP Ed Roth... Guy
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On the forum there are regular "The Hustler" meets and talks.

Were you interested in hosting a specific aspect of the film?

You can start paying tribute to whoever you want on the forum.

In NPR there used to be an awards ceremony each year.
 
justnum said:
On the forum there are regular "The Hustler" meets and talks.

Were you interested in hosting a specific aspect of the film?

You can start paying tribute to whoever you want on the forum.

In NPR there used to be an awards ceremony each year.
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I don't like or care for the Hustler movie, That life is dead to me... We don't need to look back at the bad in life, We need to look forward for the good to come... There is to many people trying to destroy our pool world, And this has a lot to do with the WHY... If we are not taught then we won't learn, If we are taught bad we will learn bad, and vice versa... Guy
 
The pool room in the opening sequence, its possible the people in the room are literally bums.

Unemployment and lack of education or access to jobs, if an area is large enough for a pool room, there is poverty nearby.

The pool room could be romanticized, what were the other public options at the time?

Whoever owned the pool room, provided a shelter and refugee.

Trilogies are popular, if there is a third then it has to be about Moselle, TCOM, Think Rocky to Creed.

What does a black activist pool room sound like and who meets there?
 
ShootingArts said:
By the time this all got started I had broken about a dozen horses cowboy style. People tried to get me on a bull or a mechanical bull many a time. Neither one needs breaking and the only time I even sat on a mechanical bull I made damned sure it was unplugged, held the plug in my hand!

I helped other people get on bulls and mechanical bulls, opened gates, no interest in climbing on a live bull. I was helping a friend work cattle in an old wooden pen with a wooden chute, no squeeze gate. Roland was handling the posts thrown through the chute to stop a cow and he was giving shots and a few things. The cattle weren't real crazy about this and would jam in the chute. I had climbed up top and was fighting the cows forward. I had turned around and as I worked had let my butt settle on a cow. I looked around to see what I was sitting on. A brahma! It was comfortable but I decided to move before it realized what was on it's back.

I worked cattle on weekends for fun or profit. One weekend I cut 99 calves off the mommas and into separate pens based on sex of the calf in under two hours. I had a good little bulldog quarterhorse off of foundation stock I was pretty proud of. Irked me that there wasn't one more calf so I could say I cut a hundred in under two hours. Close but no cigar!


The primary motion of a mechanical bull is set or altered with a dial, however the operator is the one that makes it swap directions. Not something I wanted involved with! Funny story, when they were super popular one of the big events like the quarterhorse congress had a mechanical bull. A friend had a four year old boy, a heavy duty little country boy. He wanted to ride the mechanical bull. They started off very gentle but he wasn't having none of it. A few rides and the bull was running wide open, although no stupidity with jerking it back and forth, direction changes were gentle. The tyke stuck like glue! Like smaller bullriders, the machine had less leverage to work with and the four year old couldn't be thrown.

I have been thrown more times than I can remember! A couple I remember like the one that shattered my shoulder. Another time I didn't exactly get bucked off, I just went up high enough and long enough the horse had wandered off by the time I came down.

Old bull riding tale. Lots of kids want to be bull riders and ask how to get started. The bullriders tell them put ten marbles in your mouth before getting on a bull. When you have lost all your marbles you will be a bull rider!

Hu
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My barber had the same advice with a marble for shaving, put the marble in mouth and hold it to the crease for a clean shave, then if you swallow the marble, wait and when it comes out , wash it off good and bring it back for the next shaving customer... Guy
 
DeeDeeCues said:
Raging Bull blows the hustler out of the water.

I put Breaking Away above, too.
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As a cyclist I thought Breaking Away was great. Raging Bull was also a great film but I can’t say those two eclipse The Hustler. I think all three are on equal footing for their distinct story lines.
 
Brookeland Bill said:
As a cyclist I thought Breaking Away was great. Raging Bull was also a great film but I can’t say those two eclipse The Hustler. I think all three are on equal footing for their distinct story lines.
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Fair enough. Personal preference, and all that. I would put Breaking Away just above the Hustler, mostly because I enjoy the acting (Newman and Scott aside) better.

Story in raging bull isn't better, but I feel the cinematography and acting are.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
I don't recall seeing Le Man when I was young, but then car racing was not my thing, and even if it had been, it could never have been any where near the likes of Le Man. Perhaps we need Hu, and others, to weigh in on this area,

One of the most interesting aspects of the Hustler, and TCOM, was the fact that they attracted so many folks into the pool world. Another movie that did a similar thing for music, fashion, and dancing, and playing an even greater role in shaping society, was Saturday Night Fever. (Fortunately, disco never sunk its hooks into me, but I lost a few friends temporarily until sanity prevailed and they sheepishly returned to the fold.) In order to have such impacts, however, the cost of admission into the activity cannot be prohibitive. Funny thing about SNF is, despite its undeniable impact, as a movie it is a DOG -- I cannot watch more than 3 minutes of it these days. So, apparently even a bad movie can move the world.

Any former disco boys, or girls, out there who are willing to share?
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While my friends and I were more into new wave music at the time (Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, The Clash, etc.) we went to discos because that was here the young women were going. I actually entered some disco dance contests with a young woman I wanted to date at the time (we just remained friends...)
 
Brookeland Bill said:
As a cyclist I thought Breaking Away was great. Raging Bull was also a great film but I can’t say those two eclipse The Hustler. I think all three are on equal footing for their distinct story lines.
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Have you seen American Flyers?

A good cycling movie. Filmed around the Coors Classic a prominent stage race in the US at one time though they call it something else in the movie


👍
 
Guy Manges said:
I don't like or care for the Hustler movie, That life is dead to me... We don't need to look back at the bad in life, We need to look forward for the good to come... There is to many people trying to destroy our pool world, And this has a lot to do with the WHY... If we are not taught then we won't learn, If we are taught bad we will learn bad, and vice versa... Guy
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Though the movie revitalized pool’s popularity back then, it IS too bad its dark overall aspects (conmen/predators) didn’t present the positive atmosphere of the ‘neighborhood poolroom’. What is needed is a new movie that does. THAT world well deserves a thorough ‘looking back’! A much missed refuge for bachelors that has no modern equivalent, unfortunately.
 
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