* If ever Paul Newman needed a first-rate picture - and a chance to deliver a first-rate performance - it was in 1961. In the three years since Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, the actor had struggled to find the parts that might deploy the full range of his abilities and maintain the momentum of his career. * Director Robert Rossen, one of the masters of the neo-realistic film school, entered the scene to provide for Newman the part that was right for him in every way; that of the curiously dignified pool shark Eddie Felson in a complex, dark, and uncompromising movie called The Hustler. * Newman would star alongside such equally inspired casting as Jackie Gleason's "Minnesota Fats" ('the champion poolplayer of the fifty states'), Piper Laurie, Felson's derelict poet girlfriend and, as the ruthless gambler Bert Gordon, George C. Scott. Newman fell instantly for the script, "I read half of it and called my agent at six in the morning and said, 'Get me this film'. And he did." * The Hustler was the first truly iconic film of Paul Newman's career. It was nominated for nine academy awards: best picture, actor, actress, director, screenplay, cinematography, art direction and two for best supporting actor. * The beautiful jazz score, re-released here for the first time, is by the composer Kenyon Hopkins (Baby Doll, 12 Angry Men, The Fugitive Kind) and our edition is completed by the music from two other fine Newman movies of the period; Paris Blues and The Long, Hot Summer, both directed by Martin Ritt, with soundtracks by Duke Ellington and Alex North respectively, (the latter Newman's first appearance on the screen with Joanne Woodward.)
L**Y
The Hustler - Kenyon Hopkins
El presents a Paul Newman festival. For your bucks you get 2 full soundtracks here: The Hustler by Kenyon Hopkins and Paris Blues by Duke Ellington plus 7 of the 10 cues as found on Roulette's original release of The Long Hot Summer by Alex North. While the latter 2 have been been previously released on CD (albeit limited), The Hustler has languished on a list of scores never to be released. Thanks to El the list is one score lighter. Best description I can shoot you is sultry jazz (Hollywood style), heavy on atmosphere, with an occasional swinger thrown in. Duke Ellington's Paris Blues is a mix of swinging jazz, Afro Cuban rhythms and slower mood pieces befitting a wintry Paris. The excerpts of dialogue sandwiched between tracks sound rather clunky and the sound quality is acceptable but only just. That said you do get to hear Duke & Satchmo. Alex North's Long Hot Summer kicks off with a vocal by Jimmie Rodgers which is fairly forgettable and should (in my opinion) have been jettisoned from this release in favor of more of North's hot, jazzy score. As previously mentioned sound is an issue but until someone else steps in and sources the master tapes, presuming they are not lost, El's release is the only way you will hear The Hustler. The booklet is decent with several pictures but too much space is given over to the films and not the composers or their music.
H**A
Five Stars
Excellent 3 soundtracks on 1
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