The Hustler

Last night I was watching a movie from 1961 called The Hustler, directed by Robert Rossen from a novel by Walter Tevis. The film stars Paul Newman as "Fast" Eddie Felson, a professional pool hustler, who basically makes his money by gambling on the games of pool that he plays in bars and pool-halls. Believing himself to the greatest hustler around, he meets his match in Minnesota Fats (played by Jackie Gleason) "the greatest pool player in the country". It's a very powerful and dark film which does contain a career best prfomrance from Paul Newman. It's now become one of the acknowledged classic movies. A sequel, The Color of Money, was released in 1986 directed by Martin Scorsese.

Today was another busy but dull day at work and, as usual on a Friday, it felt like a really long day. On my way home I stopped off at a Turkish Take-Away and bought a mixed kebab, which was quite nice. I've never had a kebab before, and I'd always fancied trying something from that take-away, but I had never gone in before, for whatever reason.