Two old movies I saw last night: Part 1

So last night I just never had that thing happen where you get sleepy. I watched all of both baseball games, then I was flippin' around the channels, and I landed on AMC for the very beginning of The Hustler. I was immediately interested because there was a guy named Fast Eddie, and living in St. Louis it would be almost impossible to avoid hearing Mike Shannon talk about Fast Eddie's Bon-Air in Alton, Illinois every single day of every single summer.

Figure 12: The most famous thing about Alton, Illinois

Well little did I know that Fast Eddies is named after Paul Newman's pool-hustlin' character. Also little did I know that Minnesota Fats (the real pool player) used to be called New York Fats until this movie came out and he adopted the name of Minnesota Fats (the character played by Jackie Gleason). And then there is the matter of the incredibly hot lead actress, Piper Laurie.

Figure 12: The incredibly hot lead actress, Piper Laurie

The great shock about this incredibly hot young woman is that she went on to play two extremely memorable roles later in her life:

Figure 12: The incredibly insane supporting actress, Piper Laurie

Figure 12: The incredibly sly supporting actress, Piper Laurie

Also for good measure there's a dude in the movie named George C. Scott, maybe you heard of him.

Figure 12: Maybe you heard of this dude

I guess what I'm trying to say was this movie was just really good. I'm not one of those guys who thinks movies are good just because they're old. In fact I think in general older movies suck compared to newer ones. So when I see an old one that is good, I am extra excited about it. I am excited about The Hustler. I think you should go see it.

P.S. My favorite line was when Paul Newman gets this faraway look in his eyes and says "I'm gonna beat that fat man."