Have you got a telephone directory?
ask doctor for xanax Newman is "Fast Eddie" Felson, a prodigy with the cue-stick who's determined to take on the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason in a wonderfully restrained and authoritative performance). This he does in a bravura opening section, winning thousands of dollars off Fats in a marathon all-night contest, but walking away with nothing but his original $200 stake. In the meantime he's taken up by the vile and unscrupulous gambler-manager Burt Gordon (one of George C Scott's greatest early performances), who considers Eddie a great pool player but a born loser at heart. He also gets involved with a limping, alcoholic young college drop-out played by the mesmerising, Oscar-nominated Piper Laurie, who would disappear from the movies almost immediately afterwards, not to be seen again until she played the psychotic mother of Brian De Palma's Carrie 15 years later, another indelible performance.