The Player... No, Not That One

The Player (1971)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Thomas DeMartini

Starring: Jerry Como, Rae Phillips, Carey Wilmot, Minnesota Fats, Jack Colavita

From: International Cinema, Inc.

So, this is a lost movie featuring Minnesota Fats that was rediscovered & uploaded to YouTube last week.

An explanation is needed. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana a fictional drama was filmed featuring the legendary billiards player/pool hustler Minnesota Fats as himself. He changed his moniker from New York Fats to Jackie Gleason’s character Minnesota in The Hustler because allegedly he was the real-life inspiration for the character. The movie was always a small-time deal that apparently only played for a week on a limited amount of screens. This specific print was left in a theater then closed, before then taken to a drive-in where it then was left abandoned, literally out in the elements for years. The print is understandably not perfect but does sound acceptable & looks tremendous given the restoration of a rotting print wasn’t done by a Scorsese who has unlimited funds for such tasks.

On Twitter, Jon W. (rarefilmm, as he runs that website devoted to streaming links of obscurities from around the world) was the account which informed me & everyone else that the YouTube account FT Depot-they usually restore random trailers and ephemera related to motion pictures-was the source who found then restored it for free streaming... at 4K, believe it or not. I don’t play billiards and don’t usually watch it at all but the backstory was far too fascinating for me to ignore.

Going in, the idea that the backstory would be far more interesting than the movie itself was not in the back of my mind, but the front; that was indeed the case. It was an average drama involving novice actors/crew where all the pool played was impressive (not just the trick/difficult shots) but not shot in a dynamic manner and the conflict is the goof lead character-Lou-& relationship problems w/ his girlfriend; the girlfriend introduces her old friend to him—so she gets dumped for the old friend, who doesn’t really care about his hobby. Yeah, the billiards scenes are more intriguing than the turgid dramatics. Lou’s a pretty good player but nothing more; he’s no Fats, who only shows up sparingly after the opening.

The music (from a guy named Shorty Rogers; was he a hustler himself?) was acceptable; the highlight there was one scene featured a drummer dropping some SICK BEATS for several minutes, which I appreciated. The story behind this movie (which some people out there had been seeking out for years) and its discovery is a happy one. As lousy as it is, it does have some merits outside of Minnesota Fats and other pool pros showing their craft on screen. Of course several different poolhalls are shown; there’s always nostalgia for how such establishments looked half a century ago. So is some of the amusing clothing of the period on display. Not too much of early 70’s Baton Rouge is seen.

Media feared to be lost is rediscovered on a constant basis whether it be film or something else. Let us hope for more movies to randomly be found again, no matter their quality. There aren’t too many billiards motion pictures out there; it’s better to stick with The Hustler or The Color of Money, especially if you haven’t viewed those before.