Bert Gordon [to Eddie]
...you start drinking whiskey gambling - it gives you an excuse for losing. That's something you don't need, an excuse for losing.
2nd most-quoted character in The Hustler (1961): in 20 of its 60 quotes
Most scenes with: Eddie Felson (12), Sarah Packard (4), Charlie (2)
James Findlay is a very rich man. His grandfather left him twenty-five percent of his tobacco company...He's a gentleman. Gentlemen gamble. He gets his kicks playin' a hustler. He's got an old Southern mansion with a pool table in the basement, drinks eight year-old bourbon, smokes a hawk-tipped cigarette...I never saw him play. They say he's one of the best...I've got confidence in Findlay...That means I've got confidence that he's a loser, all the way a loser. You happen to be about only one-half loser, the other half winner.
More lines from Bert Gordon
5 quotes Bert Gordon Bert Gordon It will be a lot of laughs. Findlay's parties are famous. He invites everybody from top to bottom. From high society to every town hustler and tramp in town. It's another way he has of getting his kicks. It excites him to be around what he calls the criminal type. Some men are like that. Some women too.
Bert Gordon I didn't ask him, 'Can he beat ya?' I already know he can beat ya. I asked him, 'Will he?' To Eddie, that's two different things.
Bert Gordon [to Eddie, about Sarah]
She come in here Eddie and asked me for a drink. I give her one. We had a few more. Eddie, she came in here.
Bert Gordon [to Eddie]
George Findley is a very rich man. His grandfather left him twenty-five percent of his tobacco company... He's a gentleman. Gentlemen gamble. He gets his kicks playin' a hustler. He's got an old Southern mansion with a pool table in the basement, drinks eight-year-old bourbon, smokes a cork-tipped cigarette... I never saw him play. They say he's one of the best... I've got confidence in Findley... That means I've got confidence that he's a loser, all the way a loser. You happen to be about only one-half loser, the other half winner.
Scenes with Bert Gordon
14 scenes
The pool game is over when Fats says it's over...I came after him and I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats?
[Fats turns to Gordon for the answer.] [to Gordon]
I'm gonna beat him, Mister. I beat him all night and I'm gonna beat him all day. I'm, I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. Now even if you beat me, I'm still the best.
Gordon [to Fats]
Stay with this kid. He's a loser.
Gordon I don't think there's a pool player alive who shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
So I got talent? So what beat me?
Gordon Character.
Sure, sure.
Gordon You're damn right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent, I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool or poker for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just cause he got talent? Nah, Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.
I got drunk.
Gordon He drank as much whiskey as you do.
Maybe he knows how to drink.
Gordon You bet he knows how. You think that's a talent too, huh, knowin' how to drink whiskey? You think Minnesota Fats was born knowin' how to drink?
OK, OK, what do I do now? Lie down on the floor and, uh, bow from the ankles? What do I do, go home?
Gordon That's your problem.
So I stay. I stay until I hustle up enough to play Fats again. And maybe by that time, I'll develop myself some character.
Gordon [chuckling]
Maybe by that time you'll die of old age. How much do you think you'll, uh, need?
A thousand.
Gordon Naw, three thousand at least. He'll start you off at five hundred a game, he'll beat the pants off ya. That's the way he plays when he comes up against a man who knows the way the game is. He'll beat you flat four or five times, maybe more, depending on how, uh, steady your nerves are. Then he might, just might be a little scared of ya, and that could change things, but I wouldn't count on it.
How do you know, huh, when nobody knows that much?
Gordon You see that big car parked out by the fireplug on your way in? Well, that's mine. I like that car. But I get a new one every year, because I make it my business to know what guys like you and Minnesota Fats are gonna do. I made enough off you the other night to pay for it twice over.
Gordon Eddie, you're a born loser.
What's that supposed to mean?
Gordon First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked, really hooked. But you let him off.
I told you, I got drunk.
Gordon Sure you got drunk, the best excuse in the world for losin'. No trouble losin' when you got a good excuse. And winning - that can be heavy on your back too, like a monkey. Drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. That's one of the best indoor sports, feelin' sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all - especially the born loser.
[After Gordon has offered to front him the money, for a 75-25 split of the winnings]
That's a pretty big slice. Who do you think you are, General Motors?
Gordon How much you think you're worth these days? I'm puttin' up the money, I'm puttin' up the time. For that, I get seventy-five percent return on my money - if you win.
Do you think I can lose?
Gordon I never saw you do anything else.
You saw me beat Minnesota Fats for eighteen thousand dollars.
Gordon Look, you want to hustle pool, don't ya? This game isn't like football. Nobody pays you for yardage. When you hustle, you keep score real simple. At the end of the game, you count up your money. That's how you find out who's best. It's the only way.
Why back me, then, huh? Why don't you go back yourself? Go find yourself a big fat poker game and get rich. You know all the angles.
Gordon I'm already rich. But I like action. That's one thing I think you're good for - is action. Besides, like I say, you got talent.
Yeah, you already told me that. You cut that slice down to bite size, maybe we could talk.
Gordon No, we don't talk. I don't make bad bets. Seventy-five, twenty-five, that's it.
Kiss off!
Gordon Hey wait! What are you gonna do about the money?
There are places. I'll scuffle around.
Gordon The word's out on you, Eddie. You walk in the wrong kind of place, they'll eat ya alive.
And when did you adopt me?
Gordon I don't know when it was.
A big creep broke my thumbs.
Gordon A man named Turk Baker?
You know everybody, don't ya?
Gordon Everybody who can hurt me. Everybody who can help me pays.
Maybe you ought to give me lessons.
Gordon Sign up.
Where do I sign?
Gordon Fats went into the john, see, washed his face, cleaned his fingernails, made his mind a blank, combed his hair, came back all ready to go. You were through. You saw him, you saw how he looked, clean, all set to start all over again. Hold tight and push hard. And you know what you were doin'? You were waitin' to get beaten, flattened down on your butt, swimmin' around in glory and whiskey. You were probably decidin' how you can lose.
What makes you know so much? How do you know what Eddie was thinking?
Gordon I know. I've been there myself. We've all been there, haven't we, Miss Packard?...[To Eddie] How's your hand?
Fine.
Gordon Good. I'd hate to think I was puttin' my money on a cripple.
Hey, what do ya say somethin' like that for?
It's alright, Eddie. I'm sure Mr. Gordon meant no offense. It's a figure of speech.
Gordon That's right, Miss Packard.
A fact is a fact.
Gordon Smart girl, Eddie.
Gordon I want to talk to you.
Do we need words?
Gordon Yeah, I think we do. We could try to cut each other up, but that would be bad for everybody. Bad for me, bad for you. Worst of all, it would be bad for Eddie.
You know what's good for him.
Gordon To win.
For whom and for what?
Gordon For what makes the world go 'round. For money - and for glory.
You didn't answer my first question. For whom?
Gordon Today for me, tomorrow for himself.
No, there's no tomorrow, not with you. You own all the tomorrows because you buy them today - and you buy cheap.
Gordon Nobody has to sell.
You bastard.
Gordon Listen, Miss Lady Bird. You're here on a rain-check and I know it. You're hangin' on by your nails. You let that glory whistle blow loud and clear for Eddie, and you're a wreck on a railroad track. You're a horse that finished last. Now don't make trouble, Miss Lady Bird. Live and let live - while you can! [chuckling] I'll make it up to you.
How?
Gordon You tell me.
I thought we came here to play pool.
Findlay
I don't play pool, Mr. Felson. I play billiards. My house, my game. You don't have to play if you don't want to.
Gordon We won't.
Come on Bert, let me play him.
Please don't get off me now, Bert.
Gordon I know when to quit and you don't. Win or lose, you don't know when to quit.
[on his knees]
What do ya want me to do, huh? What do ya want me to do? Just say it and you got it, but please don't get off me now.
Don't beg him, Eddie.
Go on back to the hotel.
Please Eddie, don't beg him.
Go on back to the hotel, take a cab. Go on back to the hotel.
Doesn't all of this come through to you, Eddie? Doesn't any of this mean anything to you? That man, this place, the people. They wear masks, Eddie and underneath the masks they're perverted, twisted, crippled....
Shut up!
Don't wear a mask, Eddie. You don't have to. That's Turk, Eddie, the man who broke your thumbs. Well, he's not gonna break your thumbs. He'll break your heart, your guts, and for the same reason. He hates you because of what you are, cause of what you have and he hasn't.
Would you get off my back, Sarah, once and for all, would you get out?! Would you get off my back?!
Gordon Go ahead and play him, Eddie. Play him for a thousand dollars a game.
Gordon He told me to give you some money.
Put it on the bed. That's the way it's done, isn't it?
Gordon That's the way it's done.
And that way you are looking at me. Is that the way you look at a man you've just beaten? As if you've just taken his money and now you want his ... his pride?
Gordon All I want's the money.
Sure, sure, just the money. The aristocratic pleasure of seeing him fall apart. You're a Roman, Bert. You have to win more.
Gordon Where do you think you're going? Eddie? You owe me money!
Well, just how do ya figure that, Bert? Whaddya figure I owe ya?
Gordon Half.
In Louisville, it was seventy-five percent.
Gordon Well, here it's half.
What if I don't pay ya, Bert?
Gordon [laughs]
You don't pay me? You're gonna get your thumbs broken again. And your fingers. If I want 'em to, they're gonna break your right arm in three or four places.
You better pay him, Eddie.
So you figure you're still my manager, huh?
Gordon I'm a businessman, kid.
Well, you gotta lot of games lined up for me?
Gordon Boy, we're gonna make a lotta money together from now on.
Fifty percent?
Gordon Nah, it don't have to be fifty. It'll be thirty or twenty-five.
We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert?
Gordon Ahh!
Boy, we really gave it to her good.
Gordon If it didn't happen in Louisville, it'd happen someplace else. If it didn't happen now, it'd happen six months from now. That's the kind of a dame she was.
Then we twisted it, didn't we, Bert? Of course, maybe that doesn't stick in your throat, 'cause you spit it out just the way you spit out everything else. But it sticks in mine. I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you because who did you ever care about. 'Just win,' 'Win!' you said, 'win, that's the important thing.' You don't know what winning is, Bert. You're a loser. 'Cause you're dead inside and ya can't live unless you make everything dead around ya! Too high, Bert - the price is too high. If I take it, she never lived. She never died. And we both know that's not true, Bert, don't we, huh? She lived, she died. Boy, you better, you tell your boys they better kill me, Bert. They better go all the way with me, but if they just bust me up, I'll put all those pieces back together again, then so help me, so help me God, Bert, I'm gonna come back here and I'm gonna kill you. [Bert's thugs move toward Eddie]
Gordon [Gordon gestures to his goons to back off.]
All right. All right. Only, uh, don't ever walk into a big-time pool hall again.
The pool game is over.
The pool game is over when Fats says it's over... I came after him and I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats? [to Gordon] I'm gonna beat him, Mister. I beat him all night and I'm gonna beat him all day. I'm, I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. Now even if you beat me, I'm still the best.
Gordon [to Fats]
Stay with this kid. He's a loser.
Gordon I don't think there's a pool player alive who shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
So I got talent? So what beat me?
Gordon Character.
Sure, sure.
Gordon You're damn right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent. I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool or poker for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just 'cause he got talent? Nah, Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.
I got drunk.
Gordon He drank as much whiskey as you do.
Maybe he knows how to drink.
Gordon You bet he knows how. You think that's a talent too, huh, knowin' how to drink whiskey? You think Minnesota Fats was born knowin' how to drink?
Okay, okay, what do I do now? Lie down on the floor and, uh, bow from the ankles? What do I do, go home?
Gordon That's your problem.
So I stay. I stay until I hustle up enough to play Fats again. And maybe by that time, I'll develop myself some character.
Gordon Maybe by that time you'll die of old age.
We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert?
Gordon Ah!
Boy, we really gave it to her good.
Gordon If it didn't happen in Louisville, it'd happen someplace else. If it didn't happen now, it'd happen six months from now. That's the kind of a dame she was.
Then we twisted it, didn't we, Bert? Of course, maybe that doesn't stick in your throat, 'cause you spit it out just the way you spit out everything else. But it sticks in mine. I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you because who did you ever care about. "Just win, win!" you said. "Win, that's the important thing." You don't know what winning is, Bert. You're a loser, 'cause you're dead inside and ya can't live unless you make everything dead around ya! Too high, Bert — the price is too high. If I take it, she never lived, she never died. And we both know that's not true, Bert, don't we, huh? She lived, she died. Boy, you better, you tell your boys they better kill me, Bert. They better go all the way with me. But if they just bust me up, I'll put all those pieces back together again. Then so help me, so help me God, Bert, I'm gonna come back here and I'm gonna kill you.
