Tag Archives: snooker

Big Break (snooker game show)

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Almost exactly 11 years ago, the final episode of Big Break, a British game show that paired ordinary contestants with professional snooker players to win cash and prizes, aired on BBC1.  It was not the first billiards game show (an honor that belongs to Ten-Twenty, which aired in the 1950s).  Nor was it the first billiards game show to feature “celebrity” pool players (check out Celebrity Billiards with Minnesota Fats from 1967).  And it was certainly not the last game show to incorporate billiards (the short-lived Ballbreakers aired in 2005). But, by any measure, it was the most popular billiards game show, with 222 episodes, plus 8 Christmas Specials and 8 Trick Shot Specials, airing between April 1991 and October 2002.

Big Break - billiards game showThe format of the show is well-detailed on Wikipedia, but I’ll summarize the main points, starting with the hosts.  Off-color comedian Jim Davidson was paired with former snooker player John Virgo, who served as the “straight man” for Davidson’s barrage of banter, mockery, and impersonations. (In later years, Davidson became the subject of much controversy for his offensive jokes about ethnic minorities, homosexuals, disabled people, and rape victims.  Some speculate, not surprisingly, that Big Break was ultimately canceled because of Davidson’s reputation.)

Each 30-minute episode paired three contestants with three professional snooker players.  Though in the US, billiards players sadly do not achieve celebrity status, such was not case across the ocean in the United Kingdom. Starting in the late 1960s, with the BBC’s decision to broadcast tournaments, snooker became increasingly popular, and by the mid-1980s, the sport was at its apex, when 18 million TV viewers watched the World Snooker Championship in 1985. This back-story explains why a game show with snooker players could become so popular.  In fact, many of the current and former stars of the sport at the time, including Dennis Taylor, Jimmy White, Alex Higgins, Willie Thorne, and Allison Fisher, appeared on Big Break.   The episode below from 1993 features snooker stars Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty and Terry Griffiths.

The first round of play was called Red Hot.  In this round, contestants would amass 10-second increments of time by answering questions correctly.  The snooker players then had to “pot” as many balls as possible in that rewarded time (maximum 40 seconds).

The contestant paired with the player who potted the fewest balls then had a chance to win a consolation prize (including a Big Break board game) in the mini-game Virgo’s Trick Shot. In this game, Virgo would make a trick shot, and then ask the contestant to make it.  If s/he were successful (and often the hosts would “help” get the balls in), the contestant won the prizes.

The two remaining contestants then competed in the next round of play called Pocket Money.  In this round, each snooker player had to play by traditional snooker rules for 90 seconds with the snooker balls being worth amounts of money.  When the player missed, the contestant would need to correctly answer a question for play to resume.  Whichever contestant won the most money moved on to the final round, Make or Break?

In the final round, contestants were given 90 seconds to answer five general knowledge questions. Each correct answer allowed the snooker player to remove one red ball from the table. After the questions were answered, the remaining time was given to the snooker player to clear the snooker table with the benefit of having had a certain number of the red balls removed.

It’s interesting to quickly compare the wild success of Big Break to the wild failure of its American step-cousin Ballbreakers, which aired in 2005 on the Game Show Network and lasted just one year.  On one hand, each was a product of its time and origin.  Though Big Break missed the snooker heyday era by at least five years, it still was birthed by a country that loved the sport and the professionals who played it.  In comparison, the US TV networks have never looked favorably at billiards, and as a result, the US players, with the exception of Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee are basically unknown to the larger American TV-watching audience.  In this sense, Big Break started in the penthouse; Ballbreakers launched from the basement.

But the other interesting point of comparison is that Big Break left the billiards to the professionals.  And they were exciting to watch, especially under the 30- to 90-second time pressure of the different rounds. Ballbreakers made the terrible decision to let the contestants play the pool.  This may sound very populist and cool, but it made for awful viewing.

All of this begs the question…could Big Break be remade in parts of Asia, where billiards players are already recognized as celebrities?  Could it be remade today as an American game show and a way to increase the popularity of billiards in the United States?

You can find episodes of Big Break, including the Christmas Specials (with celebrities) on YouTube. Other relevant blogs on Big Break worth reading:

Wandering Ginza Butterfly

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the combination of television and American film imports threatened to shut down the Japanese movie industry, a new genre of film exploded in Japan to reclaim its audience.  Variously called “pinku eiga” or “pinky violence,” this exploitation genre was a cinematic cocktail of sex, eroticism and ultra-violence.   It’s also home to a little-known billiards movie:  Wandering Ginza Butterfly (original title: Gincho wataridori).

Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2 - Billiards MovieDirected by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi and released in 1972, Wandering Ginza Butterfly is the story of a young woman, Nami, who is released from prison after serving 3 years for killing a yakuza boss.  When she returns home, she finds a living with her uncle, who owns a pool hall and taught her to hustle.  To help pay back the woman who had her sentence commuted, she gets a job as a hostess in Ginza.  But, she cannot shake her criminal past.  When a local yakuza threatens to take over the bar, Nami challenges him, first in a battle of three-cushion pool (!!) and then via an all-out massacre.

The movie’s lead is Meiko Kaji, Tokyo’s rising pinky violence outlaw at the time.  Having starred in Mini-Skirt Lynchers (1969) and Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (1970), she was cast in Wandering Ginza Butterfly to “awaken sleepy audiences” and because of her “gorgeous eyes,” according to the director.  She subsequently starred in the Female Convict Scorpion series (1972-1973), Lady Snowblood (1973), and ultimately, about 100 movies.  For those that might roll their eyes, consider that Lady Snowblood was a major influence for Quentin Tarantino in creating O-Ren Ishii’s character in Kill Bill.  (In fact, Tarantino’s connection to Meiko Kaji extends even farther, as he included two of her songs — “Song of Hate” and “Flower of Carnage” – in the final scene and closing credits of Kill Bill Volume 1.)

But I digress….after all, this is a blog post about a billiards movie.

Throughout Wandering Ginza Butterfly, characters walk in and out of pool rooms, but the major scene is a three-cushion billiards showdown between Nami and a junkie henchman named Third Eye Ryu.  Three-cushion billiards, one of the most popular and challenging cue sports in the world, consists of three balls and a pocketless pool table.  The object of the game is to carom the cue ball off both object balls, but to make sure the cue ball hits the rail cushion at least three times before hitting the second object ball.  (This is the same carom game featured in Carambola (2003), the topic of a future blog post.) The extended scene shows off some incredible billiards shots, and it is not a surprise that the director specifically cited the scene as one he was “very proud” of. He also pays homage to The Hustler by prominently featuring a poster of the film above the pool table.

Though there is limited pool in Wandering Ginza Butterfly, the film earns its placement in the billiards movie canon for the same reason that Turn the River, the 2007 movie starring Famke Janssen (and the topic of a future blog post) is on every billiards movie list.  Both feature strong female, embattled protagonists who are “forced” to use their pool hustling skills to right an unfavorable situation.  A climactic match occurs (of one-pocket in Turn the River), our hero wins, only to find the win to be fleeting.  Of course, in Wandering Ginza Butterfly, the game is followed by an all-out sword massacre, including impaling someone with a cue stick (this does not happen in Turn the River) , but hey, there needed to be at least a little violence in this otherwise subdued film.

Since Synapse Films recently transferred and released Wandering Ginza Butterfly on DVD, this billiards movie is now widely available to buy and rent online.  Also look out for its sequel — Wandering Ginza Butterfly : She-Cat Gambler (1972), starring Sonny Chiba (but, sadly, no more pool).

Wandering Ginza ButterflyOther worthy blogs on Wandering Ginza Butterfly:

Death Billiards: Anime and Pool

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The newest entry to the pool movie genre is not Anthony Palma’s 9-Ball from 2012 (the subject of a future post), but rather the March 2013 anime work Death Billiards, directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa and produced by anime juggernaut Madhouse Studios.

Death Billiards - billiards short filmThis 26-minute psycho-fantastic film is one of 4 anime works that each received 38 million yen (about $480,000 USD) from the “2012 Young Animator Training Project,” an animation labor group, funded by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, that distributes the bulk of its funds to studios which provide on-the-job training to young animators.

The rather hallucinogenic plot involves a young man and an old man, who are brought to a cavernous, stained glass bar to compete in a game of billiards and to “play as if their lives depended on it.”   Aside from the two men, there is a somewhat scantily clad hostess and a mysterious, laconic bartender who explains the rules of the game. With no idea of how they got to the bar, the younger man proceeds to wig out and the older man stoically accept the stakes.  They compete in a game of 8-ball with balls that are adorned with images of the players’ organs.  As the two men play, it becomes apparent that the older man is the far better player, as he demonstrates with two trick shots and a jump shot.  Ultimately, a fight ensues, a players is presumed dead, no rules are broken, and a bunch of viewers are left scratching their head about what just ensued.

http://youtu.be/nof4Z7xpAWY

Judging from online forums, this cryptic ending is not unintentional.  Through the melee, we learn about the players’ backgrounds and that both men have led imperfect lives.  And while each player’s outcome is open for debate, the final scene suggests that other individuals will be subsequently summoned to this billiards purgatory to have their fates determined.

To my knowledge, Death Billiards is the only anime member of the pool movie genre. Fortunately, it’s a great inaugural member, as the animation and art is beautifully done, with rich background detail, a gorgeously dark palette of colors, vivid facial expressions, and accurate pool showmanship.

Death Billiards is widely available to watch for free online.  The full movie can be watched above.  Also, for the most thoughtful interpretation of the movie, I suggest reviewing the Panda’s blog – “A Different Point of View,” which impressively deconstructs the movie’s symbolism and equates it with Noh theater.

Death Billiards v2 - billiards short filmOther worthy blog reviews on Death Billiards:

The Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2

Alas, not every film in the pool movie genre is like The Hustler.  On the other end of the spectrum — and I mean way far down the next block of the spectrum — is The Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2, a low-budget, straight-to-VHS vampire horror film from 1988.

Graveyard Shift 2 - billiards movieHard to follow and painful to watch, this sequel, by Canadian director Jerry Ciccoritti, is about a macho vampire named Baisez, who slowly seduces the cast and crew of Blood Lover, a movie about a vampire pool hustler named Apache Falco. This movie-within-a-movie is shot in a pool hall, and from the opening scene zeroing in on a spill of blood being wiped away, we know this won’t be any ordinary game of billiards.  As the movie insufferably trods along, we continually return to this pool hall setting, where the actors struggle to correctly hold cue sticks, and where the lead actress is seduced on a pool table.  As Baisez gains power and finds a corporeal form, he apparently becomes blessed with Mosconi-like pool prowess and the ability to make gunfire-loud pool shots.  The film concludes with a winner-takes-all billiards match, and perhaps the film’s sole silver lining, a decapitation by pool stick.  Now that’s something you don’t see every day in a billiards movie.

Amazingly, The Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2 is not the only billiards movie to focus on vampires.  In a previous blog, I discussed the far-better vampire pool musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. The late ’80s television show Monsters also featured pool in an episode entitled “Pool Sharks.” But, that’s a post for another day…

The Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2 is difficult to find, except for VHS.

The Hustler: The Genre’s Masterpiece

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The irony of writing about The Hustler, the most critically acclaimed and well-known billiards movie, is that for many, it was not really a movie about pool.  As film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “Billiards is the arena for the movie’s contests, but…the film could be about any seedy game depending on bluff, self-confidence, money management and psychology.” And critic James Bernardinelli, who, like Ebert, also gave the movie his highest rating, said, “this movie is no more about pool than Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull is about boxing…the film is far less about Fast Eddie’s confrontations with other players than it is about his war with his own demons and his struggle to define the intangible meaning of ‘character.'”

The Hustler - Billiards MoviesOne thing is certain: Robert Rossen’s 1961 B&W film, based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, is a masterpiece.  The movie received 3 Golden Globe nominations, 2 Oscars (for Art Direction and Cinematography), and 7 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  All four stars got Oscar nods, as did the director and screenwriter. The movie is on multiple American Film Institute lists. And among most pool movie fans (who really don’t understand what these critics are yammering about), The Hustler is far and away the best of the genre.

In brief, the movie is about small-time pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson (played by Paul Newman) whose amount of cockiness and bravado is only matched by his skill with a cue stick.  His desire to prove himself the best leads to a 40-hour straight pool match and loss against legend Minnesota Fats (played by Jackie Gleason).  Humiliated, Felson bottoms out and gets involved first with a hopeless alcoholic (played by Piper Laurie) and then with a vicious manager (played by George C. Scott). Felson ultimately has his rematch against Fats, but not before paying a terrible price and learning much about his own character.

Aside from the incredible acting, direction, screenplay (jointly written by Sidney Caroll and Robert Rossen) and jazz score, the film succeeds because of the unbelievable pool.

For starters, The Hustler was the first full-length movie to prominently feature pool (excluding the 1935 romantic comedy Bad Boy, which I’ll discuss in subsequent post).  Though filmed in 1961, the movie heralded an earlier era, when pool halls were far more common and the place where regional, if not national reputations, could be cemented.

The Hustler also brought gritty realism and respect to the filming of pool through the many choices the director and producer made. They set much of the movie in two now-defunct New York City pool halls, McGirr’s and Ames Billiard Academy, that were great establishments of the time.  They hired pool legend Willie Mosconi to personally coach Paul Newman and to serve as the movie’s technical advisor. (For a great breakdown of some of the key shots in the movie, including the opening frozen 8-ball on the rail shot, check out Dr. Dave’s write-up in the August 2004 Billiards Digest.) They also gave Mosconi a cameo as the man who holds the initial stakes.  Gleason, of course, needed no such coaching, as he was already an incredible billiards player, which only added to the movie’s realism.  And finally, they devoted 20 uninterrupted minutes — an inconceivable amount of time back then — to filming the initial pool match.

But, perhaps the greatest aspect of The Hustler is what it did for the game of pool itself.  According to the article “Reel Life: The Hustler“:

Pool was very popular from the turn of the century until World War II. According to one estimate, in the late 1920s there were about 40,000 pool halls in the U.S. But after the war, the game went into a steep, rapid decline, with many poolrooms closing. “By the end of the 1950s, it looked as though the game might pass into oblivion,” writes pool historian Mike Shamos. The Hustler created a resurgence in the game in the 1960s, and its sequel — The Color of Money — which came out in 1986, spiked another pool revival.

So, whatever foibles the movie may have, The Hustler deserves great respect from the pool-playing community for its representation and respect of the sport and for the future impact it had both on pool-playing and on the genre of pool movies.  As it is said in the film’s final lines:

Fast Eddie:  Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool.

Minnesota Fats:  So do you, Fast Eddie.

The Baltimore Bullet

It could have been so much better.

That’s my seven-word summary of The Baltimore Bullet, a 1980 billiards movie, directed by Robert Ellis Miller, that blatantly cribs from The Hustler, without providing any of that film’s richness and depth.

First, let’s start with the major league cast. The billiards movie stars impeccably-coifed tough guy James Coburn as Nick Casey (aka “The Baltimore Bullet”), past Oscar nominee Omar Sharif as “The Deacon” (the Minnesota Fats equivalent), and past Oscar nominee Ronee Blakley as Carolina Red. So why couldn’t this talented trio breathe life into this tepid film?

Next, let’s turn to the pool.  The opening sequence (shown below) of multiple trick shots, made by pool legend Mike Sigel, according to his official website, is off the hook. And Sigel is but one of nearly a dozen pool greats who appear in the film.  Others include Willie Mosconi, Steve Mizerak, Jimmie Mataya, Lou Butera, Irving D. Crane, Allen Hopkins, Pete Margo, Ray Martin, James Rempe, and Richie Florence.

 

 

On top of that, the movie is located in New Orleans (my favorite city of all time and where I spent countless evenings shooting stick), and features an extended funeral procession second line from the legendary Olympia Brass Band.

It should have been so much better.

Unfortunately, great cast + great pool players + great location does NOT make a great billiards movie. After the first 30 minutes, the film sags under its own weight of contrived subplots, including random gangsters, a moronic hitman, and a senseless romance.

Finally, the true kiss of death for this movie is the final scene.  Even amateur students of pool movies know it ends with the final showdown.  Think Fast Eddie Felson and the Fat Man (in The Hustler).   Think Mars Callahan and Ricky Schroder’s characters (in Poolhall Junkies). But, in this movie, after a rather drawn-out buildup to the final match between the Baltimore Bullet and the Deacon, the director glosses over the game.  He shows a few initial shots…and then — bam! — game over.  Talk about an epic table scratch.

It took me a while to locate “The Baltimore Bullet,” since it was not available as a DVD in the US and I wasn’t ready to buy it on VHS.  However, thanks to Gary Frerking, who responded to my question in the forum of VegasBilliardsBuzz.com, I found the entire movie accessible online at YouTube.   Enjoy!

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (Billiards Movie)

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A billiards movie that doesn’t tend to provoke much discussion among genre enthusiasts is Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, a 1987 film from the UK that revolves around a snooker showdown between a cockney named Billy Kid and a seven-time world snooker champion who wears clip-on fangs and relaxes in a coffin named Maxwell Reardon, aka the Green Baize Vampire.  Given the two main protagonists are modeled on real-world legends Ray Reardon (whose nickname was “Dracula”) and Jimmy White, who battled it out in snooker championships in the early ’80s, it’s surprising few people talk up this film.

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire - Billiards MovieOh, wait…did I mention this billiards movie is a musical?   For many, that may be just enough to make one put away their cue and call it a night.  But, before you do, consider:

  • If you ever enjoyed The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), this billiards movie is a clear tribute, from its overall sheer camp to the tune sung over the final match, which resembles Dr. Frank-N-Furter singing in his laboratory, with the chorus overlooking from the balcony.
  • It’s composed by George Fenton, a 5-time Oscar-nominated composer for movies like Gandhi and Dangerous Liaisons.
  • It features songs such as “Kid to Break” and “Snooker (So Much More Than Just a Game),” and includes the memorable line, “Heaven’s covered in green baize!”  (I mean, really, what pool player out there could hope for anything more?)

Is it a good movie?  Meh. The acting is pretty bad, the characters are two-dimensional, and the overall production quality is cheap.  But, this could be said about many a great cult movie.  As one reviewer wrote, “it certainly is a strange and heady brew that will either find its way to your heart or utterly alienate you.” So, grab something potable of choice, get comfortable, and decide for yourself.  Let me know.

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire - Billiards MovieFor those interested in watching Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, it is available via Amazon Video On Demand.

Stickmen: A Gem in the Billiards Movie Genre

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One of the first billiards movies I discovered, thanks to a great list compiled by Billiards Boys, is Stickmen, a 2001 pool hustling movie from New Zealand.  Among billiards movie enthusiasts, this is a well-known gem. But, I had never heard of it.

Stickmen - Billiards MoviesThe basic premise is that a trio of fun-loving, wisecracking pool-playing mates unwittingly get pulled into an underground 8-ball doubles pool tournament run by “Daddy,” a nefarious hook-handed crime boss, to raise money in order to prevent a friend’s bar from having to sell his bar.

It’s not the most original plot, but director Hamish Rothwell has great fun with the movie, dialing up the speed, antics, and fast-talk, and introducing us to a supporting cast of memorable pool-players, including Caller, a pierced, bare-chested, crazy; the Men in Black (a duo of priests), and some lovely ladies. Any Guy Ritchie fan (e.g., Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels) will appreciate the emulative, albeit less serious, cinematic style. But, fans of Doug Liman’s Go or Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run may equally savor the adrenaline-pumping, ticking time-bomb linear narrative.

Unfortunately, while it’s a highly enjoyable pool movie, the pool cinematography is downright disappointing.  The billiards-playing lacks authenticity, there is a disappointing paucity of difficult pool shots, and to my knowledge, there are no notable cameos from professional players (as there will be in future movies I review).

For those interested in watching Stickmen, it’s widely available to purchase on DVD.

My Love of Billiards Movies Started with an Olhausen Pool Table

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It all started with an Olhausen pool table in a newly-renovated basement.  My new table was elegant, gorgeous…and completely uninviting in an otherwise barren room.  The recently painted walls screamed out for company.  But what would be appropriate? I certainly didn’t want cheesy posters or random artwork that didn’t fit elsewhere in the house.

Then it hit me.  Movie posters.  And not just any movie poster, but posters of billiards movies. Movies like The Hustler, The Color of Money, Poolhall Junkies, and…what else? Were there, in fact, other pool movies? I couldn’t readily decorate my billiards shrine with posters of just three movies.

The Hustler - Billiards MoviesSo, I officially began my investigative journey to research, and ultimately watch (as well as collect posters of) every movie in the “pool/billiards movie” genre.  As of this posting, I’ve discovered 45 billiards movies, 13 billiards “film shorts” (less than 30 minutes), 2 billiards movies in production, and 19 billiards TV shows or episodes about billiards.  To date, I’ve watched 23 of the movies or shorts, and continue in my quest to watch as many of the list as possible.

In subsequent posts, I will introduce you to each of these movies, both critiquing them and sharing random tidbits of info on them.  One final note: The fact that many of them are not particularly good in no way detracts from the joy of the quest to watch them all and become a self-proclaimed world expert (!!) on the pool/billiards movies genre.