After two years cutting industrials outside of Hollywood, Dede Allen was recommended by filmmaker Robert Wise to writer-director-producer Robert Rossen to edit his adaptation of Walter S. Tevis’s novel about traveling pool shark “Fast” Eddie Felson. Allen fondly remembers learning about story from Rossen, who encouraged her to play with the footage outside the confines of the script to achieve the best narrative impact. Her choices to keep the billiards sequences long yet intimate and opt for hard cuts in lieu of the script’s suggested dissolves garnered The Hustler an ACE Eddie award nomination for Best Edited Feature Film, one of her earliest notable achievements.