In The Color of Money, Mr Newman and Mr Scorsese dare to do something that few serious filmmakers ever attempt – that is, to give us an update on a character who was complete in his own time, place and work. The news this morning is that, against all odds, they’ve succeeded in creating a most entertaining, original film with its own, vivid, very contemporary identity and reason for being … The Color of Money is not a sequel to The Hustler. Mr Scorsese’s work is as different from the Robert Rossen film as Michael Ballhaus’s brilliant color photography is different from Eugene Shuftan’s equally brilliant black-and-white work for Mr Rossen. The Hustler has a classic structure. It’s about moral choices that are defined in black and white. As do the people in an Odets drama of the 1930s, Mr Rossen’s characters mean exactly what they say in well-shaped, passionately spoken speeches. The Color of Money is not so clearcut. It’s set in another world, one full of deceptively bright, neon colors but where motives are ambiguous. Its characters communicate in wisecracks that pass for wisdom. Their mostly inarticulated feelings are expressed in close-ups of such intensity they seem to rediscover the reason close-ups were invented.

Vincent Canby, “The New York Times”, 17 October 1986

It’s not a sequel. Let me give you the rundown. I was in London for about a week in September of 1984, after the shooting of After Hours. Paul Newman called me while I was there and asked if I’d be interested in this project. When I first spoke to Newman on the phone, he said, “Eddie Felson.” I said, “I love that character.” He said, “Eddie Felson reminds me of the characters that you’ve dealt with in your pictures. And I thought more ought to be heard from him.” I asked, “Who’s involved?” He said, “Just you and me.” … The first time I met Paul Newman, I asked him why this guy would start playing pool again at 52. I asked Paul, “Why do you race if you don’t win every time?”. There is really no answer. We looked at each other for a while and I said, “That’s the picture.”

Martin Scorsese, interview by Peter Biskind and Susan Linfield, “American Film”, November 1986