Movies I Love, Part XI: Hud

There are just a whole lot reasons to love the Martin Ritt-directed “Hud.”

Not the least of which by far is the amazing presence of an amazing man, Paul Newman. The guy is a superstar human being. He and Joanne Woodward have been a happy, settled, married outside of the tabloids couple for decades. Never a hint of diddling about for the guy with the bluest eyes extant. Their food empire has given hundreds of millions of dollars to worthy causes.

Newman is probably the last celebrity to really affect an election. In ’64, Senator Eugene McCarthy challenged the president Lyndon Johnson for the nomination. Newman went to New Hampshire for the primary there and kick started McCarthy’s campaign. It was an act of courage and conscience on Newman’s part.

Plus the guy could really act.

In “Hud” he plays a single loner in a small town in the modern dying west. His dad thinks he’s a no account. “You don’t give a damn…You don’t value nothing. You don’t respect nothing…You live just for yourself. And that makes you not fit to live with.”

If his papa doesn’t love him, the married women in town appreciate him for the treats he provides. He pulls his garish pink Cadillac in front of their houses. “The only question I ever ask any woman is, ‘What time is your husband coming home?’”

Patricia Neal plays a divorcee housekeeper. The sexual undercurrent of the scenes she and Newman have together is acting at its very best. You can cut the innuendo with a knife.

This is a tale of a generation at the crossroads. Modern life is changing things. People are caught in a trap, with little understanding of what’s to come. They rail. They pontificate. They guess. They try to cope as best they see it.

“Why this whole country is run on epidemics…Where you been? Big business, price-fixing, crooked TV shows, income tax finagling, souped-up expense accounts. How many honest men do you know? Why you separate the saints from the sinners, you’re lucky to wind up with Abraham Lincoln. Now I want out of this spread what I put into it, and I say let us dip our bread into some of that gravy while it is still hot.”

Melvyn Douglas, as Hud’s cranky old man, and Neal won lots of awards. So did many others associated with the film. Except, surprisingly, Newman. He probably loved it that way. But make no mistake, he is the hub around which this lovely observation swirls.

The culturally astute among you might recall that Hud’s adoring nephew is played by Brandon De Wilde, who, when younger, played a pivotal role in another classic western, “Shane.”

As modern day westerns go, “Hud” is as good as it gets.