![]() ![]() Killing becomes so easy even as the long hard process of cultivation takes years and is subsequently snuffed out so quickly. Hud’s animal brutality is only matched by the slaughtering that is undertaken with the infected cattle. But watch the scenes themselves and they make sense and wield a resounding power in their cumulative effect. Clumped together like this, the turn of events either don’t sound impressive enough or don’t carry the air of lurid drama out of a drugstore novella. ![]() Then, Hud has it out with his father and in his ensuing rage, fueled by a drunken stupor, makes aggressive advances on Alma. In the next pivotal sequence, Hud opens up candidly about his brother’s death in a car crash. It’s a galvanizing moment of male bonding that fosters a might bit of camaraderie between Hud and his nephew Lonnie. He and grandpa take in a comedy at the picture show complete with a rousing performance of “My Darling Clementine.” There’s the chasing of greased pigs at the Kiwanis Club event and boisterous brawls with the jukebox whirling away merrily. Lonnie (De Wilde) carries his transistor radio in his breast pocket. Pay attention and you’ll witness many recognizable small town trivialities. There’s some other buried grievance that has never been resolved between them. They hold each other in contempt and it’s not simply for Hud’s cavorting reputation. Until they can get more conclusive information, the narrative is all but a waiting game and waiting makes the relationship between Hud and his father (Douglas) all the more contentious. The film’s first disruption comes from a state veterinarian (Whitt Bissell) with a verdict that the Bannion’s stock might be stricken with foot and mouth disease. Meanwhile, Brandon de Wilde is crucial for the part he plays as the film’s most impressionable bystander. Though he is no longer the precocious little lad from Shane (1953), he is still the clean slate on which the world at large must rub off on. Staving off Hud’s advances and taking care of the two other Bannions - somehow remaining folksy, hospitable, and a bit sensuous too. She’s both a housekeeper and thus, maternal but then also overwhelmingly assured in her independence. Patricia Neal just might have the finest showing of the lot because she has to do battle in a man’s world. It grows on you minute by minute for its steady cadence, continuously exact and unhurried. Melvyn Douglas gives a generally gray and emotionless performance that somehow fits the visual landscape. There’s a certain dustiness and degradation proving itself to be a far cry from the glory days. In many ways, Hud‘s a modern western like a Giant, The Misfits, or even The Last Picture Show documenting the evolution of a certain type of life whether it’s cattle being replaced by oil rigs, the onslaught of personal tragedy, or the debilitating nature of generational divides. Bernstein’s arrangement, in fact, is only minutes long but is supplemented by the equally fitting stripped down effect of a guitar. It’s a horizontal even cloudless palette in black and white that captures the malaise hanging over the characters with monochromatic lucidity. This list of names stands as another feather in the cap of the studio system. Irving Ravetch served as joint screenwriter and producer and his partnership (along with his wife Harriet Frank Jr.) would be one of the most integral to Marty Ritt’s career. The production boasts the inimitable James Wong Howe as the cinematographer, set design by veteran Hal Pereira, Edith Head overseeing costumes, and a well-suited score by Elmer Berstein. Dare we say he’s still charismatic without giving the wrong impression about his lecherous attributes? I’m not sure. He stretches us to the limits as an audience as we try and discern what to do with him. However, though Newman plays him as a villain, there’s this wonderful dissonance in the man because after all, he’s played by Paul Newman who was forever more likable than a Brando or a Dean. He’s the man with the “barbed-wire soul.” Raffishly handsome, a womanizer, and a drunkard, no less. ![]() Obviously, Paul Newman was a hot commodity and Hud‘s tagline gets it impeccably right. When you survey the talent assembled, it plays like a hit parade by pairing the director with some perennial collaborators who would see him to some of his greatest successes. Hud is up for contention for the finest film Martin Ritt ever made and it comes down to a truly collective effort. Sometimes I lean one way and sometimes I lean the other.” – Paul Newman as Hud “I’ve always thought the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. ![]()
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