When Barbed Wire Souls Were In Fashion

Heel Hud Becomes 1963's Hero

Hud was offered up by Paramount publicity as a "Man With A Barbed Wire Soul" when this came out in May 1963, but what filmmakers didn't recognize was barbed wire souls coming into vogue as old standards of behavior and morality got 60's heave-ho. Or maybe it was casting ultra-male Paul Newman as title character and giving him sharpest dialogue. Anyway, we liked Hud Bannon, and that upset all of apple cart as loaded by writing and direction. You just don't take a dynamic young lead, surround him with a righteous old man (Melvyn Douglas) and goody-goody kid (Brandon DeWilde), then expect us to side with them. Human nature will cooperate but so far with a movie's message. Hud was meant to be a selfish bastard we'd hate, or be made uncomfortable by. Instead, he came off a hero and role model. James Cagney once complained that his Cody Jarrett of White Heat had a same kind of unintended consequence, urban youth cheering the character as he pumped bullets into occupied trunk of a car. Films might instruct minds in how to react, but never the heart. We wanted Hud to win, and never mind the right or (mostly) wrong of him.

Hud came out shortly before we "lost our innocence" (what, again?). I've never understood just when it was we were supposed to have lost our innocence. The Kennedy death, Vietnam, Watergate? Depends on individual agendas, of course. Maybe it's what Hud himself said, "crooked game shows, souped-up expense accounts," etc. --- only he makes all that seem fun, which is another thing we like about him. Hud is serious about nothing, save pleasures of the moment. Setting Hud in arid Texas rather than urban milieu implies freedom too from social responsibility. With people spread out so far, there's less call for concern over humanity as a whole. Increasingly political films wanted to worry about the mass of us. Hud worried only about himself. He was refreshing for just that. There was always risk in using attractive players to do villainy, as they had way of upending narrative intent. Hud tries valiantly to isolate its bad man and hand moral authority to his victims. That it fails doesn't make the film a whit less enjoyable. In fact, it's said frustrated effort that keeps Hud interesting.

Advance Teaser

1963 posters said "Paul Newman IS Hud," an early application of actor not just as, but becoming, a character. Sean Connery would be laden with such billing, and despair of such close association, with James Bond. In Newman instance, Hud was continuation of anti-heroic mold set by The Hustler and to be repeated with further terse titles beginning with "H." He did become Hud according to co-star Patricia Neal, who was shocked by the actor's evident insensitivity to her daughter's recent death. Neal would realize later that while she addressed Newman, it was Hud that answered back (with one word, "Tough"). Method actors gave much to the art, including relationship with peers, but was rudeness rewarded with great performances? In Newman's case, I'd suppose yes (he certainly is great as Hud), and there had been others outside Method training who took on surly aspect of characters they'd play throughout a shoot, John Wayne an instance when he did The Searchers, according to a cowed Harry Carey, Jr. We could wonder, then, how Newman behaved through production of The Secret War Of Harry Frigg, but so far, I know of no one who's asked.

Paul Newman Briefly Takes On James Wong Howe's Camera Job

Hud's world is flat and parched. The Last Picture Show later went with a same look. Others that would try missed out for using color made mandatory by people having it at home on television. Hud is wrecked unless seen in scope, so was laid low by sale to television within five years after theatrical. During interim, there was a reissue, a double with Hatari!, which made for hard seating after four and a half hours (both long movies). When ABC picked up Hud for 1968 broadcast, there was still trimming for language, which took guts out of Hud in addition to half its intended frame width. I had one of the network's 16mm spots for a Sunday night premiere, where dialogue went thus: Hud --- "What made you go sour on me, old man, not that I give a chit-chit" (sound of blooped profanity), then dad Melvyn Douglas answering back, "That's just it, Hud. You don't give a chit-chit ..." What a fraud movies were on TV back then, networks buying titles, then giving viewers but skeleton of them.