Hud: A Review (Review #2025)

HUD

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Patricia Neal.

Hud, the title character of the film, is a dangerous man. Dangerously attractive. Dangerously amoral. Dangerously arrogant. Yet, we are still drawn to this figure. With strong performances all about, Hud tells its story beautifully.

Hud Bannon (Paul Newman) cares nothing about no one. He lives only for himself, indulging his pleasures all over his small Texas town. His father, rancher Homer (Melvyn Douglas) is appalled at his only surviving son's amorality. He does, however, concede that Hud is shrewd about ranching matters. While Homer finds Hud rather repulsive, Homer's grandson Lonnie (Brandon de Wilde) is fascinated by his rebellious uncle. Lonnie loves and respects Homer, but Hud is magnetic.

Hud has his way with any woman he meets, even married women. One woman, however, has enough sense to admire at a distance. That is Alma Brown (Patricia Neal), the Bannon housekeeper. She is a tough, blunt broad, able to stand up against Hud. She is also the object of desire to both Hud and Lonnie. 

A crisis occurs when one of the Bannon cattle is found dead. Over Hud's fierce objections, Homer has the state veterinarian examine the dead cattle. The diagnosis is foot-and-mouth disease. The entire cattle has to be destroyed. Hud wants to sell some of the cattle before they received the eventual diagnosis. His father, upright and moral, refuses flat-out. Hud for his part continues a self-destructive path, ending in him attempting to rape Alma. She cuts out of town, but not before Hud sees her at the bus stop. He tells her that he'll always remember her as "the one that got away".

Not getting away are Homer and Lonnie. Will Lonnie ultimately turn out like his honorable grandfather or his rakish uncle?

Hud has the distinction of having the shortest Best Actress Oscar-winning performance as of this writing. Patricia Neal won for a performance totaling a little under 22 minutes of screentime in a 112 minute long film. She makes the most of her screentime as Alma. She is not unaware of things, such as Hud's magnetism. She is also aware that Hud is an amoral, selfish individual, an arrogant man behind the physique and cool eyes. Neal has a wonderful scene with Newman when she talks about her past as he attempts to woo her in her bedroom. She is cooly tolerant of Hud's philandering and his manner. Alma is also loving towards Lonnie, who does not shrink from being in bed nude when she comes in.

What makes Neal's performance so strong is that she makes Alma both vulnerable and unflappable. We see the strength in her. We also see the disillusionment that forces her to leave.

It is interesting that three of the four central cast members of Hud received Oscar nominations. Neal would be one of the film's three Oscars out of its seven nominations. Melvyn Douglas is the other acting winner as Homer. This is an atypical role for Douglas. He specialized in urban sophisticates, men. Here, he shows Homer to be a man of honor, but also a man from the past. He is not a sentimentalist. Rather, he is a man whose values have not changed even as the world has. His conflicts with his son, built on decades of mutual resentment and frustrations, carry Hud so well. Their conflicts are both literal and metaphorical. They do have different views on running the ranch. They also show the conflict between the code of the old west and the corruption and self-indulgence of the new.

I am surprised that Brandon de Wilde was left without a nomination for Hud while his three costars received nominations. Admittedly, de Wilde is extremely pretty as Lonnie. However, in terms of performance, de Wilde is more than capable of holding his own against three skilled actors like Neal, Douglas and Paul Newman. A lot of Hud is from his perspective as the young man caught between his grandfather and his uncle. The push-and-pull between Homer and Hud for Lonnie's allegiance is captured so well in de Wilde's performance. Lonnie is in turns appalled and fascinated by his uncle. He is also admiring of his grandfather's strong morality.

Hud is I think one of Paul Newman's most definitive performances. This was the third of his eventual nine nominations (with one competitive win). Hud the character is mesmerizing thanks to Newman's skill. We see the charming scoundrel that Hud is. He not only does not shrink from sleeping with married women but openly takes them around town. When Lonnie, in the opening scenes, finds his wayward uncle, it is at a married woman's house. It is clear that Hud has slept with her, but Hud does not shrink from letting his nephew take the fall when the husband arrives early. Later, when they arrive back at the ranch, Hud runs over Alma's flower bed. When she scolds him for driving over her zinnias, he is dismissive.

"Don't plant them where I park," he retorts. 

Newman makes Hud Bannon a dangerous figure. We see why Lonnie was drawn to him. We see why Homer was so utterly disappointed in him. We see why Alma was both. Hud simply does not give a damn about anything and anyone other than himself. He will, on occasion, do the right thing, but only if it is absolutely necessary. There is even a spark of honor and protectiveness within him. When the state veterinarian is ready to kill the two longhorns that Homer has hung onto, Homer asks if he could do it later. A doubtful sheriff would rather not. In this rare moment, Hud stands up for his father, angrily telling him that if his father said he would kill them, he would keep his word.

Hud's third win was for James Wong Howe's black-and-white cinematography. Hud is a beautifully filmed movie. The shadows and lights are filmed almost poetically that it makes for visual splendor. Hud also has a beautiful, sparse score by Elmer Bernstein. Major credit should go to Martin Ritt, also Oscar-nominated, for drawing great performances from his cast.

Hud is an excellent film. It has one of Paul Newman's most brilliant performances. It has excellent work from Patricia Neal, Melvyn Douglas and Brandon de Wilde (the latter gone too soon). The viewer will be drawn to this dangerous, rakish figure. Hud is a cold-blooded bastard, but we cannot help finding him almost irresistible. "Nobody gets out of life alive," Hud tells Lonnie. That could be Hud's mantra. 

DECISION: A-