The bleak brilliance of Hud

Hud is a film that has haunted me for decades. I was never sure why. It seemed to be something about the bleakness of the setting and the story but also the extravagance of the hero and his car. I recently watched it as research for a book, and then, immediately, I watched it again. It is that good.

There are two stars of Martin Ritt’s movie: Paul Newman and a 1958 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible. Out there in the ranchlands of the Texas Panhandle Newman looks just fine — big hat, jeans, cowboy shirt and boots — but the car looks all wrong.

It is long, low and wide with an absurd pair of tailfins. Moreover it is pink. Though the film is in black and white, the Caddy’s pinkness is mentioned twice in the dialogue. It should be like everybody else’s vehicle in those parts — a Dodge truck, bouncing over the ruts in the dusty roads. The Caddy doesn’t bounce, it wallows and slithers round corners. It is a terrible car and it is no surprise that, in one of the final scenes, it fails to start.

But it’s a seducer’s car and Newman’s character Hud is, above all, a seducer. He is first seen leaving the house of a woman just as her husband arrives. Later he attempts to nail Alma, his father’s housekeeper, even to the point of a drunken attempted rape. Hud is a drunk, a rebel, a cynic and a cold-hearted manipulator, a very 1960s hero. There are many such characters in films; here Newman is the best of them all.

The film was widely appreciated when it came out in 1963, winning multiple awards including three Oscars — though not, absurdly, for Newman.