![]() ![]() Making relative peace with her lonely, desultory existence, Alma has overcome a difficult past and find a sense of being as the makeshift homemaker to an aging rancher/widower (Melvyn Douglas) while tending to his impressionable grandson (Brandon de Wilde), instilling in the boy some good old-fashioned sense and motherly attention when necessary. Hud (and the audience) is perked by her stifled but not yet snuffed out sensuality, as she wisely avoids the obvious come-ons tossed her way. Dusky-voiced Patricia Neal, whose looks had begun to harden by this time, is fascinating as the forlorn, slovenly housekeeper Alma who has her careworn hands full just keeping the lustful, roving Hud in line. It was a risky star performance for Newman as Hud has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but the actor plays out his acting cards brilliantly and winds up with a royal flush. He takes what he wants, whenever he wants it - whether its coveting his father's land or coveting another man's wife, whether its peddling sick cattle on others or peddling his ethics on a susceptive boy - it's all at the core of a dangerously irresponsible life's dogma. All swagger and bluff, reeking with cocky sexuality, Hud Bannon is the personification of cool, callous cynicism at its most reprehensible.and alluring. Newman gives an assured, excitingly reckless performance, the creme of the crop of earlier, jaunty perfs. Paul Newman was awarded an Oscar - but not for "Hud." He took home the award much later for his performance in 1987's "The Color of Money" but for me it was a restitutive pat on the back for his probing, higher-calibre work here in "Hud," among others. Thrust in a dusty, dried-up, decaying Texas cattle town (awesomely photographed in black-and-white by Oscar-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe), the story bears down assertively on its straightforward themes of nihilistic youth and misguided hero worship. The story focuses around a bored, aimless, arrogant ne'er-do-well whose utter contempt for humanity threatens to denigrate and destroy all those exposed to it. ![]() The vast, desolate "Lone Star" landscape has often inspired potent Hollywood screen-writing (witness "Giant," and "The Last Picture Show"). The writer also claims Newman and James Dean had a gay romance.īut the actor's family has dismissed Porter's book, claiming the sex allegations are "disgusting".Ī source says, "Paul knew there were rumours out there about his sexuality and to have to face them when he's not here to dispute them is Joanne's worst nightmare.Not only a stark morality tale brimming with grit and substance, "Hud" is a vigorous character study replete with intelligent, Oscar-winning performances. Porter tells America's the Globe he has been tracking Newman's secret sexual encounters since he met the actor in 1959 and alleges in his new book the late star, who was happily married to actress Joanne Woodward for 50 years, bedded icons like Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe. But, where I was always getting caught with my pants down, he managed to do it in the dark." ![]() Paul Newman had just as many on-location affairs as the rest of us, and he was just as bisexual as I was. In his book, Paul Newman: The Man Behind The Baby Blues, he quotes Brando as saying, "He never fooled me. Porter interviewed Brando about Newman before the acting great died in 2004 - and he was stunned with what the heavyweight star let slip. Paul Newman has been 'outed' from beyond the grave by Marlon Brando, according to writer Darwin Porter's scandalous new book on the late movie legend. ![]()
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