Film of the Day: 66

Hud (1963)

Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg better known as Melvyn Douglas was a leading actor who began his career in the early 1930s. He was born on April 5th, 1901 in Georgia, America.

His most famous role was Ninotchka in 1939 where he played a charming and sophisticated gentleman (where after he was severely typecast). He also stared in films like Captains Courageous and The Old Dark House (a forgotten gem of classic horror). Then after The Great Sinner in 1949, Douglas disappeared from Hollywood and did not star in a film for over a decade.

Until Peter Ustinov gave him a role in his 1962 film Billy Budd and it was the year after that he stared in Hud. This is arguably his greatest performance and my favourite role of his (and also of Newman).

Martin Ritt, director of the brilliant The Spy Who Came in from the Cold directed this lavish coming of age western about Hud (Newman), a man on a ranch who lives life with no limits. He acts how he feels and cares not for the consequences. He is the essence of the alienated youth and harms anything or anyone close to him. This of course brings massive conflicts with his very old fashioned father Homer (Douglas), who lives on principles and honour.

It was based on the 1961 novel by Larry McMurtry titled Horseman, Pass By and asides from the heart pounding performances, and the bold directing, the film features some absolutely stunning cinematography by James Wong Howe that earned him the Oscar.

Like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, it is done in black and white (which was an excellent choice) and Hud truly captures a piece of America that has been stuck in a sort of time warp. Watching this true masterpiece, I could not help but think of another great film (also in black and white) Lonely Are the Brave. It stared Kirk Douglas and it was about a man who did not and would not adapt to the modern ways of life and refused to give in to society (this was Kirk's personal favourite).

Melvyn Douglas

Douglas earned his first Oscar in his role as Homer, he represented the order of things in the film and in a way, the conscience.

In 1970, he stared opposite the great Gene Hackman in I Never Sang for My Father, this time the tables have turned and Douglas was the leading man as the father and Hackman had the supporting role as the son. They were both nominated for Oscars.

Turning to something different, Douglas even stared in a Polanski film in 1976 called The Tenant but it was three years later where Douglas gave his last great performance in Being There (Hal Ashby's last great film), opposite Peter Sellers (in Sellers's last film if you don't count Fu Manchu) in Seller's best performance since Dr. Strangelove.

Being There earned Douglas his last Oscar at the age of 79. However this suave gentleman died in 1981 today, a year after Peter Sellers.

Click here for the trailer