THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
US, 1994, 106 minutes, Colour.
Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, Charles Durning, John Mahoney, William Cobbs.
Directed by Joel Coen.
The Hudsucker Proxy is the least appreciated of the Cohen brothers' films. Having started with both murder-thriller and comedy with Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, the brothers Cohen were able to excel at all kinds of movie genres, from gangsters in Miller's Crossing to paranoid thrillers about screenwriters in Barton Fink. They were to achieve success with an Oscar for their screenplay for Fargo as well as an Oscar for Frances McDormand? (Joel Cohen's wife) for her performance as the Minnesota detective in Fargo. Other films included The Big Lebowski, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn't There and the light comedy, Intolerable Cruelty. They have shown a great skill in absorbing Hollywood culture, the range of genres and making them their own with witty dialogue, stylish camerawork, interesting editing and an overall pace that makes their work distinctive.
With The Hudsucker Proxy they went back to the fast-talking screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s, although this film is set at New Year's Day 1959. Tim Robbins is the ingenuous young man, thinking of Mr Deeds and Mr Smith, who comes to New York with all kinds of ambitions but falls foul of the intrigues of big business, in the person of Paul Newman. Jennifer Jason Leigh does an imitation of Katherine Hepburn or Rosalind Russell, especially Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.
The film is entertaining although the action seems so contrived, touches of magical realism at various places, especially at the end with Charles Durning, who had killed himself at the beginning of the film, reappearing as an angel to give a warning to the hero. The film is good-natured in its presentation of Tim Robbins' nicely and sweetly innocent American hoping to fulfil the American dream. The cynicism is there in the character played by Jennifer Jason Leigh but very much so in the Paul Newman character - in order for the company to get out of difficulty, the plan is to install a nitwit as the president, watch the shares go down in price and then buy them off cheaply and make a profit. Needless to say, this plan doesn't entirely work because Robbins offers the invention of the hula hoop, at first unsuccessful, then becoming a craze and sending skyrocketing.
The film then offers wry comment on the American dream, on big business. Perhaps the fast-talking pace of the 30s and 40s fitted better into the cinema sensibility of that time and seems somewhat out of place in the 1990s. (It is interesting to note that Sam Raimi - The Evil Dead, Dark Man, The Quick and the Dead, The Gift and, of course, Spider Man - was co-writer of the film.
1. The work and popularity of the Cohen Brothers, their critical acclaim? This film in their canon?
2. The genre of the film, the fast-paced, fast-talking screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s with their social dimension? Translated to action in the late 50s? As perceived by the 90s?
3. The New York settings, realism, magic realism, artificiality and fantasy? New York City, its buildings and streets? The stylised interiors of the Hudsucker Company's building, the vast office space, the windows, the exteriors - especially for the executives falling? The newspaper offices? The blend of realism and fantasy? The musical score, the use of Katchaturian and other classical pieces?
4. The little man against the system? The style of the 30s and 40s films, James Stewart and Gary Cooper and their struggle against big business, politics, power? The final victory?
5. The voice-over, the commentary by Moses? Norville and his wanting to kill himself? The clock going back to the past, the action, the narrative, Norville again standing on the ledge, his throwing himself over, his being held in suspension by the clock not moving, Hudsucker appearing to him, the gentle fall and his possibility of starting over again?
6. Norville as a character, Tim Robbins' style, height, presence, appearance? Ingenuous, the hula hoop? Arriving, making enquiries, the incredulous responses of the hard-bitten New Yorkers? His looking for jobs, at the diner, the piece of paper clinging to his legs, "The future is the present"? Going to Hudsucker's, getting a job in the mail room, the fast-paced list of instructions and the possibility of his being sacked or docked? The messages, getting the blue envelope, going up in the elevator, people's reactions, Buzz and his comments? Norville and his going into the office, encountering Sidney J. Mussburger? Talking with him, the papers blowing out the window, his disturbing everything? Mussburger and his decision to make him president, putting him in the chair, the cigar?
7. Hudsucker and the meeting, the great litany of progress and everything good happening for the company, the president standing on the table, taking the running jump, through the window and killing himself? The reaction of the board members, their quickly getting their composure? Mussburger taking over, his attitudes, the decision about the company, the stock, the decision to get a fool to be president, lower the rate of the stock, buy it back and make a profit? The character of Mussburger, hard, a caricature of the hard-bitten employer tycoon? His personal manner, speech? The fact that it was Paul Newman playing the part?
8. Amy Archer, her work at the paper, paper's suspicions of Norville, wanting to get behind him - the various headlines? The editor, his criticism of his reporters, Amy and her referring to her Pulitzer? Her visiting Norville, interviewing him, taking the job, undercover? Her own personality, brittle, manner, dress, manner of speaking? Norville and his immediate reaction to her condemnatory article, making acute comments about her personality, struggling in a man's world? Her doing the work for him, her understanding, gradually changing her attitude? His ambitions, his attraction to her, her attraction to him? Trying to tell him? The social, the dance? His discovery of the truth, his being upset with her, yet trying to make excuses? Her trying to change her attitude, helping him, the rescue? By his side - and the romance?
9. Norville, as president, nothing to do, thinking that he was doing important work, his dress, haircut, nails, manner? With Sidney? Cigars, the socials? His attitude towards Amy? Falling in love with her? His reaction to the press, the press conferences? The glib answers about the market? The presentation of the hula hoop, Sidney and his allowing it, the demonstration, the board asking questions and making difficulties? The failure, the collage of the prices going up, coming down? The boy with the hula hoop, the children, it becoming a craze? The irony of the visit to hospital, the bent straw and Norville's not seeing that it had any future?
10. Buzz, the elevator driver, his wisecracks, comments? Obsequious? Norville and the interview with him, firing him? Buzz and his reaction, leaking things to the press, the bent straw invention? Its later being a success and he and his girlfriend being reconciled with Norville and Amy?
11. Norville and his growing despair, Sidney and his reaction? His attempted suicide, the fall, the wisdom of Hudsucker appearing as an angel, the combination of wisecracks and wisdom? Helping him literally to land, get on his feet, try again?
12. Sidney, his failure, being taken to an institution?
13. The combination of American humour, crackling dialogue, eccentric personalities, magic realism - and contemporary social criticism and comment?
