Paul Newman is probably my favourite screen actor of the “classic” period. It’s funny though – I could probably list more films by Robert Duvall or Gene Hackman that are in my “best of” list, and Burt Lancaster & Steve McQueen sometimes figure. And he was in a higher proportion of bombs than many other leading actors – including his first film, The Silver Chalice, regarded as among the worst films ever made. But when asked, I’ll always instinctively say “Paul Newman”.
I think it probably originates with The Towering Inferno, a kinda schlocky 1974 Irwin Allen disaster movie about a fire in a skyscraper – it’s one of my early cinema memories, and also likely the source of my fondness for McQueen.
But that top rating was locked by my discovery in the late 70’s of Hombre & Cool Hand Luke (both from 1967), two great films, and then a series of earlier films (The Long, Hot Summer; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof; The Hustler; Hud; The Prize; Harper; Torn Curtain; Harry Frigg; Never Give An Inch), many of which were staples of daytime and late night movies on Perth TV. Most of this second list haven’t aged well, although I still like Summer, and Harper (and, conditionally, Inch). And often it’s Newman’s mannered (hammy?) performances that have aged worst – I don’t much like The Hustler (Oscar nomination), and Hud & Cat (both also Oscar nominations) I find almost unwatchable now. Patricia Neal in Hud is brilliant (and did win an Oscar), and Elizabeth Taylor in Cat was also very good – and, OMG, she is totally, stunningly, beautiful.
Neither Butch Cassidy nor The Sting featured, probably because neither played much on TV. I’ve seen them, and he’s good in both, but they don’t really grab me, and I don’t seek them out.
He was firmly back at #1, though, after Absence of Malice and The Verdict (81 & 82), both fine films and powerful performances, where he was again nominated for (and should have won) Oscars. It was a “new” Paul Newman – older, more comfortable it seemed, understated, taciturn. In fact, very like John Russell, his character in Hombre; Lew Harper; or Hank Stamper (Never Give An Inch).
But that seemed to be it – in a weak field, he won a sentimental Oscar for The Colour Of Money (reprising Fast Eddie Felson from The Hustler, in company with Tom Cruise), and had a solid final film as the dying mob boss opposite Tom Hanks in The Road To Perdition (once again nominated, once again I think for sentimental reasons).
There were some other films, but nothing that grabbed me – the only vague memory I had was watching Nobody’s Fool (lauded at the time – yet another Oscar nomination) on a plane in 1995, and not being able to make sense of it.
That is, until last week, when I read Nobody’s Fool, the Richard Russo novel it was based on. Which is a great book, and captures a time, place and people so amazingly well. And I kept seeing Newman when I read Russo’s (brilliant) dialogue and descriptions.
The film is frustratingly hard to find, so for a long time I was only able to reprise some clips on YouTube, but I think he is truly very good in it – “Having seen what he could put in, he went on to see what he could leave out. In "Nobody's Fool," he has it just about figured out.” - Roger Ebert nails it again. I’ve since got a Blu-ray copy and, while it’s uneven, it’s warm and funny - with a good uncredited performance by Bruce Willis.
Maybe I needed to be nearing 60 myself to appreciate it, rather than the cocksure 30 I was in 1995. I like it when something jumps out of your past like this – something you’d put aside that turns out to be not what you thought. The stone that the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone, you might say.