Best Actress: Patricia Neal

 Patricia Neal, Paul Newman, and Melvyn Douglas? Talk about a top-tier trifecta!

via aintthatakick

Though if I'm being honest, I'm wondering how Patricia Neal got into the Best Actress category with this performance. I'm not timing these things, but this might be the shortest Oscar-winning performance up until 1963. According to the Wikipedia page for Hud, Patricia's in 22 minutes of this film, all told.

But if you need proof that it's the quality of the performance not the quality, take Patricia as the star example. She fully fleshes out the earthy housekeeper Alma Brown and she plays perfectly against Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, and the young nephew Lonnie (who's name escapes me but he was the kid in Shane). The relationship she has with each of the men in the family is evident with the choices Patricia makes. She's more indulgent with the nephew, she defers to Melvyn Douglas, and she goes toe-to-toe with Paul Newman in their flirting and fighting scenes. 

That all being said, this is much more of a father/son epic, the new way battling against the constraints of the old way of doing things, an earthy western where the farm and homestead play as important a role as the men fighting over it. Patricia's Alma is just there. She drives one part of the plot, to make the nephew realize that Uncle Hud isn't worth the hero worship he's lavished upon him. But her presence and her absence doesn't really bear on the storyline. 

I'm wondering if the critical and commercial praise this film earned pushed Patricia over the finish line? Paul Newman was nominated for Best Actor, and this, among nearly all of his roles, let's be honest, would've been a more worthy win that for The Color of Money in 1986. Melvyn Douglas was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Hud, and won (his first of two wins in the category); and I think if Patricia Neal would've been nominated as a Best Supporting Actress, it would've been a more accurate category. 

Patricia was nominated against Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room), Shirley MacLaine (Irma La Douce), Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life), and Natalie Wood (Love with the Proper Stranger). The only one I haven't seen is The L-Shaped Room, but I know I would have probably voted for Natalie Wood. I think she made interesting choices in the '60s and it's criminal that she was never rewarded. Love with the Proper Stranger is a fun film, and it tackled the topic of unplanned pregnancy and unwed mothers. Would've been worth it just to have that as part of the eternal pantheon of Oscar-winning performances! 

DID I LIKE HUD? The film, yes. I think it's a very fine western and family epic. And I did enjoy Patricia Neal, I just don't understand how she got in the Best Actress category for this very brief performance. 

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Did you like Hud? What are your thoughts on Patricia Neal's Oscar win? 

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.