The Hudsucker Proxy

Joel Coen, USA 1994, 110 mins

“You know, for kids!” the brilliant line uttered by Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) as he shows to people a black circle drawn on a white sheet of paper he keeps in his shoes is exemplary of the oddball twist the Coen Brothers has spun on the traditional rags to riches story.

Waring Hudsucker, the founder of the flourishing Hudsucker Industries hurls himself off the 44th floor. Not leaving a will, his shares in the company will imminently be offered for sale to the public. The Board are understandably panicked but the wily Vice President Sidney J. Mussburger (insert cigar puffing Paul Newman here) has a plan. This involves hiring a buffoon as the new Chairman to devalue the company so that the Board can buy the controlling majority themselves. In comes innocent, naïve college graduate Norville, elevated from humble post room worker to Company Chairman. And as planned, the stocks plummet. You can almost hear the mwuah ha ha from the Board.

But Norville has other ideas, or mainly just one, that black circle on paper. His invention takes the country by storm and Hudsucker Industries is prosperous again. Mussburger is of course less than amused, and is determined to destroy Norville.

The Coen brothers create a highly stylised corporate America with Expressionist slants and Surrealist humour (the “Blue letter” scene is priceless). Robbins is the perfect wide-eyed Tim-nice-but-dim and Newman obviously relishes his role. The rags to riches story doubles as a basic battle between the good and the innocence of Norville and the embodiment of the corporate capitalists evils in Mussburger. Not much guessing is required as to who wins but this film is just pure genius and a genuine delight. All hail the Coen Brothers!

Review by Steph Wright
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2002

If you go see this film, you'd better know what you're in for (OK, so the credits give the game away ­ the Coen brothers - but that still doesn't mean you know what you're getting into). Between Barton Fink and Fargo, the Coen's managed to persuade Warner Bros. to distribute this big budget delirium of visual extravaganza, in which their sense of satire runs riot. They went for full-blown Hollywood excess, and the result makes for sensational viewing.

The film opens on a 1950s New Year, with Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) preparing to jump off the Hudsucker building. "Out of time, out of hope, out of rope." How did he get so low? That's what we're about to find out. So we go back to the day Norville, a fresh graduate of the Muncie College of Business Administration, arrives in the big city to look for work. He gets a job in the dark mailroom of Hudsucker Enterprises (a cross between the nightmarish underworld of Metropolis and the bureaucratic aberration of Brazil). As he enters the building the company president, Waring Hudsucker, makes a spectacular exit, inexplicably jumping to his death in the middle of a board meeting, leaving neither will nor relatives.

To the dismay of the board, the regulations state that all company shares have to be sold on the open market on the following January 1st, so Sidney J. Mussburger (cigar-chewing Paul Newman, on top form) devises the perfect plan. The trustees will appoint a moron as president, whose incompetence will ensure the devaluation of the stock which they will then buy for next to nothing before restoring the company's health and making a huge profit. Minutes later, Norville Barnes walks into Mussburger's office and is offered the post of president.

He then sets out to market his great idea, that takes the country by storm and makes the share price rocket. But Mussburger won't be undone, and Norville Barnes's foolishness is attracting the suspicion of journalist Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh, talking faster than ever).

A hilarious satire of American values and institutions, The Hudsucker Proxy is also a minutely orchestrated jewel of visual thrills, which pays tribute to the films of Capra, Hawks, Surges and Welles and also shows a heavy cartoon influence.

Tamara van Strÿthem
EUFS Programme 1998-99

It's an inevitable fact that sooner or later every single one of us is going to leave the hallowed ivory towers of academia and explore, naive and fresh-faced, the world at large, with its big cities and even bigger corporations, in search of that all-important first rung on the career ladder. Doubtless, some of us will be more naive, in bigger corporations or rise to the top faster than others, but noone so naive ever rose so fast, in a corporation so large, only to fall as far as one Norville Barnes, the Hudsucker Proxy.

This film charts the rise (and inevitable fall) of Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) the college boy from little town America making it big in the big city. Norville arrives with high hopes with his 'Big Idea' ("You know - for kids!"), but those hopes are soon dashed when he realises that all the college work in the world is no substitute for real experience.

His luck changes when he seeks work at the biggest corporation of all: "Hudsucker Industries". For, as Norville enters by the ground floor to begin his job as lowly mailboy, Waring Hudsucker decides to leave by the 44th (and no discussions involving the mezzanine) floor.

Plunged into a financial predicament worse than their most hideous nightmares, the board search for a solution. The cold, astute and decidedly shady Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) thinks he has the perfect solution when Norville bumbles in to his office to deliver a Blue Letter.

But it's not as easy as it sounds, as Mussburger did not count on the investigative powers of the hard-bitten, one-of-the-boys, Pulitzer-prize-winning, crossword-clue-solving journalist Amy Archer (played to perfection by the excellent Jennifer Jason Leigh). And of course Norville is a Muncey boy and he does have his Big Idea ...

This is the most commercial and easily accessible of the Coen brothers (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink) films. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead trilogy and the more recent remake of The Quick and the Dead) lends a hand with the script as well as a small part in the film (see if you can spot him) and his influence is apparent in several key scenes such as the laughing sequence.

The film is a visual treat, with sequences such as the production and sale of Norville's Big Idea and the Laughing Heads being particularly memorable. The computer effects (by a British company, no less) are excellent and complement the overall style of the film, unlike other modern efforts where the effects are the style of the film.

All the main parts are played with gusto and conviction (Tim Robbins is so good at these dumb roles) and even the supporting and inconsequential roles are superbly portrayed and, if you really wanted to know, the performing kid won the audition because he brought along his own "equipment".

This is a happy film that should fill even the most downtrodden with hope. it's technically and artistically brilliant, and one you're bound to enjoy (and I'll stake my Pulitzer on that!)

by Scott Keir
Programme note placed online 6/5/96