by Alex P.

I went to the theaters the other day to see Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, a kaleidoscopic, stylish mess of a film, which is polarizing and exciting moviegoers and critics and making very, very little money. This latter fact is a constant reminder as I look back at my favorite films; most of them were bold statements, so bold that the cold logic of the marketplace left their makers in the red. Megalopolis also prominently features the Chrysler Building and 40s art deco, as well as 40s Hollywood (old cars, suspenders, city hall meetings, scaffolding) as one of the central visual themes. This left me remembering one of the most stylish box office bombs in cinema history: The Hudsucker Proxy by Joel and Ethan Coen (who, immediately after this film, went on to make Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in that order!) 

The Hudsucker Proxy is a bold love letter to the art deco, brutalism, and bauhaus styles that dominated the New York skyline and business suites of the 30s and 40s, the Cary Grant screwball comedies of the era (think Bringing Up Baby), as well as the sentimental Jimmy Stewart blockbusters like It’s A Wonderful Life. It stars Tim Robbins as a clueless, well-meaning businessman from Muncie, Indiana, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a fast-talking newspaper reporter (giving a very Katharine Hepburn performance), and a cranky Paul Newman as a high-ranking executive of Hudsucker Industries.

After the untimely demise of Hudsucker’s founder and CEO, Newman concocts a scheme to elevate the clueless Robbins from the company’s mailroom (featuring one of the coolest sets I’ve ever seen, replete with steam, pneumatic tubes and a constant confetti of mail) to CEO; he aims to recruit the dumbest person he can find to the position in order to lower the company’s stock to the point where he can buy a majority stake and take it over himself. As is the case with the best of the Coen brothers’ films, there are endless twists and turns and a brilliant supporting cast. Bill Cobbs plays the omnipotent caretaker of the Hudsucker Industries clocktower, Jim True (“Prez” from The Wire) plays an overactive elevator operator, and Steve Buscemi plays a beatnik bartender.

It’s also a rare feel-good film from the Coens. Right after making the endlessly nihilistic Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink, this film has a sentimental tone truly reminiscent of Frank Capra’s best films. A lot of the action takes place on Christmas, and some of the most memorable shots of the film feature a stylized miniature set of the New York City skyline awash in snow, truly bringing back memories of It’s a Wonderful Life.

The amount of style on display gives the appearance, action and direction of the film the feel of a live-action cartoon; while always keeping a grounded feel, there’s a speed to it and a constant stream of gags and emphatic camera movements that deliver class and hilarity. The Hudsucker Proxy is such a gem in the Coens’ catalog; they were given their largest amount of money to work with to date and comes at just the right time in their career for them to utilize the budget in order to execute a wild, unique vision replete with symbolism, gags, and profundity.

One of the most puzzling but profound aspects of the film is the constant motif of the circle (yes, the shape): A large aspect of the plot comes from the dramatic irony of Tim Robbins’s character hedging his career on Hudsucker Industries by introducing the hula hoop to the market, an invention that his handlers deem as doomed to failure, but is instantly recognizable to us as an icon of 50s consumerism. He also veers into contemplating the concept of karma, specifically samsara and the wheel of existence. The circle imagery is constantly present but never seems to resolve, but it impresses nonetheless. The film was a marketing failure, not an artistic one. 

After hearing the story of the film and its position as a rare dud in a huge stream of heavy hitters in the Coen brothers’ filmography, I was determined to find a copy, only to come up empty handed until I found it on Kanopy using my HCLS library card. Kanopy is a great resource for finding everything from box office hits to independent films, but I’ve found that it’s a great resource for films that don’t seem to fit in among the rest. If you’ve never tried Kanopy, you might be surprised to find the weird little films you’ve been searching far and wide for staring you right in the face. 

The Hudsucker Proxy is available to stream on Kanopy. 

Alex P. works in the Customer Service department in the Savage Branch of the Howard County Library System.