Trudy Gold
Paul Newman: A Special for Valentine’s Day
Trudy Gold | Paul Newman: A Special for Valentine’s Day | 02.13.24
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- Good evening, everyone. And can we see the first picture please? Let’s have a look at the very young Paul Newman. That’s when he was in his late teens. And as I said before, I just chose to, if it lighten the temperature a little bit, but bearing in mind I’ve done something a little bit sneaky because many of his films are, of course, incredibly serious. He wasn’t just beautiful. And I’m going to tell you when I fell in love with him, and I’m sure many of you had the same experience, is actually when I saw “"Exodus.” And that’s not quite true. I think my mother took me to see “Long Hot Summer” when I was about eight, and I didn’t really understand it. It was far too sexually charged, I hadn’t got a clue. But then I went to see “Exodus” and when he came out of the water in the Mediterranean, was the great hero, I actually fell in love. And it’s very interesting. A while ago I interviewed Mark Regev about his journey to Zionism, and he said something very funny. He said, “When I saw "Exodus,” I wanted to be Paul Newman.“ And I said, "That’s funny ‘cause I was in love with him.” And it’s fascinating how that film “Exodus” altered so many young Jews’s consciousness.
It was Hollywood’s love affair to cinema. And in fact, next week to cinema and the Jews and to Israel, and next week I’m going to do a whole session on Otto Preminger, so I should spend much more time on “Exodus” when we deal with that. But let’s have a look at Paul Newman, because let’s have a look at where he was born first. That’s Shaker Heights, it’s in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Arthur, was a Hungarian Jew and his mother came from a Catholic background. and then she became a Christian Scientist. He said if he had any religion, it was Unitarianism, which, of course, is very non-denominational. His parents were lifelong members of the local Jewish Country Club. Unfortunately, he was aware of the fact that he was Jewish. In fact, he talked a lot about it. He didn’t have any serious Jewish education. But he said this, “I had a strong sense of otherness because I was Jewish. Half my heritage got in the way of me sitting at the A table. I only knew if you… My awareness of Jewishness comes from a slight.” He was also excluded from his high school fraternity because he was Jewish. He got into a fight in the Navy over an antisemitic incident.
In fact, when he went to Hollywood, Sam Spiegel, better known as Sam P Eagle, he suggested he changed his name and he said, “What shall I change it to, P L Uman?” And of course he didn’t. And he said, I’m going to call, I always call myself a Jew because it’s more of a challenge.“ So ironically, his anti, his Jewishness was because he experienced otherness when he was a kid. And interesting, people have talked to him, who knew him when he was a kid, said that in Shaker, Ohio, it was a very WASP area, and being Jewish was a stigma. And he wore that stigma and it made him an outsider. And interesting, he’s going to be brilliant at playing outsiders in films. Now hiss background. So he’s born in Shaker, Ohio. His mother is mad about the theatre, and it’s through his mother rather than his father. His father owns a sports shop and his father wants him to go into the family business, but that’s not his dream. Let’s have a look at the next slide. Having had an early interest in theatre, he then is in the US Navy, but then post-war, he goes to Yale. He does a degree in drama and in economics. He then gets involved in Summer Stock Theatre.
Now, Summer Stock Theatre it basically was roaming theatre that came to town for a little while. It’s really the beginnings of his career. He acts in summer stock only in the summer. He toured for three months and he very much developed his talent. He goes back to the Yale School of Drama, but then he’s in New York, he’s got the bug and he comes into contact with the Actors Studio. And of course that leads him to the remarkable Lee Strasberg. And this is a, can you see the next slide please? Now, I know that David Pima has spent a lot of time talking about the Actor Studio and Lee Strasberg so I’m only going just to remind you about it. Lee Strasberg is going to have an incredible, he’s going to have an incredible influence on a whole group of actors of that generation. And he was actually born Israel Strasberg in the Austrian part of Poland. His father, it’s such a common pattern. In fact, the more you study Hollywood, you more that you actually get into this pattern because the father leaves for Hollywood, leaving, I beg your pardon. He leads for the States leaving his family behind. His father works as a pressor in the garment industry. He sends first for his eldest son, and then he has enough money to bring his other son and daughter and, of course, his wife to America.
Until then, they lived with their uncle, who was a rabbinic teacher. And when Strasberg gets to New York, he reads voraciously. He becomes mad about the theatre. A relative, because you got to remember, it’s the Lower East Side, it’s the Yiddish Theatre. And a relative gives him a small part in the Yiddish Theatre. And that’s for him the beginning. And then he, Stanislavski is so influential, he brought the Moscow Art Theatre to America in 1923. On the east side, Lower East Side, so many Jews who had left Eastern Europe because of the pogroms, because of poverty, they were very left wing and there was a certain sympathy. Nobody really knew what was beginning to go on in Russia. And there was a lot of sympathy. And he studied what happened. He falls for Stanislavski’s method. He studied with students of Stanislavski at the American Laboratory Theatre in 1925. And then he’s involved in the formation of the famous Group theatre who, and I mentioned them when I was talking about Ben Hecht because, of course, this is where so many of the young talented writers, actors, that’s where they developed their craft. And, of course, Luther Adler, Stella Adler. And this was the mission, their self-defined mission, to reconnect theatre to the world of action and ideas. They would stage plays that confronted social and moral issues.
That’s from the Publishers Weekly. And this is what Arthur Miller said of them. "The group was unique and will probably never again be repeated.” And, of course, in 1947, he goes further and he starts the Actors Studio. And who did Paul Newman come across in the Actors Studio? And this is where it’s absolutely extraordinary because the young Marlon Brando, and we’ve already met him, when we looked at Ben Hecht, because, of course, he worked in the play, “The Flag is Born,” the first important play really of, if you think about it, Ben Hecht’s absolutely groundbreaking play to raise money for the . And it led to the ship, the Ben Hecht, which became the flagship of the future Israeli Navy. So he meets Marlon Brando there, James Dean is there, Rod Steiger, Montgomery Cliff, Eve Marie Saint, and Joanne Woodward. Now he, Paul Newman already married a girl called Jackie Witte. She was his first wife, she had three children by him. And at this stage, he and Joanne, they met, they are part of the young group. And can we go onto the next slide, please? This is the Actor Studio. I wonder how many memories it’s evoking as we go through these slides. Let’s have a look at the next please. Stage, please. This is “Picnic.” He stars in “Picnic,” it’s on the Broadway stage. And Joanne Woodward is an understudy.
So again, they reconnect. And it’s based on William Inge’s Pulitzer-winning drama. And if you haven’t seen “Picnic,” there is a very good film of it with William Holden and Kim Novak. There’s incredible repressed sexuality and he’s going to be brilliant at that. And it’s an absolutely, if you haven’t watched it, please watch “Picnic.” You know, one of the reasons I decided to look at Paul Newman’s films again, and also Ben Hecht. Next week I’m going to look at Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder. It really takes us on a nostalgic trip onto what I think is some of the great films of all time. Anyway, he’s a very, very good looking man. He’s on the Broadway stage. He also begins to get a few TV roles. And this is the development of television. And then he’s lured to Hollywood. And the first real film he stars in in Hollywood. Let’s have a look at it. Yes, “The Silver Chalice.” He, Paul Newman himself, it’s a biblical epic. “The only good thing about it was the music by Franz Waxman. It’s absolutely biblical hokum.” That’s a quote from Leslie Halliwell in his film guide.
When it was out on television, Paul Newman actually took a full page ad telling people not to watch it. And, in fact, he is still hot property though. He’s very good looking. In “East of Eden,” he loses out to James Dean, but then he has his breakthrough role. Can we see the next slide please? “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” It’s a very gritty film because even though I’ve chosen him for Valentine, never forget that he plays some very gritty characters in some very gritty films. He’s a very intelligent man. He is also a very intelligent actor. In “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” he only got the role because James Dean had been killed in a car crash. Again, James Dean, who sort of came onto the screen like an absolute lightning rod, starred in very few films. Of course, he was in “Giant,” and then died tragically in his early twenties. So Paul Newman gets the role. He plays Rocky Graziano, who was a delinquent. This is echoing. When Paul Newman was in university, he did get involved in a lot of brawling and a lot of card playing. How much it was to do with his outsideness and his Jewishness, I’m not sure.
But he would’ve had empathy for this. And remember he studied method acting because Rocky Graziano is a delinquent, and then he turns his life around and he finishes up as as a boxing champion. He is, I think it’s the lightweight champion of the world. And if I’ve got that wrong, then I’m sure someone will correct me, Now it won, the film won two Academy Awards, and it really does cement Paul Newman’s reputation. And from then on with his looks, the parts are going to come thick and fast. Can we see the next slide, please? Ah, Tennessee Williams “Cat On A Hot Tin ,” 1958. This is really the demise of censorship. It’s the end of HUAC’s power and it’s based in, and it’s a film that deals with terribly, terribly dark subjects. It becomes MGM’s greatest success of the year. It’s the third highest grossing film of the year. And its stars Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and the wonderful Burl Ives with his incredible line, “I smell an odour of mendacity.” It was directed by Richard Brooks. The production began in March, 1958. Tragically it’s all going to have terrible, terrible problems because Liz Taylor had married Mike Todd, the incredible producer. He was her third husband. Evidently it was a madly happy marriage. And in the middle of “Cat” when she is filming, he goes, he takes a helicopter flight and the weather is terrible. She’s too ill to travel at the time, and he is killed.
Now the story of “Cats.” I hope you’ve read the play or seen the film or seen the play, the underlining theme, he plays the central character, Brick. He is married to Maggie. It’s set in his father, Burl Ives plays the Pater Familia. It’s set in his father’s mansion in the deep south. And Brick has had a close friendship with a man. And somehow Maggie is implicated in the death and Maggie and he can no longer have sex with her. He just can’t bear the thought of her anymore. And she, of course, accuses his friend of having a homosexual relationship. And it’s about the relationship between the two and how it’s finally reconciled. But it’s a very dark film with all sorts of overlay. If you think of Tennessee Williams in his own personal life, many of his thoughts come out into that play. It’s a brilliant film. And I’m going to show you a clip of the chemistry and yet not the chemistry between Liz Taylor and Paul Newman. Let’s have a look at some clips please, Hannah.
[Clip plays]
Why are you looking at me like that?
Like what, Maggie?
Like you were just looking.
I wasn’t conscious of looking at you, Maggie.
I was conscious of it.
You were thinking the same thing I was.
No, Maggie.
Why not?
Please keep your voice down.
No. I know you better than you think. I’ve seen that look before and I know what it used to mean and it still means the same thing now.
You are not the same woman now, Maggie.
Oh, don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I know that-
Know what Maggie?
That I’ve gone through this horrible transformation. I’ve become hard and frantic and cruel.
[Brick] You planning on meeting Big Daddy’s plane?
Brick. I get so lonely
Everybody gets that.
Even with somebody you love can be lonelier even living entirely alone when the one you love doesn’t love you. You can’t even stand drinking out of the same glass, can you?
Would you like to live alone, Maggie?
No. No, I, I wouldn’t. Why can’t you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinking men loses theirs. Why can’t you? I think you’ve even gotten better looking since you went on the bottle. You were such a wonderful lover.
You’ll be late.
You were so excitin’ to be in love with, mostly, I guess ‘cause you were. If I thought you’d never, never make love to me again, well, I’d find me the longest sharpest knife I could and I’d stick it straight into my heart. I’d do that. Oh, Brick, how long does this have to go on, this punishment? Haven’t I served my term? Can I apply for a pardon?
Lady, that finishing school voice of yours sounds like you was running upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.
Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it, jump.
Jump where? Into what?
Take a lover.
I don’t deserve that.
Should we stop there, please?
Any man but you.
[Clip ends]
- If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to see it. But the repressed sexuality, the music, the jazz, it’s a beautiful, beautiful background. And then that same year he went on, can we see the next slide please? He went on to the “Long Hot Summer.” Now this reunited him with Joanne Woodward. And as a result of that, they get married and they stay together for 50 years. It’s meant to be the Hollywood story. Now the story of “Long Hot Summer,” it’s directed by Martin Ritt. And I want to talk a little bit about Martin Ritt because he’s fascinating. He also, he was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, he lived in Manhattan, but he played football at a college in North Carolina. And he became very aware of, 'cause he came from a quite a wealthy Jewish family, he developed this absolute passion for social justice. And his work is going to reflect the struggling for equality between the various groups. And you’re going to see it in so many of his films. After university, he had a small, he wanted to go into the world of cinema and theatre. He had a small part in “Porgy and Bess.”
Then he went on to be a playwright at the Federal Theatre Project. Now this was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal on the Lower East Side. It’s to really foster the arts in a time of the Great Depression. And most of those who were involved, again, they were on the left, they were either communists or found common ground with many of the Marxist ideas. And ironically, these are going to be close friends of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. They were politically democrats and he’s going to be probably the Hollywood film star who gave more money to charity than any other. But that was the kind of atmosphere that their friends came from. So he then becomes part of Group Theatre, which I’ve already talked about. And then he became an assistant to Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio, again, part of the Lee Strasberg work network. 1952, he was blacklisted. So right through the HUAC years, he had to support himself working at Actors Studio. And he turned to film directing once the Red scare is over.
Now he’s very close, as I said, to Newman and Woodward, and they’re going to make six, he’s going to make six films with them. And the film that, this film, the “Long Hot Summer,” Paul Newman plays a guy called Quick whose father was a barn burner. He’s a drifter, he moves into town. And Joanna Woodward is the very repressed daughter of the richest man in town. A man called Varner, brilliantly played by Orson Welles. And it’s fantastic because if you see Orson Welles in the forties, right up until I suppose, “The Third Man” where he was absolutely physically gorgeous. By the time he’s in the “Long Hot Summer”, he’s bloated, he is ugly.
Angela Lansbury plays his mistress, his girlfriend in it. He has two sons. The very kittenish Lee Remick is in it. He has a son and a daughter, beg your pardon, she is his daughter, Joanna Woodward is the daughter, and his son, Tony Franciosa, is married to the very kittenish, Lee Remick, and all Varner wants is children. He wants grandchildren, he wants to create a dynasty. And against this atmosphere, he likes the Paul Newman character. And he basically says, you know, “Marry my daughter and I’ll give you everything.” She of course wants to marry a very effete gentleman-type who obviously has no sexual feeling. And this is the first real confrontation between Paul Newman playing Ben Quick with Joanna Woodward, the repressed daughter of Orson Welles. So let’s see it, brilliant script.
[Clip plays]
School is out, Miss Clara. Them blinds are drawn, night’s fallen. Nobody here to see if you make a mistake. You put them things down, Miss Clara, 'cause I’m going to kiss you. I’m going to show you how simple it is. You please me, and I’ll please you. Oh, I know what’s troublin’ you. It’s all those boys hollerin’ for Eula every night. And Eula with her hair hangin’ down, and Jody with his shirt off, chasin’ her. And your old man at 60 is calling on his lady love.
There’s such a difference now in the films of the ‘40s and '50s in Hollywood, and the portrayal of sexuality. It’s fascinating. '40s, '50s, and '60s where there is no, the code has been broken.
Yes, ma'am, you’re human, all right.
Barn burner!
[Clip ends]
- His father had been a barn burner. Alright, let’s go, let’s go on that one, please. Again, that’s another film you should watch and it’s on Prime by the way. Can we go on please, Hannah? There’s a sort of relaxed photo of the couple together. They themselves are going to have two daughters. Let’s go on to the next film. “Sweet Bird of Youth.” Again, Tennessee Williams, a very, very dark film. He is a gigolo basically. And Geraldine Page is the older woman that he is living with and it’s a very dark film. And in the end, he has a girlfriend, a woman he loves. And in the end he is actually castrated by a group of people seeking revenge for the girl, the young girl that he’d loved who he had dishonoured. And it again, it’s dark and it’s brilliant. Now obviously he made, you know, he made 59 films. I’ve had to make choices. He won, he had 10 Oscar nominations and so I hope you don’t mind, I’ve actually made choices. Now let’s go on.
Yes, now this is of course his “Exodus”. And I could not bear not to show you the clip in “Exodus” where of, course Paul Newman, the film directed by Otto Preminger, we’re going to spend a bit more time on it next week. And now, of course, this is the scene where he plays Ari Ben Canaan, he is the Haganah commander on Cyprus. He’s trying to get Jews out of the detention camp, Karaolos, on a boat for Palestine, on the Exodus. And Peter Lawford plays the British officer. And this is a wonderful little interlude between the two of them. And Otto Preminger said he wanted a Jew to play Ari Ben Canaan provided he didn’t look Jewish and that’s why he chose Paul Newman. So, and it’s based, of course, on Leon Uris’s book. Leon Uris, by the way, was given a medal by the Israeli tourist industry. More people visited Israel because of “Exodus” than any other reason from America. It’s absolutely fascinating. So let’s have a look at that clip, if you don’t mind, Hannah.
[Clip plays]
Should have started this policy two years ago.
Oh, I don’t care about the Jews one way or the other. But they are troublemakers, aren’t they?
No question about it, sir. Get two of them together, you’ve got a debate on your hands, and three, you’re putting out a revolution.
Yes, and half of them are Communists, anyway.
Yes, and the other half pawnbrokers.
They look funny, too. I can spot one a mile away.
Would you mind looking into my eye, sir? It feels like a cinder.
Certainly. You know, a lot of them try to hide under Gentile names. But one look at that face, and you just know.
With a little experience, you can smell them out.
I’m sorry, I can’t find a thing.
Must’ve been my imagination, thanks.
[Clip ends]
- Okay, now let’s have a look at a change of pace with “The Hustler.” Now this is directed by Robert Rossen, who was himself, he’d been blacklisted. He came from immigrant parents. He’d been a member of the Communist Party, blacklisted under HUAC, and it’s a very tough story. It’s the story of Fast Eddie Felson, it stars with him Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott. He is a pool room hustler. It turns out to be a really popular success. It’s the '60s, everything is changing. It led to a resurgence, by the way, of interest in pool. And in “The Hustler,” his girlfriend is a girlfriend with disability. So these are the kind of subject, which is the first time that I can think of in an American film where the heroine has a disability, albeit, and it’s fascinating because more and more dark subjects or I should say true life subjects are being introduced on film. So this is “The Hustler,” Should we go on, please? Let’s see it. Brilliant acting. The great Jackie Gleason. He earns his living hustling in pool rooms.
[Clip plays]
Well, you don’t leave much when you miss, do you, fat man?
That’s what the game’s all about.
Mm hm. Two ball, side pocket.
Very good shot.
You know I got to hunch, fat man. I got to hunch it’s me from here on in. One ball, corner pocket. I mean, that ever happen to you? When all of a sudden you feel like you can’t miss? I dreamed about this game, fat man. I dreamed about this game every night on the road, five ball. You know, this is my table, man, I own it. Fifteen ball. Seven ball. Four ball.
Game.
Eleven ball. Rack 'em. One ball in one pocket.
[Clip ends]
- It’s very atmospheric, isn’t it? I think we better cut that there. If you want to watch the film, if you haven’t seen it, it’s brilliant. Then a change of pace with “Paris Blues.” Now this is Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward. Poitier and Newman are musicians in Paris. They’re living the life. And two teachers, Diahann Carroll and Joanne Woodward come on holiday, and there is a romance. Wonderful Louis Armstrong, it’s fantastic, those of you who love jazz. And it’s also about racial prejudice because Sidney Poitier, he falls in love with Diahann Carroll. But he decides in the end, because Paris, of course, it’s much easier if you are of colour and he in the end decides to go back to America with his lady love. Well, of course Newman is going to stay in Paris and continue as a jazz musician. And it’s a very interesting film. And remember it’s '61. This is the beginnings of if you think the fight for civil rights and, of course, politically, Newman and all his friends, they were really, really part of all of that and the wonderful Sidney Poitier.
But to me, I suppose to me the star of the film is, of course, Louis Armstrong. Can’t help it. The soundtrack was by Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. It’s just absolutely brilliant. Then he went in for a very silly kind of film. Let’s have a look at it. “New Kind Of Love.” This was Neville Shavelson. It’s a comedy, its really the kind of film that feminists would not want to see. Joanna Woodward plays a reporter, very spiky. He is in Paris, he’s a reporter and he shows no interest in her and she decides to play a game on him, and she dresses up as a lady of easy virtue and tells him all these stories. It’s very, very silly. And it’s, she is, sorry, she’s a fashion designer, but it’s really, it’s one of those films that’s uneasy to watch today. But look, the scenes are beautiful and the fashions are beautiful. It’s a wallow of a film, but I think intellectually you’ll find it very, very challenging in the wrong sense of the word. Now then again, a completely different change of direction with “Hombre.”
Now this is a revisionist Western, it really mocks the whole dream of the west. It’s dark, it’s not of the great heroes. The cowboys are not the heroes in this. And he plays a half-caste in it and he is the hero and he dies to save them basically. Martin Ritt, it’s the sixth film they worked on together, and there’s this backwards and forwards. The next one, of course, is another iconic film. He doesn’t win any of these Oscars by the way, not right until the '80s. Now this is “Cool Hand Luke.” I found certain, and of course, he’s in prison and it’s Paul Newman and George Kennedy and it’s anti-establishment. It shocked, it’s part of the popular criticism about Vietnam. It did win a lot of nominations and Oscars, but not one for Paul Newman. And this is one of the iconic, this is when the very brutal prison warden attacks Paul Newman. And we’re also going to look a little bit at the hard-boiled egg scene. And of course you have the iconic quotes from the prison warden, can you take it away please, Hannah?
[Clip plays]
For your own good.
I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Captain.
Don’t you ever talk that way to me. Never, never.
Very brutal. Very anti-establishment figure Paul Newman in this.
What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don’t like it any more than you, man.
Of course that is one of the great quotes of the cinema. And let’s have a little bit of the hard-boiled egg scene where for a bet he’s going to eat 50 hard-boiled eggs. This is in prison, remember? Should we have a look at it, Hannah?
Alright, now the rest of you, I want to hear from some big money men. Where’s all the high rollers?
I believe you’ve got it all, Dragline. Every cent in camp is riding.
This is a bet, can he 50 hard-boiled eggs.
Is he all right?
Rabbitt, five.
Thirty-three.
Come on.
Carr, what’s the time?
Come on, my baby. Come on, my darling. Twenty-four minutes to go. Just let that little old belly sag and enjoy yourself. Stretch it out. Chin up, boy.
Thirty-nine.
Okay, going down into the tummy. Will you ever be able to eat eggs again?
Forty-one.
Stay loose, buddy. Just nine more between you and everlasting glory.
Is he eating them, Alibi?
Aye, he’s chewing, look at that. Just little old eggs. They’re pigeon eggs, that’s all. Fish eggs, practically.
How much more time, Carr?
Six minutes to go, Stevie. Come on. Come on, come on. Chew, chew, chew.
You’re helping him chew now.
I’m not.
Leave him alone. That does it.
Forty-two.
He’s not spitting them out.
`What are you so happy about?
Tiny, tiny eggs.
He’s slowing down. Slowing down.
Attaboy, chew, chew.
Here we go, boy. He says it’s 43.
Two minutes to time. Here comes another one. Here comes another one, baby. All right. Luke, Luke. Ooh, there you go. Forty-four.
All right now, get mad at them damned eggs. Eat it there, boy. Chew on it, gnaw on it.
Here comes another one down the hatch. Thirty seconds.
That’s it, baby. Here comes the last one.
Stuff it in there. Jam it down in there, get it in. That’s the last one in there now.
He’s got to swallow it all.
Don’t help him chew. He’s got to swallow it before time’s up. Ten, nine.
Get it down there. …eight, seven, six, five.
Get it down, get it down there. Swallow it now.
Four, three, two. one, zero.
He did it.
How?
Hold it, he didn’t swallow the last.
No, he didn’t swallow.
You think so, huh? Well, just take a look here.
[Clip ends]
- Stop it there. Totally Anti-establishment film. And then again another anti-establishment film or that’s a picture he directed “Rachel” with his wife. He tried his hand at directing. I think critics believe he’s a much better actor than director. But let’s go on. Yes now, again, a change of direction, but it’s 1969. Think about the change in politics. Think about student revolution. Think about disdain for authority. And this is, it’s George Roy Hill, written by William Goldman. It’s the story of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” who were two outlaws on the run and in the end they have to flee to Bolivia. Goldman researched it for because, of course, it’s based on two characters. He researched it for eight years. And you are totally sympathetic towards the two criminals. Of course, beautifully played by Robert Redford and Paul Newman and the love interest in it. Well, Catherine Ross, and I’m showing you an extract. The love interest is Steve McQueen’s girl. Paul Newman was felt to be a little bit too old, although I would doubt that. But let’s have a look at that beautiful song. “Raindrops” with Paul Newman and Catherine Ross, just a little bit.
♪ Raindrops keep falling on my head ♪ ♪ But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red ♪ ♪ Crying’s not for me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I’m never going to stop the rain by complaining ♪ ♪ Because I’m free ♪ ♪ Nothing’s worrying me ♪
- It fits in with the era. It’s 1969, it’s post-Vietnam. It’s student revolution, because these guys are real serious criminals in reality. Okay, let’s cut it now. It was an incredible hit. And then he goes on to make another film with Robert Redford, and that’s “The Sting.” Again, they play a couple of criminals, they’re card sharps, and Robert Redford’s friend has been killed by another evil character played by Robert Shaw. And they decide they are going to hit Shaw where it hurts by perpetrating an incredible sting on him. They’re going to con him out of an absolute fortune by enacting a sort of betting office where he comes in thinking it’s legit, there’s going to be a police raid, and the whole thing is the con. So let’s have a look at “The Sting.” That film won seven Oscars. It was a huge box office, as was “Butch Cassidy.” So let’s have a look. This is the police raid.
[Clip plays]
On your feet. Put your hands over your head nice and slow.
Snyder.
Alright, get him up against the wall. Make sure they’re not carrying anything.
Hello, Henry. It’s been a long time. It’s over. Okay, kid, you can go.
[Police] Hands up. Come on, move them back. Come on.
It’s all a con, it’s all a sting.
Get him out, get out. Get out.
Come on.
Come and get you out of there.
He’s left all his money behind.
Come on.
But my money’s in there.
There’s a couple of dead guys in there too. You can’t get mixed up in that.
You don’t understand, half a million dollars in there.
He’s gone. Okay, Henry, all clear.
[Clip ends]
- Okay, let’s stop there. You see, both “Butch Cassidy” and “The Sting,” they’re buddy movies. The central theme is the relationship between the two men and who are outside society. Fascinating. And then we move into the epic of the epics. “The Towering Inferno.” “The Towering Inferno” had everything thrown at it. Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Richard Chamberlain, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, OJ Simpson. Scott Newman. First film for two major studios coming together, Warners and 20th Century because, of course, they’ve got to fight television and the films are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think we will cut the clip from that. It’s not a very good film. It’s interesting, but not a good film. And can we go on please, Hannah? “The Verdict.” Now that is a very interesting film. It was directed by Sidney Lumet. It’s a very gritty drama. He was a brilliant director and I think at some stage we should do a session on him. His films, “12 Angry Men,” “Network,” one of the greatest films of all time. “The Pawnbroker,” which I’m going to look at when I look at the image of the Jew in Cinema, “The Hill.”
He’d also been part of Actors, the Actors Studio, fascinated by injustice. He, Sidney Lumet’s parents, Baruch and Eugenia, veterans of the Yiddish Theatre, immigrated from Palestine. He made his debut in the Yiddish Art Theatre when he was only five years old. And his first appearance on Broadway as a child was in Kurt Weill’s “The Eternal Road.” Now in the film, Paul Newman plays a down-and-out lawyer, he’s an alcoholic and it’s about criminology basically. He’s an ambulance chaser. And in the end he gets hold of a case that he really falls for, even though the Big Boys, it’s about someone dying in a church hospital, Catholic hospital. And the church employs incredible lawyers, including James Mason. But in the end he could have settled for a lot of money, but in the end he wants justice. So it’s really about his repatriation into civil society. He is deserted by the woman he loves and it’s a fascinating film. Put it on your watch list.
The next one, “The Colour of Money,” which comes, of course, in 1986, 28 years after “The Hustler,” and he gets his Oscar for that. It’s directed by Scorsese. Got a whole new range of actors. And of course his young protege, Fast Eddie has found his protege in Tom Cruise. Now what happens is, nevertheless, the ageing Paul Newman goes off with the heroine. And his last film is “Road to Petition.” This is a Sam Mendes film. There you see, and in it he plays an ageing Mafioso. It’s with Tom Hanks and it’s set in the Depression, a dark, dark film. And that was, as I said, that was his last film. He did do voiceovers. His addiction by the way was racing, racing cars. And he was a very good driver. And he actually had his own team and he did do the narration for “Cars 2006.” It was a documentary on racing cars. And he also did a voiceover for children’s films about cars. Also tragically, his son, who’d acted in “The Towering Inferno,” he was a drug addict. He committed suicide. And Paul Newman, he was broken by it and he created a fund for his son, the Scott Newman Fund. And much of it was funded through his selling of food products. In fact, dressings, Newman’s Own, which his daughter became involved in.
So unfortunately he then he developed Alzheimer’s and he died and his wife is still alive, but she herself has now got Alzheimer’s. And his daughter said something so tragic. She said, “You know, my mother can no longer remember that she was married to the most beautiful man in the world.” So, but an incredible career of a man who was a liberal. He was a Democrat. He broke the codes for so many things. He believed passionately in social justice. Yes, there are strange stories about the way he treated his children. But on the whole I think, can you imagine the kind of pressure of having Hollywood stardom? And yet he seems to have remained a pretty decent fellow and extraordinarily stayed married to the same woman for 50 years. And when he asked why he did, he said, “Well, why go for hamburger when you got steak at home?” Rather crude remark, but on the other hand, I’m sure his wife liked it. So on that note, I decided, and there you there you see the last slide.
This is what he said. “We are such spendthrifts with our lives. The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood, I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out.” And that’s how he, evidently he said, that’s how he wanted to live his life. So a fascinating character. Let’s have a look at the questions. I hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to, of course we could have gone deeply into some of the message films, but I just wanted, life is dark enough at the moment and as we come up to the pagan festival of St. Valentine’s, I thought let’s do it, anyway, we’ve done it. Let’s see what you thought of it.
Q&A and Comments
Not seriously Jewish. Well, interesting. Not seriously Jewish. I think the point is, he was half-Jewish. His father was Jewish. The point is he had no Jewish education. But he saw it made him an outsider. And he always said he was a Jew. “When I identified,” he said, “I’m a Jew.” And he said, “I prefer to be an outsider.” But if you think about it, he came from such a WASP neighbourhood. He experienced antisemitism in the Navy. He experienced, according to a friend of his, he experienced it a lot at school. He, you know, I was doing a bit of work on Freud the other day and you know what Freud said it was, and Freud had no religion. He said, “I’m a Jew and it taught and I only did what I could do because I didn’t belong to the compact majority.” If you have the strength of understanding that, and I know we’re going through a very dark time, we are outsiders whether we like it or not. And again, we are being put back on the edge, but it does give us the edge. Never forget that. We might be on the edge, but it gives us the edge. And don’t forget also we have survived and we will survive. We’ve seen them all off and no doubt we’ll see them all off.
Caroline’s saying she thought it was lighter. Oh yes, the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. Thank you, Alice. Janet says, “My Paul Newman was my teenage heart throb. We even named our boxer dog, Paul, and I wrote to his flag after telling.” Did he answer back, Janet? We named our son, Ari, after seeing “Exodus”. So I love that. Yes, He went to Kenyon College where he first Yes, in college theatre, Arlene. I fell in love with Paul Newman when I was a teenager and saw him live on stage in New York. He was larger than life. He was a charismatic actor. I never had the pleasure of seeing him on stage. That must to be an extraordinary, Arlene. Stella and Les. Many years ago we owned a second home in Lake Arrowhead, California. We considered joining the country club and we were interviewed by Paul Newman’s brother, Arthur, who looked very much like him. Same piercing blue eyes. Apparently Arthur sometimes stood in for Paul in his movies. Oh, that’s lovely. Wow, that’s interesting, Stella.
From Jacob, Graziano was the middleweight champion, not the thank you. I knew someone could help me. You know, my father was a boxer and he would’ve been so angry with me for not knowing that. They had three daughters. That’s right. Did he have, yes, he had five daughters and one son. Thank you. He had three daughters by Joanna, and a son, and two daughters by Jackie, I think. Monty, maybe Jews were drawn to perform on stage in Hollywood, in entertainment in general. Always having to adapt and adjust in life, depending on where they found themselves in the non-Jewish world. That’s very interesting, Monty, have you seen Woody Allen’s film “Zelig,” which is the ultimate film about assimilation? I would certainly add that to your list if you haven’t seen it. Oh, Sally, this is why I love lockdown. Do you know how many stories I’m being told that I didn’t know? Leon Uris wrote “Exodus” in our uncle’s home in in Israel.
The movie “The Healer,” 2016. The highlight for me was when I learned only as the credit, a ruling in this move as a tribute to Paul Newman showing Paul and his camp for children dealing with cancer. Yes, I didn’t have time to go into some of his charity work. He set up lots of camps for kids. He was a really, you know, he was a brilliant, he gave more away than any other Hollywood star. Yes, Arlene Nash, I believe the film “Rachel” was based on a book, “A Jest of God” by the superlative Canadian author, Margaret Lawrence. Yes, it’s an interesting story, but it’s not a very good film, I’m afraid.
This is from Neville who knows a lot about the movie business. Please don’t disillusion me. Paul Newman like so many great stars were so flawed in his fame and male beauty who caused him to go off the rails. His heavy drinking was mostly camouflage, but he felt he let his children down by being successful and he was an impossible act to follow. One of the directors I worked closely with was Marek Kanievska of Polish background. And Marek directed him in one of his last films “Where The Money Is” In 2000, he learned more than I can ever reveal. Oh, Neville, I wish you had. Oh, that is so sad. But yeah, obviously, I mean there’s a lot of, there’s loads of books that could be written on the Children of the rich and the famous or on, I mean if you read the story of Herzl’s Children, it’s a very complicated issue. That’s why I always say turn from history to psychology. Interesting to see who your heartthrob is. Luckily we don’t all alight on the same fellow.
Expected more of a galaxy of candidates for St. Valentines Day, says Lorna. Well, I did it last year actually and I just thought I was going to be idiosyncratic. Yes, Gerald says he did graduate. He and Joanne have built a theatre in Kenyon College. Oh, that’s nice.
Q: Have you ever spoken of or will you ever spoke about Alexander Korda? A: Yes, I have, Bernard and it’s on the web so you can get it. I sent a whole session on Alexander Korda. He was a fascinating individual. Not only was he so important in the British film industry, he was also important in propaganda films. And he was very close to Churchill.
Sally, a friend in Connecticut used the same mechanic as Paul Newman. We honoured him and Joanne Newman for Israel Bonds. He encouraged all his business associates to buy bonds and support Israel. Oh yes, he was a great supporter of Israel.
Q: Which of his role should he have won an Oscar? A: It’s interesting. He won an Oscar for “The Colour of Money.” That’s a difficult question. I loved him in “Cats” and in “Some Like it Hot,” I admit it. “Long Hot Summer,” sorry. I’ve got “Some Like It Hot” on the brain because I’ve been working on it for my Billy Wilder.
Newman’s Own donates a hundred percent of its profits. Yes, that’s what’s so extraordinary about it. Yes, I didn’t have enough time to develop that. It’s very important. Thank you, thank you. One of his last films was with Sally Fields. I forgot its name. Yeah, oh, what was it called? I watched it. Only again another dark film. “Absence of Malice.” Thank you, Rita. Goodness, what would we do without you? Eveline says great to have light relief. Nadine, our daughter worked at one of his hole in the wall gang camps for particularly old children funded by his salad dressings. He earned more by his Newman’s Own brand, which he donated through them through his whole acting career. Yeah, he owned, I think he donated something like $200 million. Extraordinary man. But yes, we could have spent another half an hour on his charities. But it’s interesting what Neville said as well. There’s always a dark side to everybody, isn’t there?
Thank you, Eva. Thank you. This is from Eva Clark. Thank you so much. I’m happily swooning. He was always my and my mother’s pinup. Like your mother, mine also took me to see Unsuitable films simply because she were desperate to see him. Yeah, I remember my parents had a quarrel about it. I must have been eight or nine. And Harriet saying he was very important as a philanthropist. Eli likes one of my favourite actors who was an actor, not just a star. I think most people seem to think that we’ve cheered that this cheers everyone up. Did you know that Paul Newman stumped up, this is from Evelyn, for the Democratic presidential candidate, Eugene McCarthy. In 1968, he came to Cornell University. Yes, I knew he went into the salad dressing business. Anyway, thank you all very much. Hannah, thank you.
And go if you haven’t seen all these films or you want to re-see them, a lot of them are available online or Prime. And the other thing, have you still got DVD players? Because I have. And when I’m feeding gloomy, that’s exactly what I do. So God bless everyone and I will see you next week. And Helen Fry is on next and she’s got some seriously good lecturing on this week. So God bless everyone and try and cheer up in this terrible time. Bye.