Ten Best Paul Newman Movies

Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961)

Paul Newman (1925-2008) made his motion picture debut as Basil in The Silver Chalice (1954). Newman judged his performance so terrible that he actually took advertisements out in the Hollywood trade papers, urging people not to see it.

The Silver Chalice was hardly the calamity Newman had envisioned in 1954, but the actor’s roles certainly got better in the ensuing years. Here are ten outstanding films that no Paul Newman fan should ever miss. Watch for the baby blues, moviegoers…

The Hustler (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1961)

Paul Newman appears as Fast Eddie Felson, a cocky, self-destructive pool hustler from Oakland, California, who challenges the big dog, Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), for the unofficial title of world’s best straight pool player. Newman is at his best while hustling a couple of toughs at a riverfront dive called Arthur’s Pool Hall, kicking it into high gear during a game of 0 freeze out. “I don’t rattle, kid,” Newman angrily tells his surly opponent. “But just for that I’m gonna beat you flat,” whereby he runs the table on the poor stiff.

Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Great Newman line: “I’m shooting pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot.”
Director: Robert Rossen
On DVD: The Hustler Two-Disc Collector’s Edition (20th Century-Fox, 2007)

Hud (Paramount, 1963)

Paul Newman plays Hud Bannon, a hard-drinking, womanizing Texas heel with the morals of a snail. Scorned by his highly principled father (Melvyn Douglas) and idolized by his young nephew (Brandon De Wilde), Hud tears a wicked path through his small community, sleeping with married women, starting barroom brawls, engaging in unscrupulous business practices and drunkenly assaulting the family’s housekeeper (Patricia Neal). Newman, in that deep, husky, whiskey-laced voice sums up Hud’s cynical life’s philosophy in one scene: “You don’t look out for yourself, the only helping hand you’ll ever get is when they lower the box.”

Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Great Newman line: “The only question I ever ask any woman is ‘What time is your husband coming home.’”
Director: Martin Ritt
On DVD: Hud (Paramount, 2003)

Paul Newman as Hud Bannon in Hud (1963)

Cool Hand Luke (Warner Bros./Seven Arts, 1967)

Paul Newman has the title role of Luke “Cool Hand Luke” Jackson, a cocky, high-spirited hellraiser sent to a brutal Florida prison after decapitating parking meters during a drunken jag. Assigned to a road gang, Luke defies the sadistic Captain (Strother Martin), takes on the convicts’ unofficial leader (George Kennedy) and plots his eventual run to freedom. “What we got here…is failure to communicate,” Strother Martin tells the defiant Newman, who ironically “communicates” one of the best roles in his stellar career as “a natural born world-shaker.”

Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Great Newman line: “Yeah, well, sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
On DVD: Cool Hand Luke Deluxe Edition (Warner, 2008)

Hombre (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967)

Paul Newman plays John Russell, a white man raised by the Apaches who returns to civilization to claim his inheritance. While traveling by stagecoach, Newman is forced to protect his fellow passengers (Fredric March, Diane Cilento, Barbara Rush, et al.) from a ruthless band of cutthroats headed by gunslinger Cicero Grimes (Richard Boone). Newman wastes little time in establishing his Old West tough guy persona, ramming a rifle butt into David Canary’s bigoted face after the latter had harassed some Indians at a seedy Mexican bar.

Great Newman line: “You better put down that gun. You got two ways to go, put it down or use it. Even if you tie me, you’re gonna be dead.”
Director: Martin Ritt
On DVD: Hombre (20th Century-Fox, 2002)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1969)

Paul Newman plays Butch Cassidy opposite Robert Redford’s the Sundance Kid, with Katharine Ross as Etta Place. One of the ultimate buddy movies, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid affords Newman one of his finest roles, playing the legendary western outlaw with humor and elan. Some of the best scenes take place when Newman and Redford are trying to shake the dogged posse on their trail. “Who are those guys? Newman asks repeatedly, as the lawmen track the two train robbers with almost supernatural accuracy.

Great Newman line: “But we are involved, Etta. Don’t you know that? I mean you are riding on my bicycle – in some Arabian countries that’s the same as being married.”
Director: George Roy Hill
On DVD: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Two-Disc Collector’s Edition (20th Century-Fox, 2006)

The Color of Money (Buena Vista, 1986)

It’s 25 years later and Paul Newman is back, reprising his role of Fast Eddie Felson from 1961′s The Hustler. Newman’s Felson is now a liquor salesman and elder billiards statesman, taking young, talented pool player Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) under his wing. Although the crafty Eddie still shoots a wicked game of straight pool, he’s a little rusty in the psych department, succumbing to a young black hustler named Amos (Forest Whitaker).

Academy Award nomination for Best Actor (won)
Great Newman line: “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.”
Director: Martin Scorsese
On DVD: The Color of Money (Buena Vista, 2002)

Paul Newman as Eddie Felson in The Color of Money (1986)

Harper (Warner Bros., 1966)

Paul Newman plays Ross Macdonald’s Lew Harper, a Los Angeles private eye hired by wealthy Lauren Bacall to locate her missing husband. Newman has a field day in the role, juking and jiving with a colorful cast of characters just emerging from the hip, psychedelic 1960s when dances like The Frug were the “in” thing. Newman’s Harper is tough, cynical and full of sarcastic one-liners and put-downs, with William Goldman’s crackling screenplay elevating the entire film.

Great Newman line: “I used to be a sheriff until I passed my literacy test.”
Director: Jack Smight
On DVD: Harper (Warner, 2006)

Somebody Up There Likes Me (MGM, 1956)

Paul Newman hits the square circle as former middleweight boxing champion Rocky Graziano. Newman is in top form, exhibiting a lean, rugged physique and adopting a Brooklyn-style pug accent as he slugs his way to the top of the fight game with pretty Pier Angeli looking on in wonder.

Great Newman line: “You know, I’ve been lucky. Somebody up there likes me.”
Director: Robert Wise
On DVD: The Paul Newman Collection (Warner, 2006)

Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

The Verdict (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1982)

Paul Newman stars as Frank Galvin, a Boston attorney with a nose for the booze who is given a medical malpractice case as a gift from a friend. Newman is ready to accept an out-of-court settlement of 0,000 from the defense until he meets the object of the lawsuit, a young mother who went into a coma after being administered the wrong anesthetic at a Catholic-run hospital. Newman excels in the courtroom scenes, battling both the siren call of alcohol and his many doubters as he argues the case of a lifetime.

Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Great Newman line (directed at the judge): “You couldn’t hack it as a lawyer. You were a bag man for the boys downtown and you still are, I know about you.”
Director: Sidney Lumet
On DVD: The Verdict Two-Disc Collector’s Edition (20th Century-Fox, 2007)

Slap Shot (Universal, 1977)

Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the aging player-coach of a hapless minor league hockey team called the Charlestown Chiefs. Newman skates the sports comedy movie ice to near perfection, provoking his own players, tossing out obscenities and hurling insults as he schemes to save the franchise from extinction. The action really picks up when Newman decides to play the crazy Hanson Brothers, a trio of siblings who put the “goon” into hockey with a big exclamation point.

Great Newman line: “I am personally placing a hundred-dollar bounty on the head of Tim McCracken. He’s the head coach and chief punk on that Syracuse team.”
Director: George Roy Hill
On DVD: Slap Shot 25th Anniversary Special Edition (Universal, 2002)

 Ten More Paul Newman Movie Gems

 The Left Handed Gun (1958)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Exodus (1960)
Paris Blues (1961)
Torn Curtain (1966)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
The Sting (1973)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Absence of Malice (1981)