Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Hud.

Paul Newman is Hud Bannon, the man with the barbed-wire soul, a charismatic hellion tearing through his small, Texas panhandle town in his pink Cadillac and seducing the local housewives.  His reckless and unscrupulous behavior is tolerated by his principled father Homer (Melvyn Douglas) and their weary housekeeper Alma (Patricia Neal), and admired by his teenage nephew Lonnie (Brandon deWilde).  When hoof-and-mouth disease threatens their entire herd, a bitter struggle ensues over control of the ranch and their livelihood with Lonnie in the middle.  Garnering 7 Academy Award nominations and wins by actors Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas and cinematographer James Wong Howe, Hud is a beautifully stark depiction of generational conflict and an unforeseen measure of the changing culture in America.

Disc Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, with monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New interview with film critic Michael Mirasol about Hud
• Paul Newman: Actor in a Hurry, a 1964 episode of Hollywood and the Stars narrated by Joseph Cotten
• Claude, a tour of Hud‘s shooting location at Claude, Texas
• An Act of Love: The Patricia Neal Story, the 1981 TV movie recounting Patricia Neal’s near-fatal stroke and recovery, starring Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde
• Paul Newman’s 1956 appearance on I’ve Got a Secret and his 1959 appearance on What’s My Line?
• Trailer
• PLUS:  A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Margaret Pomeranz and curator Charles Silver, Pauline Kael’s essay “Hud, Deep in the Divided Heart of Hollywood,” and William Baer’s 2003 interview with screenwriters Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.

The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents The Tenant.

An apartment with an unhappy past, in a building filled with faintly sinister residents, sets the stage for Roman Polanksi’s riveting thriller The Tenant.  Polanski plays Trelkovsky, a quiet, timid file clerk whose unremarkable life becomes increasingly overshadowed with dread and fear after he moves into his new home.  Adding to his paranoia are the building’s other occupants, who do nothing to alleviate his growing obsession with the untimely, tragic fate of the apartment’s previous tenant.  Is Trelkovsky’s dread truly justified – or is it simply the result of his seemingly disintegrating mental state?  A brilliant international cast and Polanski’s own penchant for packaging and delivering unprecedented suspense make The Tenant a haunting, riveting conclusion to his Apartment Trilogy.

Disc Features:

• New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary by Polanski
• A 2000 episode of Mark Cousins’ Scene by Scene discussing with Polanski various sequences from his films, including The Tenant
• Theatrical trailers
• A collection of rare publicity and production stills
• PLUS: A booklet featuring Penelope Gilliatt’s review for The New Yorker, an essay by film critic Jake Euker and new essays by film theorists Aaron Smuts and Robert Niemi and critics Tom McCormack, J. Hoberman, Jonathan McCalmont, Stanka Radovic, and Ed Gonzalez.