The Coen Brothers are among the finest filmmakers of my lifetime. Joel and younger brother Ethan started with Blood Simple in 1984, writing, directing, and producing together for the next few decades. And they produced some of the era’s best films. Dark comedies like Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, and Intolerable Cruelty. The Big Lebowski is a prolific meme generator. And O Brother, Where Art Thou is a masterful ‘modern’ retelling of The Odyssey.

They raised the Noir stakes from Blood Simple, making The Man Who Wasn’t There (a black-and-white film in 2001? That’s bold). And the chilling No Country for Old Men.

Miller’s Crossing – heavily influenced by Dashiell Hammett’s The Glass Key – is one of my Top Five Hardboiled films of all time,

Joel worked as an assistant film editor (back in the days when they literally cut and spliced together reels of film) for 1981’s Evil Dead. That was the first movie which Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell made (that’s a post subject some day). A friendship formed between Joel and Sam, and the ‘two camps’ would intertwine.

The Coens made a ‘fake trailer’ for Blood Simple, and Campbell – who is not in the movie – played the murder victim. The Coens’ next film was Crimewave (written with, and directed by, Raimi), and they wrote the lead for Campbell. He wasn’t remotely a star yet, and the studio wanted ‘a name’ and vetoed the choice. The brothers and Raimi created an entirely new part – Renaldo ‘The Heel’ – to get Bruce in the movie.

And to tie all this together, Bruce and Sam played parts in my vote for the most underrated Coen Brothers film, The Hudsucker Proxy. It’s simply brilliant. You could call it a screwball comedy, with satire, and oddly, some fantasy mixed in.

It BOMBED at the box office, finishing 174 (domestic) for the year. And #176 was Red Rock West, which is one of the best Noirs you’ve never seen. There’s no accounting for taste.

Beyond the story basics, this is gonna be a spoiler-free essay. You should explore the movie yourself.

Between Bull Durham, and The Hudsucker Proxy, Tim Robbins had become well-respected in 1992 for The Player (box office #67), and Bob Roberts (#129). These were insightful satires. The Player elevates by being a terrific movie in which it’s hard to find someone to root for. That is not easy to pull off. (I know, by default it’s gotta be Gretta Sacchi. But I found her tiresome).

In 1994, Robbins played bumpkin Norvell Barnes, hitting the big city in 1958, fresh out of the Muncie School of Business. He gets a job in the mail room of Hudsucker Industries, just as a change is occurring on the top floor. And at ground level as well.

Paul Newman is the crusty, cigar-smoking, sleazy, right-hand man, and he’s an absolute delight. One of my favorite performances of his. He has a scheme that involves elevating Barnes to President of the company, and he supports his bizarre product idea.

With the working name Extruded Plastic Dingus, there’s a montage of the different design, development, promotion, and production phases of this new item ‘You know, for kids.’

There’s a lot of hoopla for a simple product. The satire is highlighted by the Advertising secretary reading War & Peace, and then Anna Kerinina, while the ad men toss out slogan after slogan.

It’s all done in a visual fifties corporate style, and it’s fun to watch. The Coens were clever and intentionally thoughtful. The burst of color they use for the Dingus after these bland scenes is more evidence of their skill and ability to make enduring films.

Then, it’s THE montage, with the dingus, and the kids. Sam Raimi directed this, and he has a cameo alongside John Cameron, another of The Evil Dead crew. I think that Raimi is one of the truly excellent filmmakers of this era (like the Coens), and this is a masterful montage.

Watch the facial expressions, the way the scene moves forward visually with the music (there’s no dialogue). The plot explodes in this montage, without using any words. Don’t scroll on your phone – really watch this. Even the price stickers going back up is clever. This movie is full of ‘smart funny’ elements; you pick up on more things, the more you watch it.

Such as, keep an eye on the changes in Robbin’s character as it goes along. It’s shown visually, bit by bit. It presages one of the episodes in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The Coen Brothers are really good at telling a story.

There’s a lot of movie left, and I’ll leave the rest of the story to your viewing. A fantastical element becomes a key part, and it’s always struck me as a bit jarring, but it sticks together.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is Amy Archer (who never fails to mention she’s won a Pulitzer Prize), a fast-talking newspaper reporter. John Mahoney (Frasier) is her editor, and Bruce Campbell is a fellow reporter. The Coens put together a terrific cast – folks even in single scenes. It’s got Charles Durning and Bill Cobbs, and look for Peter Gallagher, Steve Buscemi, Anna Nicole Smith, John Goodman (maybe listen for him), and Richard Schiff.

And if you are a fan of The Wire, you are gonna love EVERY scene Jim True-Frost is in. He’s delightful. Seriously.

While box office revenues are certainly a valid way to assess a movie’s success or failure, it’s certainly not the sole determinant of a movie’s worth. On a $25 million budget, Hudsucker only brought in $2.8 million, and it had no international release. It barely made back one-tenth of its budget.

The Coens’ next two movies would be Fargo, and The Big Lebowski. The boys continued to be popular but not commercially successful (Fargo, #75, Lebowski #98). Even O Brother, Where Art Thou, which was a financial hit, still was only the #58 movie of 2001.

But movie fans can rattle off movie after movie, when asked what they like by the Coens. The box office isn’t the measure of the Coen Brothers’ quality. They made smart, or funny, or dark, or satirical, or thoughtful – usually a mix of at least two of those qualities – movies. I have a friend who thought Intolerable Cruelty was just okay. I think it’s hilarious. And we both think the Coens remade True Grit as well as anyone could have. You just need to watch a few of their movies to appreciate them.

I drifted away from their stuff starting with Burn After Reading, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is the last thing I saw (and Hail Caesar! fell flat for me). But a half dozen-ish of them are among the best movies I’ve seen. The Coens were THAT good. If you only saw The Hudsucker Proxy, and Miller’s Crossing, your life would have been blessed. Though O Brother, Where Art Thou is great in so many ways – especially for this Greek mythology geek.

The Hudsucker Proxy isn’t the same kind of cult classic which Firefly, or even The Big Lebowski, is. But people who know, love this one. And many of us rank it higher than the better-known Coens movies. Regardless, this is a treat to watch, and it doesn’t grow stale with additional viewings.

You can watch The Hudsucker Proxy for free, on Tubi. This world is a dumpster fire. We all have things we watch, or listen to, to help us deal with it. To step away from all the crap. If you wanna sit down and watch something funny and thoughtful, this is the movie for you.

Some previous entries on things to watch:

Let’s Go to the Movies: 1996
Firefly – The Animated Reboot
What I’ve Been Watching – February 2026 (The Night Manager, SS-GB, Best Medicine)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2026 (Return to Paradise, Lynley, Expend4bles, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2025 (Ballard, Resident Alien, Twisted Metal, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – May 2025 (County Line, The Bondsman, Bosch: Legacy)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2024 (What We Do in the Shadows, The Bay, Murder in a Small Town)
What I’m Watching – November 2023 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, A Haunting in Venice)
What I’m Watching – April 2023 (Florida Man, Picard – season three, The Mandalorian)
The Pale Blue Eye, and The Glass Onion: Knives Out
Tony Hillerman’s Dark Winds
The Rings of Power (Series I wrote on this show – all links at this one post)
What I’m Watching – December 2022 (Frontier, Leverage: Redemption)
What I’m Watching – November 2022 (Tulsa King, Andor, Fire Country, and more)
What I’m Watching – September 2022 (Galavant, Firefly, She-Hulk, and more)
What I’m Watching- April 2022 (Outer Range, Halo, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, and more)
When USA Network was Kicking Major Butt (Monk, Psych, Burn Notice)
You Should be Streaming These Shows (Corba Kai, The Expanse, Bosch, and more)
What I’m BritBoxing – December 2021 (Death in Paradise, Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Blake Mysteries, and more)
To Boldly Go – Star Treking – (Various Star Trek incarnations)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2021 (Monk, The Tomorrow War, In Plain Sight, and more)
What I’m Watching – June 2021 (Get Shorty, Con Man, Thunder in Paradise, and more)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
What I’ve Been Watching – June 2021 (Relic Hunter, Burn Notice, Space Force, and more)
Appaloosa
Psych of the Dead
The Mandalorian
What I’m Watching: 2020 – Part Two (My Name is Bruce, Sword of Sherwood Forest, Isle of Fury, and more)
What I’m Watching 2020: Part One (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Poirot, Burn Notice, and more)
Philip Marlowe: Private Eye
Leverage
Nero Wolfe – The Lost Pilot
David Suchet’s ‘Poirot’
Sherlock Holmes (over two dozen TV shows and movies)

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.