8/28/08: The Woman Chaser (1999)We can accept that Republicans are stuck with John McCain; we just hate the idea of conservatives settling for Don Draper as some sort of role model. We’re not willing to totally dismiss
Mad Men, but at least check out Patrick Warburton’s impressive turn as Richard Hudson in
The Woman Chaser.
This neo-noir classic has gone from underseen to ignored. That’s kind of puzzling, since it’s based on a 1960 novel by Charles Willeford. (The film’s set in the same year.) He’s the same source novelist behind
Cockfighter and
Miami Blues, both of which became proper cult classics.
The Woman Chaser is a lot scarier, of course. That’s how a movie ends up doomed to this site.
At first,
The Woman Chaser seems like another hipster wallow in macho sociopathic behavior. Our hero is the classic overconfident car salesman, except Hudson’s moving up in the world. He’s starting up his very own used-car lot in Los Angeles. Hudson isn’t some easy mark for a femme fatale, either. He seduces women habitually, and often with impressive rationalizations. It’s a good life that gets better when Hudson moves into the mansion of his mom—who’s married to faded film producer Leo Steinberg.
Hudson suddenly decides that he wants to make a movie. He likes the idea of creating something, and filmmaking doesn’t require any special skills. He also feels compelled by capitalism. Hudson’s ready to face some big questions. The first is one he asks himself: “Isn't making money the reason for existence?”
Leo arranges the financial backing, and Hudson ends up directing what looks to be a really cool film called
The Man Who Got Away. People are excited about the movie. There’s only one problem. The film is 63 minutes long. It can’t play in theaters as a feature, or get sold to television at that length.
This is the big plot point. Hudson will not pad the film, or cut a single frame. He has made a 63-minute movie. He believes that people will pay to see it. This isn’t presented as some weird twist where the car salesman has become an artist. Hudson is motivated by the same passions that have driven him all of his life. The movie executives aren’t visionaries. They aren’t innovators. Maybe they’re capitalists, but not in the fashion that made this country great.
Hudson is uncompromising capitalism. We’re not particularly big Ayn Rand fans—despite that lame headline on this week’s
King Kong vs. Godzilla posting—but we’re big fans of films about unrepentant capitalists who are allowed to be real human characters. There’s a lot that’s overblown about Richard Hudson, but the core of his existence is believable and admirable.
The Woman Chaser is a rare brave film about brave filmmaking. It sure beats another drama about evil old Joe McCarthy.
Make it your own: We saw
The Woman Chaser on a commercial DVD. We state this as fact, but there seem to be no DVDs available. What mad conspiracy is this? Fortunately,
VHS copies aren’t expensive. Nobody cares about this film—possibly because of lukewarm reviews from tepid critics.
We can’t recommend the book. Charles Willeford’s an important talent, but the source novel isn’t so great. Let’s note that the writer/director of
The Woman Chaser recently made another film that got more attention.
Zoo is a documentary about a community of men in Washington state who have sex with horses. Seriously, Hudson’s not such a complicated guy.
