The perfect New Year's Eve comedy turns 30

There aren't that many movies specifically set on New Year's Eve, but one of the best is The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Joel and Ethan Coen's visually striking, loving tribute to classic Hollywood comedies. The film turns 30 this year, so it's the perfect opportunity to revisit it.

(WARNING: Spoilers below.)

The Coen brothers started writing the script The Hudsucker Proxy when Joel worked as an assistant editor at Sam Raimi Kill the evil ones (1981). Raimi eventually co-wrote the script and made a cameo appearance as a brainstorming marketing manager. The Coen brothers drew their inspiration from the films of Preston Sturgess and Frank Capra, among others, but it was never the intention to satirize or parody those films. “It's a case where, after we see those movies, we say, 'They're really fun – let's do one!'; as opposed to 'They're really fun – let's comment on them,'” has Ethan Coen said.

They completed the script in 1985, but were small-time indie film directors at the time. It lasted until the critical and commercial success of 1991 Barton Fink that the Coen brothers finally had the juice in Hollywood to make The Hudsucker Proxy. Warner Bros. greenlit the project and producer Joel Silver gave the brothers full creative control, especially over the final version.

Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) is an ambitious, idealistic, recent graduate of a business college in Muncie, Indiana, who takes a job as a mailroom clerk at Hudsucker Industries in New York, intent on working his way to the top. That ascent happens much sooner than expected. On that same December day in 1958, company founder and president Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) jumps to his death from the 44th floor boardroom (not including the mezzanine).

A rapid rise

To prevent the company's shares from going public as the bylaws dictate, board member Sidney Mussburger (Paul Newman) proposes electing a patsy as the next president – ​​someone so incompetent that it will scare investors and temporarily puts pressure on the shares so that the board can buy up control. shares cheap. Enter Norville, who takes the opportunity to deliver Mussburger a Blue Letter to pitch a new product, represented by a simple circle on a piece of paper: “You know… for kids!” Mussburger thinks he has found his idiot and appoints Norville as the new president.