Southend Paul, thanks for reviving this thread after more than 3 years, BTW. To answer your earlier question, Mr. Newman often played semi-unsavory characters, IMO, in his career -- Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Luke in "Cool Hand Luke", Butch in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (my fave movie ever), Gondorff in "The Sting", etc. I think he enjoyed the contradiction between playing a bad guy on screen, and being such a good guy in real life. He's one of the greatest actors of all time, and a legend as far as I'm concerned.
Heya Jeff, thanks for your input! The father/grandfather is still alive when Alma decides she has to leave. It's the fight between the drunken Hud and his father that causes all the ruckus that starts the incident. Hud's father walks in on Hud, and he now knows of Huds' legal plans to take away his ownership of the ranch, and the father says something like "I can't believe a man like you could ever come from me", and Hud retorts with something like "for the same reason any man does -- it's because of what's going on under his belt", and then his father slams the door in his face. That's part of the reason Hud goes out and bitterly grabs onto the first woman that comes into his drunken sight.
And yes, I *have* noticed small suitcases in many movies about travel. Always makes me wonder, trying to figure out the least amount of objects that I could survive with if I was forced to fit it all into one suitcase. Geez, I hope that never happens...