What the H

Hombre. Paul Newman has recently displayed a penchant for movies beginning with H--The Hustler, Hud, Harper. In Hombre, the H is silent and so, almost, is the star. With a voice that only on occasion rises to a monotone, he grunts his unrelenting hatred of the world. Caucasian by birth but raised by Indians--possibly the cigar-store kind, judging by the immobility of his features --he has suffered at the hands of both. One white man who has certainly made him suffer is Martin Ritt, the film's director.

Riding south with a wagonload of symbolic refugees from reality, the tough Hombre wards off a bandit attack led by Richard Boone. But Boone manages to kidnap an Indian-hating lady (Barbara Rush) and rustle the horses, leaving Newman to lead the little band to shelter. The band, it turns out, consists of soloists who cannot harmonize: a malleable Mexican driver (Martin Balsam) who has settled for permanent second-string status; Rush's husband, a corrupt Government agent Fredric March); a pair of bickering teenagers; and a wry-and-ginger redhead (Diane Cilento) who wouldn't mind becoming Newman's squaw.

Hombre finally leads the group through the desert to an abandoned mining shack, where they hole up and the plot gets out of hand. Bandit Boone reappears, offering to trade the kidnaped lady for March's moneybags and the passengers' water bags. When Newman says no to the offer, the bandits retaliate by tying Rush to a railroad tie. Inside the shack pretentious dialogue is delivered portentously. "It's a shock to grow old," March mutters. "There is no God . . . There is a hell . . ." The adolescents cower and try to find each other. Balsam pines and wavers. Unable to resist Rush's appeals, Cilento takes the loot and starts outside. "We better deal with people out of need, not merit," she intones.

At last, the misanthropic Hombre rises to perform the predictably noble act that redeems him. In the final gunplay, he knocks off Boone and a Mexican henchman who confides to Balsam before expiring: "I would like to know hees name . . ." Hees name is mud, and so is hees scenarist's.

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