Happy Mother's Day From Sinatra to Mitchum

Happy Mother's Day! Supposedly, after ROBERT MITCHUM gave Frank Sinatra a hangover cure while they were making Not as a Stranger, Sinatra began calling him 'Mother" and sent Mitchum a Mother's Day Card for several years!

"Thunder Road" Out on Blu-ray

Thunder Road, starring ROBERT MITCHUM as a moonshiner outrunning the law in a souped-up hot rod, is now out on Blu-ray from Shout Factory. Order on Amazon.

The Collinsport Historical Society site, dedicated to the show Dark Shadows, shares this onset memory from actor Mitchell Ryan, who would go on to play Burke Devlin on the supernatural soap opera:

"I was twenty-three years old and on my first movie set. I was nervous as hell and stayed to the side away form the camera. I had a small scene with Mitchum who was just short of being a god and at the height of his popularity. He stood by the camera joking with the crew. At last I heard my scene called, at which point Mitchum walked over to me, was silent for a second and then said, 'Remember, I'm big Mitch and you're Little Mitch.' He looked grim then burst out laughing and said, 'Let's do this fucking thing.'"

Shirley MacLaine Talks Robert Mitchum at TCM Classic Film Fest

Shirley MacLaine attended the TCM Classic Film Festival March 29, where she discussed her famous costars, including ROBERT MITCHUM. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“We had a three-year relationship, kind of under the radar. [Hears audience murmuring.] You didn’t know? Neither did he! He was the most intelligent maybe of anybody I’ve ever met. He had a photographic memory. He could read a script and word for word cite it back to you. Frankly, I think that’s sick. He was a bit of an emotional coward. So I loved the contradiction. It gave me so much work to do: Who are you? I just loved shoveling through what he really was. I mean, this business about working on a chain gang, I think that was for 20 minutes or something, and [involved] filling in a pothole or something. But he was also the most underestimated.”

MacLaine starred with MITCHUM in Two for the Seesaw and What a Way to Go!. She wrote about her affair with him in her 1996 autobiography, My Lucky Stars. Read more about it here.

Video: Robert Mitchum Meets Belgian King In 1959

A visit by King Baudouin of Belgium to MGM Studios in Hollywood (circa 1959) was filmed as he meets several stars, starting with Eva Marie Saint. He's also filmed meeting Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston on the set of "The Wreck of the Mary Deare;" Eleanor Parker and ROBERT MITCHUM on the set of "Home From the Hill;" and Gina Lollabrigida and Frank Sinatra filming "Never So Few." The day ended with a luncheon for the King, who sat between Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford, who were filming "It Started With a Kiss."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

David Lean's 1970 film "Ryan's Daughter" airs today on TCM at 10:45 pm PT as part of their St. Patrick's Day ode to Irish films. It stars ROBERT MITCHUM as an Irish schoolmaster who takes a much younger bride (Sarah Miles) who soon falls for a British officer. The film, which is set in 1916, is loosely based on Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. John Mills won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film and Freddie Young won a Best Cinematography Oscar.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2015! Janet Leigh, Gordon Gebert and ROBERT MITCHUM in the final scene from Holiday Affair, when Leigh realizes she does want to be with Mitchum and joins him on his train to California on New Year's Eve.

Ken Takakura, Star of 'The Yakuza' Dies

Ken Takakura, ROBERT MITCHUM's co-star in 1974's The Yakuza, has died at age 83, Variety reports. He also starred in Ridley Scott's 1989 film Black Rain opposite Michael Douglas. He most recent film was Zhang Yimou’s Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.

One of the film's other co-stars, James Shigeta, died earlier this year. Keiko Kishi, Mitchum's love interest in the film, is still alive. In 2002, she won the Japan Academy Prize for best actress for her role in the film Kah-chan.