Robert Mitchum in 'The Human Comedy'

Over the holidays, I caught one of Robert Mitchum's earliest films for the first time. 'The Human Comedy' is one of the many 1943 films Mitchum appeared in when he first hit Hollywood.

This film, based on the book by William Saroyan, concerns a small-town family during World War II. It stars Mickey Rooney as a telegraph company messenger, a very young Donna Reed as his older sister and Van Johnson as his older brother, who's serving in the war.

Mitchum makes his appearance about halfway through the film, as one of a trio of G.I.s who ask Donna Reed and her friend Mary (played by Dorothy Morris), out to the theater. G.I. Barry Nelson does most of the talking, but when the quintet swings by the telegraph office, we learn that the first name of Mitchum's character, Horse, is actually Quentin! Before the G.I.s part, they give the girls a kiss, with Mitchum kissing Morris (at left, in the photo above). This was, sadly, the only time Reed and Mitchum shared the screen.

The film itself I have to give a thumbs down: Great cast, but a schmaltzy and often preachy script, alas. Still, I'm glad to have seen one of Mitchum's first movies!

Happy Holidays, From Robert Mitchum!

Happy Holidays from ROBERT MITCHUM!

Here's a still from his underrated but wonderfully charming Christmas movie 'Holiday Affair.' He plays a store clerk who gets fired just before Christmas because he doesn't report pretty comparison shopper, Vivien Leigh. Soon, he's swept up in her life and that of her little boy, who desperately wants a toy train set for Christmas.

Read more about 'Holiday Affair.'

RIP Leslie Nielsen

In all the kudos for the late Leslie Nielsen (who died November 28), I doubt anyone mentioned his role in 'The Amsterdam Kill,' a 1977 thriller about the international drug trade, starring ROBERT MITCHUM. It's a low point in both their careers and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but diehard Mitchum fans (and, apparently fans of "Golden Harvest Trash," as it's labeled in the Youtube trailer below.

If you've ever wanted to hear Mitchum dubbed in German, now's your chance! His German voice double is actually quite good! And the film is re-titled "The Tiger From Taipei."



Nielsen would go on to reinvent his career as a comedian with 'Airplane!' just three years later and in the '80s, Mitchum would go on to make 'That Championship Season' and the TV miniseries 'The Winds of War,' which introduced him to a new generation.

'Night of the Hunter' One of 'Ten Creepiest Movies Ever'

Happy Halloween!

Seattle Times critic John Hartl lists 'The Night of the Hunter' as one of his 'Ten Creepiest Movies Ever,' along with other classics like 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'Psycho' and 'The Innocents.'

Remember, the Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray edition of 'Hunter' is coming out November 16.

Isn't this still (at left) cool? Found it at cinemaisdope.com, as its Vintage Movie Wallpaper of the Day.

Billy Corgan's New Role Model: Robert Mitchum

The Smashing Pumpkins singer opens up about his spiritual journey, what the rise and fall of grunge felt like from the inside, and his current role model (ROBERT MITCHUM?)

Corgan: "Robert Mitchum always struck me, at least how he came across as an actor, he was a man who was comfortable with both his grace and his darkness. If John Wayne was the hero version of that, Robert Mitchum is the darker version of that. He's the darker hero. He's the guy who's not sure whether he wants to fuck the chick or go home to his wife. He's gotta sit there and smoke a cigarette and think about it, you know what I mean? He's closer to my archetype of being conflicted by the forces of the world but really wanting to make the best of it."

Read the full interview at LA Weekly

'Night of the Hunter' Coming to Blu-Ray

No surprise that 'Night of the Hunter' will be the first ROBERT MITCHUM movie released on Blu-ray. The special edition will feature lots of extras and will also be available on DVD. Look for it November 16.

Here's some of the bonus features:
-- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
-- Audio commentary featuring assistant director Terry Sanders, film critic F. X. Feeney, archivist Robert Gitt, and author Preston Neal Jones
-- Charles Laughton Directs "The Night of the Hunter," a two-and-a-half-hour archival treasure trove of outtakes from the film
-- New documentary featuring interviews with producer Paul Gregory, Sanders, Jones, and author Jeffrey Couchman
-- New video interview with Simon Callow, author of Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
-- Clip from the The Ed Sullivan Show, in which cast members perform live a scene that was deleted from the film
-- Fifteen-minute episode of the BBC show Moving Pictures about the film
-- Archival interview with cinematographer Stanley Cortez
-- Gallery of sketches by author Davis Grubb
-- New video conversation between Gitt and film critic Leonard Maltin about Charles Laughton Directs "The Night of the Hunter"
-- Original theatrical trailer
-- A booklet featuring essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Michael Sragow

Full article here at IGN

The Star Who Made it Look Easy

From The Irish Independent

While surfing channels recently I came across a late-night screening of Martin Scorsese's 1991 thriller Cape Fear. Like most people I'm a huge admirer of Scorsese's films but have always thought this is one of the worst of them -- and as I watched it again my worst suspicions were confirmed.

A master director like Scorsese was well able to keep the tension going, but seemed unable to decide whether the prevailing mood in his remake should be irony or fear. And surprisingly, the film's weakest link is Robert De Niro.

As a result perhaps of his director's uncharacteristic indecision, De Niro's portrayal of cheery southern psychopath Max Cady quickly descends into an overblown caricature, and is about as scary as a trip to Santa's grotto. In fairness, De Niro has hardly ever been bad in anything, before or since, but his performance and Scorsese's film match up very badly against the excellent 1962 original.

Appearing in small parts in Scorsese's remake were the two stars of the first Cape Fear, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Peck brought a sort of moral authority to every role, but it was Mitchum's sneering sadist Max Cady that made the original film so memorably disturbing, and perhaps he's the real difference between the two versions.

He and Robert De Niro couldn't have been more different in their approach to acting, and when they first performed together in The Last Tycoon in 1976, 'Mitch' made fun of De Niro's insistence on staying in character between shoots.

Throughout his long career Mitchum made light of his chosen profession and was fond of saying things like, "I got three expressions, looking left, looking right and looking straight ahead". But this bluster may have been a front because behind it all Mitchum seems to have been a dedicated and surprisingly versatile actor.

Read the rest of the article here.