Robert Mitchum C/D, S/D

Bruce Weber working on a doc, showed 30 mins in NYC the other night:

What he showed of “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast” (the title comes from a smoky 1960s ballad recorded by Julie London) certainly bore at least a surface resemblance to “Let’s Get Lost,” with its sometimes grainy black and white cinematography and its juxtaposition of the aging but still magnetic Mitchum with images of the young, beautiful, hypnotic screen star. The older Mitchum appeared to be less of a presence in the film than the gaunt, wasted Baker was in “Let’s Get Lost” — Mitchum, a “reluctant star” in Mr. Weber’s words, was also a somewhat reluctant interview subject — and the whirl of images included proportionally more scenes from his films, including the famous (“Night of the Hunter”) and the obscure (“Home From the Hill,” “Girl Rush”).

Mr. Weber’s focus on seduction as practiced by sensitive bad boys in the Baker and Mitchum mold was highlighted in a funny and slightly unsettling scene of the elder Mitchum working his game on the actress Frances Fisher, gazing at her in a restaurant booth and purring: “Forgive me for staring at you. I’m just studying your attitude.” Later a famous shot from “Night of the Hunter,” of the 4-year-old Pearl sitting in the lap of Mitchum’s charismatic, psychopathic preacher, cuts to Ms. Fisher in the booth, snuggling a little closer to Mitchum.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/a-short-sneak-peek-at-a-new-robert-mitchum-documentary/

The Lusty Men coming to Warner Archive

TCM is running Mitchum movies all day tomorrow.

After catching Angel Face recently, I finally read Baby, I Don't Care -- what an amazing book, so many mind-blowing stories.

Brattle in Cambridge MA running a centennial tribute

http://www.brattlefilm.org/category/calendar-2/repertory-series/robert-mitchum-centennial-tribute/

TCM is running Mitchum movies all day tomorrow.

After catching /Angel Face/ recently, I finally read /Baby, I Don't Care/ -- what an amazing book, so many mind-blowing stories.

24-film retro at the NYFF; I've been pining to see The Wonderful Country for awhile now...

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017/daily/robert-mitchum-retrospective-set-for-nyff55/

Mitchum—whose Captain Hunnicutt was intended for Clark Gable—got along very well with Minnelli (they’d worked together a decade earlier on Undercurrent), but less well with his younger co-star George Peppard, who asked Mitchum if he’d studied the Stanislavsky Method. “No,” said Mitchum, “but I’ve studied the Smirnoff Method.”

5 films this weekend in LA

http://americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/tough-guys-finish-first-a-robert-mitchum-centennial

looks like we're getting a few at the Castro next week too - Thunder Road, Friends of Eddie Coyle (personal fave), Cape Fear, and Night of the Hunter

I don't appear to have ever linked my Coyle review so

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/the-friends-of-eddie-coyle

think about this a lot

Robert Mitchum giving perfect answers to terrible questions pic.twitter.com/PfnQxfOfOx

— Pierre Étaixxxtacion (@NoChorus) November 11, 2016

the best

I have no memory of this... from Wiki

In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.)

100 BOB 100

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/177952/Out-of-the-Past-Movie-Clip-I-m-Not-Smart-Anymore.html

great Coyle review, Morbs, though I think you're a bit too hard on Jackie Brown's pimpin' ride.

I have no memory of this... from Wiki

/In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.)/

Well here's this from his opening monologue at least

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/robert-mitchum-monologue/n9636?snl=1

this bio by Server is pretty incredible but I have to say I wasn't expecting so many stories about Bob pissing on things/people.

plz say Otto Preminger was one

haha no (how do you feel about Ava Gardner?)

I'm up to the 70s now and seemed off that there was no mention of his participation in these, which seem particularly hilarious/ironic given his lifelong stoner-dom and that he was doing things like passing out bricks of hash to college students at the time.

Didn't Mitchum get pretty nutjob-right-wing as a geezer? That is barely touched on in the Server bio iirc but it seems like I've seen other references. I'd love to be wrong!

I feel like Server addresses it but appropriately contextualizes it as well - he notes that he started getting chummy with John Wayne, recounts anecdotes from others about him being rabidly pro-Vietnam War/indulging conspiracy theories about LBJ, mouthing off about Jews and "negroes" etc. At the same time, it's clear that Mitchum was not a man of deep convictions about anything, including politics, at all beyond having the freedom to do whatever the fuck he felt like at any given moment. (Granted the latter can correctly be interpreted as a deeply political position based on white male entitlement if you want to go down that route)

does not seem like a "political" guy, as patchy as my knowledge of his life is.

He often claimed he was not a pal of other actors in interviews, eg "I just work with those cats."

Anyway I bought tix to see The Wonderful Country and Pursued at NYFF, and found a videotape of Blood on the Moon on the street in Williamsburg.

still, there's no reactionary like an old bohemian.

he liked other drunks/stoners

curious about Pursued but need to watch Out of the Past first

never seen it? It's my favorite film noir and I have it out of the library right now.

great movie. kind of amazing that two of the four top-billed actors are still with us (Kirk Douglas and Rhonda Fleming.)

yeah I dunno why I've never seen it before

Mitchum's hatred of Kirk Douglas in the Server bio is p entertaining

probably helped

Kirk was not yet a star at that point

apparently he still hated him years later on The Way West too

Yeah from that Server bio it seems his middle aged republicanism was a little sincerity and a lot "let's fuck with ppl", there's an anecdote about him telling journalists that he'd been accepted into the CIA or something and then afterwards just breaking into laughter with his secretary.

Around the same time there's an anecdote of Mitchum getting high with some youngster and listening to Sgt.Pepper's and when the youth tried to earnestly explain to him why this music was Meaningful, just smiling and going "I know, man". Person recounting the anecdote suitably ashamed at having thought they were hipper than Mitchum.

Blood On The Moon is a good 'un, Morbius.

Sgt. Pepper anecdote was v funny, Mitchum's love of records + books come across as p endearing

whoa I just started the server bio last night. The world of famous touring child poets is one of those bizarre cultural cul de sacs that seems lost forever

That Server book is great. God, I love a good Hollywood biography. Actually, compiling a list of such would make a great thread.

Yeah, I need more of those, too. Should track Server's Ava Gardner bio down? I've not seen much of her stuff. David Niven autobio is supposed to be real good, too.

Wish I still had my copy of this:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tuSklfJ2L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Server's Ava bio very good as well, maybe not quite as essential as the Mitchum.

Never knew you could smell booze breath from a YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7aex9xj8rQ

Pursued, jeezus! Freud on the range. I bet it looked like pretentious wankery on the page too, but then Raoul Walsh and James Wong Howe worked their magic.

also saw The Wonderful Country, RM as a hired-gun fugitive on both sides of the Rio Grande. Very much slept-on, beautiful color lensing by Alex Phillips and Floyd Crosby. Julie London fine as a cavalry wife with straying eyes, and Satchel Paige as a buffalo soldier!

!

Not seen Pursued, but for Mitchum + Freud on the range, I very much recommend avoiding the hysterical Track Of The Cat.

yeah, that's a wild one. it's worth seeing.

Worth seeing Track of the Cat just for the beautiful vivid red of Mitchum's coat

I've got The Racket out of the library, and I re-watched the quite entertaining The Sundowners last week

still haven't watched Ryan's Daughter!

The Sundowners is a lot of fun, yeah. Feels like a live action Disney movie at times.

roundup of pieces tied to centenary

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4995-the-daily-nyff-2017-robert-mitchum

I ordered River of No Return from interlibrary loan.