The American Film Intsitute may put him at # 23 of the top 25 male screen legends of the 20^th century but if we’re ranking who is the coolest, toughest, baddest  hardcase ever to ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­set foot in front of a camera, well then for my money Robert “Old Rumple Eyes” Mitchum goes right to the top: number 1.

Recently arrived in the library is a 10 movie DVD collection of some of Mitchum’s greatest films which nicely compliment a number of his movies which we already own.

How’s this for a start in life? A natural born trouble maker, he entered a hard-scrabble world in 1917, in an out of trouble early on, he was sent away to live with his grandparents in a (vain) attempt at rehabilitation only to be promptly expelled from school  for of all things getting in a fight with the principal.  He was then shipped onto Hell’s Kitchen to live with his sister (in hindsight Hell’s Kitchen in the 1930s was probably not the best choice for a kid supposedly trying to keep to the straight and narrow) and wasted no time at all getting kicked out of school…again.  He skipped town after that, riding the rails as a young teen, making money digging ditches and doing a little boxing on the side. That came to an end when he was arrested for vagrancy and since this occurred in the state of Georgia, he was sentenced to work on a chain gang (!?!). I guess they figured that’d learn the 14 year old Mitchum.

Long story short: from this unlikely beginning he ended up in the movies…or as he says “I came back from the war and ugly heroes were in.”  He made his mark early on in some excellent film noir such as Out of the Past, Angel Face, Crossfire and one of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films, the western noir Pursued. Famously self-effacing and disparaging of the movie business he described his acting style thusly: “Listen. I got three expressions: looking left, looking right and looking straight ahead” which didn’t stop his star from rising.                                                                   

And then this happened: On Sept 1st, 1948, Mitchum and starlet Lila Leeds were arrested at Leeds’ Hollywood home for smoking marijuana. This well circulated photo captures the instant the sentence comes down; looking not too impressed, that smirk is priceless. Rather than ruin his career, the 60 day sentence was instrumental in forging the Mitchum legend. He described his time in lock up this way “It’s like Palm Springs without the riff-raff .” The man was punk before punk. Unfortunately, Lila Leeds’ career was pretty much ruined.  Because of this arrest, Dwight Eisenhower refused to show any of the busted film star’s movies in the White House movie theatre during his presidency.  Mitchum however remained unrepentant and word has it he remained an eight joint a day man till the end.

Soon after this he went on to play two of cinema’s most feared villains Reverend Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955) and Max Cady in the original Cape Fear (1962).  The Love and Hate tattoos he has emblazoned on his fingers in The Night of the Hunter make for a powerful image.

Many other films followed these such as El Dorado (1966) but the one I like the most is the 1973 crime film The Friends of Eddie Coyle which has an on-decline, leathery Mitchum playing the down on his luck title character.  Although he lived until 1997, his career was slowing down as was he, although he did manage the lead in the extremely popular mini-series The Winds of War in the 80s and had small parts in the remake of 90s Cape Fear and Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man with Johnny Depp.

With a penchant for the quotable  (“People think I have an interesting walk. Hell, I’m just trying to hold my gut in”) and responses to a questions such as  what does he looks for in a script? (answer: “days off”) I can let it slide that he was a life time Republican who was for the war in Vietnam…I’m less inclined to forgive his long time animosity towards another of my top favourites Charles Bronson ( look for a post here on him someday) but as Old Rumple Eyes himself said “There just isn’t any pleasing some people. The trick is to stop trying”

Whether that’s true or not, you’re guaranteed to be pleased if you borrow some Robert Mitchum movies from your library today.

It may be a friendly-type monkey (think Cheetah from Tarzan films, not Caesar from the Planet of the Apes franchise ) but it’s a monkey none the less that I need to get off my back with this last blog entry on the 1930s…I began this series over a year ago starting off a with random assortment of historical and cultural goings on during that decade and continued with part one of a movie entry and now finally here is part two (providing I can still remember them, most of these films I watched months/years ago)
The last grouping of films mainly had an adventure bent to them; this time around it’s more of hodgepodge assortment of genres…drama, comedy, crime and the like.
I’ll start with the most recent one I watched: Fritz Lang’s masterpiece M. Not everyone’s idea of a good time is to kick back after work and settle in for a feature length black and white German film from 1931 but it’ll be worth your time if you’re so inclined. Pre-Hollywood Peter Lorre stars as a child murderer who is simultaneously hunted down by the police and the criminal underworld (the criminals’ logic in also searching for the culprit is what with all these coppers blanketing the city, a fella can’t make a dishonest buck anymore). It’s easy to see how this film practically created the template for thousands of other crime films to come: so many serial killer movies owe it a debt of gratitude as well as police procedurals which borrow heavily from M. For such an old film, it does not seem dated at all, except for the occasional quirky scene such as when someone wants to know the time so he picks up the phone and (I assume he’s calling the operator) and simply asks” What time is it?” He gets his answer immediately and hangs up without another word. What a service!
Also by Fritz Lang is 1936’s Fury starring one of my favourites Spencer Tracy. This was Lang’s first film in Hollywood after fleeing Germany. While not as sophisticated and nuanced as M, they share a lot in common. Tracy plays a regular Joe, good natured and kind hearted who is mistakenly taken for a murderer (admittedly the flimsy evidence used against him probably wouldn’t hold up in court – both he and the murderer shared a love of peanuts…incidentally, I also like peanuts so I hope I don’t get roused out of bed by the authorities any time soon) and runs into some serious grief at the hands of a mob (naturally of the unruly sort). Both Fury and M speak out eloquently against the dangers of mob mentality.
Next up is Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund otherwise known as Paul Muni, who in 1932 had two very different roles in two great movies Scarface and I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. He grew up speaking Yiddish, and he famously and expertly applied his own make up – he possessed an ability to transform himself into any character he was playing whether a vicious scarfaced gangster or Louis Pasteur. Muni was nominated a whopping 6 times for the Best Actor award which on its own is an incredible feat but considering he was only in 25 films  – that is better than a 1 in 5 ratio. I particularly like I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang which has been a favourite since I was a teenager. In my opinion the final scene is among the most haunting of any film I can name and lingers long after you hit eject.     
Lighter in tone is the pre-Hays code romantic comedy Design For Living. Adapted from a Noel Coward play (so you know there will be some zingers flying fast and furious) directed by Ernst Lubitsch, it stars Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins. Even though it is from 1932, it seems modern and erudite , with a remarkably candid take on love and sex. , essentially the male leads fall for same woman and they all agree to try to live together, and it does not seem to appear scandalous at all to the actors that they fall in and out of relationships and bed with one another as the film goes on. The film is described on the back of the dvd as “Lubitsch at his sexiest, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.”

Speaking of debonair, The Thin Man (1934) certainly deserves that adjective. The first of many in a series, it may need little introduction but I won’t let that stop me. Based on a detective novel by Dashiell Hammet, it features two hard drinking, wise cracking (rare is the write up of this film that doesn’t use “wise cracking” so I’m just going to pile on here and use it too) sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. It’s really quite staggering how many martinis they drink in this film, morning, noon or night, they imbibe without hesitation. At one point, Nora meets Nick in a nightclub, immediately orders a martini then asks him “How many drinks have you had? Nick answers “This will make six martinis” Nora turns to the waiter and says “Will you bring me five more martinis and line them right up here” The chemistry between actors William Powell and Myrna Loy is the key, they are such a joy to watch interact. Over the next 13 years they made 5 more Thin Man films but unfortunately external pressures (read: prudish censors) made the duo cut down on their drinking and general carrying on. The less lubricated sequels while still great, never match the original. Another great William Powell comedy of the era is My Man Godfrey but due to the runaway length of this post so far, I’ll merely urge you to check it out.
The last title I’ll feature is The Petrified Forest, starring a Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in his breakout role as the wonderfully named gangster-on-the-lam Duke Mantee. It is based on a play (both Howard and Bogart had performed the play together on stage, when casting for the film occurred Howard refused to sign on unless Bogart was also cast – Bogart was so grateful, years later when he and the recently departed Lauren Bacall had their second child, he honored his friend by naming her Leslie Howard Bogart) so it comes as no surprise that pretty much the entire film takes place in one setting –a desert café called Black Mesa Bar B-Q – and it really relies on sharp dialogue and great characterization to see the film through , there is plenty of tension in the air and social commentary in spades.
I think it’s high time I stop here before eyes start glazing over but will list some also-rans that I’d include in any overview of the 1930s – Frank Capra, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind aside here is a by no means exhaustive selection (the only criteria is that I actually have seen these films at some point in my life, there are some great ones I have yet to watch so naturally will leave them off the list) Grand Hotel, Captains Courageous, Dracula, Frankenstein, Public Enemy, A Night at the Opera, Stagecoach and The Invisible Man and on and on…

PS: Just in case there are any sharp-eyed types out there, I do know that both Cheetah and Caesar are apes, not monkeys but what are you gonna do? Am I wrong or are all the best show business primates apes?

Part Two

Based on a short story, The Most Dangerous Game (1932) is a pre Hayes Code (or the “No Fun Code” as it ultimately became, stripping Hollywood films of any whiff of sex or immorality for almost 40 years) gem that features the same set and some of the same cast and production crew as King Kong which was made the following year.  Clocking in at a brisk 62 minutes it has pretty much everything you’d want in a pulp adventure: shipwrecks, sharks, a mysterious tropical island, a strapping hero, a distressed damsel, and best of all – an evil aristocratic-castle-owning -tuxedo (with tails) wearing- goateed Russian villain General Zaroff (who naturally has a scar running down the side of his forehead, owns a grand piano and has a brutish mute henchman named Ivan).  General Zaroff is a professional hunter who lures unsuspecting travelers to his shore (it’s easy when you own an island called Ship Trap Island) ultimately releasing his captives into the jungle where he and his savage dogs hunt them down for sport.  He’s a man of big appetites or as he puts it “Hunt first the enemy, then the woman. It is the natural instinct. The blood is quickened by the kill. One passion builds upon another. Kill, then love! When you have known that, you have known ecstasy.” The damsel (Canadian born Fay Wray) sees things differently as she and the hero Joel McCrea (who also happens to be a professional hunter) run through the swampy jungle – crossing the same chasm spanning felled tree that was used to great effect in King Kong – attempting to evade capture and death at the hands of General Zaroff.        

The last film on this list also features a shipwreck on a tropical island – The Island of Lost Souls (1932) and like the others here, was based on a work of fiction – H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. This is one odd ball movie that really sticks with the audience after viewing. Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau who conducts gruesome experiments on the island’s animals, attempting to make them more human while insisting on strict obedience from his hairy hybrid charges (Bela Lugosi plays the lead manimal The Sayer of the Laws) . The shipwrecked hero causes quite a stir and upsets the balance of power on the island –there is also some chemistry between him and Lota the Panther Woman who as the name suggests is part woman, part panther.  If you’re a fan of the band Devo (and who isn’t?) the line “Are We Not Men?” will ring a bell as it was one of their album titles as well as refrain of the island inhabitants in their bid to be more human.  The movie was banned in England for decades and no doubt also banned from H.G. Wells’ life as word has it he hated this adaptation.  According to the internet,we owe the saying “The natives are restless” to this film which had Dr. Moreau say “Yes, they are restless” in response to a question about the locals natives.

With a little luck and some time to organize I’ll finish up with a few more posts before too long featuring such films as the incredible I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang and Fury among others.