In 1980 Francis Ford Coppola, fresh from the Philippine jungle and loaded with hubris, bought an old Hollywood studio. A real one, not just a production company, an actual physical studio with soundstages, editing rooms, dubbing rooms, wardrobe and make-up rooms, screening rooms, dressing rooms, executive offices; the works. It was the old Hollywood General Studios, located at 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood. Built in 1919, the studio had a long history with Howard Hughes filming some of Hell's Angels {1930}on the lot, as well as The Front Page {1931}. Harold Lloyd used the studio several times in the 20's. The studio's heyday was in the 1940's when British producer Alexander Korda, relocated from England, made the studio his home base and filmed classics The Thief of Bagdad {1940} and That Hamilton Woman {1941}with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. The Marx Brothers came out of retirement to make A Night in Casablanca at Hollywood General. In the 50's and 60's TV shows such as I Love Lucy, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Green Acres, Perry Mason and countless others called the Hollywood General home.
Hollywood General Studios
The sale of the 10.5 acre studio to Coppola was announced March 25,1980. The price tag, $6.7 million, was considered a bargain. Coppola also invested $5 million more in renovations for the studio, before a foot of film would be shot, as his working base of operations. The studio would be rechristened Zoetrope General Studios. Coppola's idea of gathering actors, directors, writers, cameramen, etc; putting them under contract, was a throwback to the studio era heyday of the 1930's & 1940's: A repertory company, who would come to the same place to work everyday. No bothersome location work waiting for the light to be just right or replacing parking meters and streetlights that were not in period. Everything would be in a controlled studio environment. It would also be a family, with a 4 day work week, thanks to the new electronic cinema Coppola was working on, which {in theory}would speed up production and lower costs. So the idea was, one would come to work on Monday thru Thursday, then on Friday there would be a big party. Every week. Now the reasoning behind all this was Coppola's experience with Apocalypse Now. A legendary shoot of Murphy's Law, Apocalypse had all kinds of troubles:Coppola's firing his initial lead actor Harvey Keitel; Keitel's replacement Martin Sheen having a heart attack; typhoons destroying sets; the Philippine government recalling choppers Coppola had rented to fight some real battles, due to the fact that the U.S. government refused to cooperate with the making of the film and Coppola needing the Philippines' to make the film. All this contributed to having the budget swell from $12 million to over $30 million, an enormous sum at that time. Consequently the shooting of Apocalypse dragged on and on and on. Ultimately, Apocalypse Now was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1979 and won the Palme d'Or for Best Film. When released in the States, it proved to be a big hit both critically and at the box office and received 8 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for Coppola. Francis' gamble had paid off.
Coppola's state of mind while making Apocalypse Now
Having survived the ordeal, Coppola went into action with One From The Heart. The movie's shoot, all done on the Zoetrope General lot, was to be an antidote to Apocalypse's overruns. According to Wikipedia, the film's budget of $2 million {which seems incredibly low even for 1980}eventually soared to over $25 million. Suddenly everything Coppola had gambled on was riding on this one little movie. If the movie failed Coppola's dream of a studio family and complete autonomy would also fail. All this is taking the long road of saying One From The Heart had a lot more riding on it's shoulders than it should have. Consequently, because of all the press this generated, the critics didn't give the movie a fair shake.
Frannie {Teri Garr}, walking out on Hank {Fredric Forest} to start a new life.
One From The Heart is small story of a couple who have been living together for a number of years and have found that the magic has gone from their relationship. Hank {Fredric Forest} and Frannie {Teri Garr} have gone about as far as they can without doing one of two things : they either get married and possibly start a family or, they can split up and start over with others before it's too late and they find their youth has gone and they end up alone. Hank owns a junkyard with his pal Moe {Harry Dean Stanton}, Frannie works for a travel agency with her friend Maggie {Lainie Kazan}. These are simple people living simple lives and, for Frannie at least, that's not enough. So she leaves Hank and stays with Maggie until she can figure out what she should do, while Hank turns to Moe for guidance. On their own, they both meet other people who show them there may be something or someone else out there for them. For Frannie, it's Ray {Raul Julia}a singer who actually waits tables. For Hank, it's Leila a high wire circus performer. Both are sexy and lead, what seems to Hank and Frannie, exotic, carefree lives. After a night with their new playmates, the bitter cold of morning and the harsh reality of day brings both Frannie and Hank back to the bitter, harsh, ultimate realization that they may be destined to stay together.
Frannie's at work in the display window, with Ray transfixed on her. Note Coppola's use of the window as Ray's reflection of seeing what he is feeling for Frannie.
The film is a kind of throwback to a simpler cinema, a cinema pre-Godfather. More along the lines of Rain People {1969}and You're A Big Boy Now {1967} of people, character and gesture, rather than grandiose themes. I love the film and have since I first saw it after it had made it's way to the {new at time}home video market. I recall wanting to see the film in a theater but it's release was brief, I seem to remember it being shown in my home town for about a week, maybe two at the most. The reason for One From The Heart's short release time was that it was a major, major bomb. Fast on the heels of the infamous Heaven's Gate {1981}, One From The Heart grossed approximately less than $1 million, with the final costs coming in at around $27 million. Total disaster. And the nation's critics didn't care for it either. Roger Ebert called the movie "an interesting production but not a good movie", Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said "A bold experiment in technique and style that doesn't work", Ty Burr of The Boston Globe is quoted as "underwritten and overdirected". The movie currently holds a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The influences of Michael Powell and Vincente Minnelli run through the film, with it's artificial, stylized sets and swooping camera work. The music, sung by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle and written by Mr. Waits, act as a running inner dialog for Frannie and Hank's inner thoughts and feelings. Songs like "Picking Up After You", " Is There Anyway Out Of This Dream?", " I Beg Your Pardon" are character set pieces. The one acclaimed feature from the film was it's songs, which earned an Oscar nomination for Mr. Waits. He lost {natch}.
What I really like about this film are the characters, who are just as messed up as anyone, with no clue as to how to go about communicating what they want. They only know what they have is not enough. Or so they think. In truth {spoilers ahead folks}, Hank and Frannie have what they want. They really do love one another, but like any long term relationship will experience from time to time, it has hit a wall with a resounding thud. The scene where Hank, spurned on by jealousy, follows Frannie to the airport {she is going to BoraBora with Ray}and his pathetic rendering of " You Are My Sunshine ", just as she is boarding the plane, never fails to get to me. Fredric Forest's Hank is a true grabinski. Pot-bellied, somewhat narrow minded and not too bright, Hank is a typical-almost stereotypical-working class male. His one redeeming quality is his basic sweetness. Frannie is the real disenchanted one in the relationship. Wanting more from Hank and a life of quiet desperation, Frannie has had enough of coming home, fixing dinner, taking care of the house and being the good girl for her man. She wants to find romance, to travel to exotic lands, have drinks where they put an umbrella in the glass, and needs passion, maybe even an orgasim or two.
Note the Statue of Liberty on Frannie's left. Liberation, and romance, is what drives her.
When One From The Heart failed and died a miserable death at the box office, Coppola's dream studio ended. He went way out onto the ledge and he lost. Bankrupt, having lost his toy, Coppola had to go, hat in hand, looking for a job. Finding himself in debt, Coppola became the most famous director for hire in Hollywood. A town that doesn't allow failure, Hollywood essentially made him eat shit for the next ten years. Taking jobs that, while maybe not beneath him, were almost certainly not projects he would have chosen to make. It wasn't until 1990 with The Godfather III {ironically another movie he didn't, originally, want to make }and Bram Stoker's Dracula that Coppola got back on his feet financially. Coppola has had an interesting turn of events the last 20 years or so. Financially solvent, with a most successful winery, he has made only 5 movies since 1992's Dracula and, until recently, appeared to forsake directing and concentrate on producing for others, including daughter Sofia. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science in 2010 presented him with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 2002 the Film Society of Lincoln Center likewise honored him. The one organization that has overlooked Coppola's contribution to film is, ironically, the American Film Institute. While toasting colleagues Spielberg, Scorsese and Lucas, Coppola, at one time more successful than all of them, has
yet to be feted by that once-great organization with it's Lifetime Achievement Award. Coppola, who just turned 74 this past April 7th, appears to have settled into a nice, benevolent, middle aged.... godfather.
My first in a series on tough guys is big, bad, Bob Mitchum. Mitch may have given more good performances in more bad or mediocre films than any Hollywood star of his stature.
Born in Connecticut in 1917, Robert Mitchum came up the hard way:riding the rails during the depression, ditch digging and boxing professionally. Down south at 14, Mitchum was arrested for vagrancy and did time on a Georgia chin gang. Somehow Mitchum escaped and went back to his family, now in Delaware. Ever footloose, Mitchum soon rode the rails out to California in 1936 and stayed with his sister, Julie. One of his many jobs was as ghost writer for astrologist Carroll Righter. It was sister Julie who convinced Bob to join the Players Guild of Long Beach where Mitchum worked as a stage hand and sometime bit player for the company. In 1940 Mitchum married his childhood sweetheart Dorothy. Also around this time Mitchum got a job at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation where he would work with a fellow named James Dougherty, who at the time happened to have a girlfriend {and future wife}Norma Jean Baker aka Marilyn Monroe. A nervous breakdown, apparently from job related stress, forced Mitchum to quit Lockheed and he decided to try his luck working in movies.
The image of noir:Fedora, trench coat, wet pavement, Mitchum in the urban jungle. Only thing missing is the cigarette and a dame.
Mitchum broke into films in the early 40's when Hollywood was having a leading man shortage due to several big name actors-Tyrone Power, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, William Holden, Robert Montgomery among others-joined the troops; fighting fascism in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific. In 1943, Mitchum got his first speaking part in a Hopalong Cassidy western, a quickie called Hoppy Serves a Writ. For the young Mitchum, who by this time also had a young son, James, it was a boon or as he would put it, "50 bucks a week and all the hay that I could eat". From that point on, Mitchum never stopped working. Most of the 20-odd films Mitch made on his way to the top were forgettable fare: the western West of the Pecos; a comedy The Girl Rush; Border Patrol; We've Never Been Licked to name but a few. However, he did make a bit of an impression in his two MGM pictures at the time, small parts though they were, in 1943's The Human Comedy and 1944's Twenty Seconds Over Tokyo. Also in 1944, RKO Pictures, an always struggling {now defunct}studio, signed Mitchum to a long term contract with the usual options. Not quite sure what to do with their new piece of beefcake, the studio put him in a couple of westerns. Then in 1945, maverick director William Wellman {Wings, the original A Star is Born, The OxBow Incident} borrowed Mitchum for a important part in his war film The Story of G.I. Joe, as Lt.Walker, a reflective, lonely officer of Company C that journalist Ernie Pyle {Burgess Meredith}immortalized in a series of newspaper articles. The picture was a hit, Mitchum got his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor {he lost}and it made him a star.
The Story of G.I. Joe, 1945
Hollywood in the 1940's sometimes moved so fast that it took awhile before a studio realized what it had in it's own backyard. Thus in 1946, Mitchum was on loan-out to MGM for 1946's Undercurrent, directed by Vincente Minnelli and co-starring a couple of big 1940's names Robert Taylor and Katharine Hepburn {who took none too kindly to Mr. Mitchum, as a relatively inexperienced newcomer, being one of the two stars cast opposite her} and Desire Me starring the Queen of The Metro Lot in the 40's, Miss Greer Garson. Mitchum also appeared in the noirish-western, Raoul Walsh's Pursued with Teresa Wright for Warner Bros. He also had a small yet memorable part in Edward Dymtryk's Till The End Of Time, stealing the show as a war veteran whose inner softness and sensitivity betrays an outer cynicism and hardness, his one and only 1946 film for RKO. It wasn't until 1947, two years after putting him under contract, that Mitchum had a part that was worthy of his talent, 1947's Out Of The Past, RKO's classic example of noir with a femme fatale {the lethal Jane Greer in the performance of her life}, a charming yet dangerous villain {an early portrait by Kirk Douglas}, seductive b&w photography {by the great Nicholas Musuraca}, and a doomed protagonist - not an innocent but not guilty either - who is a victim of fate, played by our man Mitchum.
Mitchum, about to enter the cantina to wait. And wait. And wait. Out of the Past, 1947
The waiting is over. Here she comes, out of the sun, into the shadows. Big Bob is about to be hit by a ton of soft, lush, deadly bricks. Out of the Past, 1947
Look at her. Try to tell yourself you wouldn't be her chump, too. Out of the Past, 1947
Out of the Past changed the Mitchum persona. In G.I. Joe, Mitchum, however laconic, was a man of action. But Out of the Past took his lazy, laconic, easygoing style and turned it into a character flaw. From that point on in his career Mitchum often played a chump. Films like Where Danger Lives, His Kind of Woman, The Lusty Men and especially Otto Preminger's 1953 noir classic Angel Face, show us a Mitchum whose character has little ambition. They're men that-though not old in years-have already witnessed too much of life's frustration and defeat and can be fooled only by love; men who are just floating thru life, until a dangerous woman enters the frame and then it's game over.
The start of Jeff McCloud's long walk home. The Lusty Men, 1952
In 1952 Mitchum took on the role of Jeff McCloud, a former rodeo champ now just trying to get by one day at a time, in The Lusty Men. Also in it are Arthur Kennedy as a ranch hand, wanting more from life and thinking bronco-busting can get it for him, and Susan Hayward as his wife, who only wants a quiet life and a place to call their own. Directed by Nicholas {Rebel Without Cause} Ray, it's a small, lonely film that was overlooked by most critics and nearly all moviegoers in it's day, but it has developed a bit of a reputation as a cult film and gives Mitchum one of his most atypical roles and best, self contained performances. His Jeff McCloud is just a little solitary, just a little melancholy {check out the way he answers the old timer he meets at his old boyhood home when the old man asks McCloud if he has ever been married}and a physical wreck with broken bones left all over the rodeo circuits of the west. The Lusty Men is a kind of stepbrother to Huston's 1961 film The Misfits, with it's black and white photography, the shotty, fringe-dwelling hangouts of the nomadic principle characters; people with no where to go and getting there fast, looking for "a home of their own" in Nicholas Ray's phrase, but destined never to find one.
The right hand says love. Need I tell you what the left hand says? 1955's Night of the Hunter
1955's Night of the Hunter is one of the true masterpieces of expressionistic cinema with the dark, angular camera work by Stanley Cortez {The Magnificent Ambersons} of studio-bound sets, Charles Laughton's only directorial effort is a tour-de-force of evil. Evil personified by the presence of Robert Mitchum. I know more than a few folks who had seen this movie on the late, late show and being scarred for life and never trusting Robert Mitchum again. To some, any role he would play in the future would be measured against his satanic "preacher".
Night of the Hunter. The preacher's wedding night, with Shelley Winters.
Having been busted in 1949 for possession of marijuana, Mitchum would retain the persona of an outcast, a wild man, a loose cannon, someone who is dangerous to be around. The 1949 arrest was big front page news and quite the scandal. Along with Errol Flynn's rape trial, Ingrid Bergman's near-career-ending affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini and Fatty Arbuckle's rape trial, Mitchum's arrest for possession is one of the legendary scandals of Tinseltown. Put yourself in the time frame of the late 40's/early 50's: Men and women didn't openly "play house", women didn't have children out of wedlock, only junkies smoked reefer, to name but a few taboos of the day. Now put yourself in Mitchum's place and one would have to figure,"my career is over". Not only that, he was busted in the home of a woman who was not his wife. So in addition to his career, Mitchum could have also have lost his wife and his family. Ouch. Mitchum was convicted, served his time:7 days in county jail {His take on it: "Like Palm Springs, without the riff-raff."}and 43 days in the Castaic, California prison farm, said the right things about being "sorry" and so on. Mitchum must have been relieved when he found out that his career wasn't going to be thrown away like an old newspaper. The reason for this: Howard Hughes' RKO went into major damage control to save their number one box-office star. The studio paired Mitchum up with Out of the Past co-star Jane Greer for a noir The Big Steal and a family Christmas themed comedy with Janet Leigh, Holiday Affair. These two films showed Mitchum as both tough and tender. The films clicked, as did many snapshots of Bob home playing daddy and good hubby for public consumption. Mitchum was off and running for another 40 years of stardom. And he got to keep his wife and kids. Or vice versa.
Doin' time.
Out of the clink.Mitchum emerges, bigger than ever.
In 1954 Mitchum's RKO contract ended and he began free lancing. 20th Century-Fox for Preminger's Point of No Return with Marilyn Monroe, Stanley Kramer's all-star snooze-fest Not As A Stranger, John Huston's Heaven Knows, Mr, Allison, the first of 3 movies with Deborah Kerr. Also during his mid-50's career, Mitchum was fired from John Wayne's Batjac production of William Wellman's Blood Alley opposite Lauren Bacall. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut To The Chase, Mitchum showed up to the San Francisco location after a night of heavy drinking and tore a room apart when he found out he was not promised a driver for the location filming and quit or was replaced after 3 days filming claiming he couldn't work with director Wellman. Now this is the same director who 10 years earlier cast Mitch in G.I. Joe the picture that made him a star of the first order and he and Wellman had just made 1954's Track Of The Cat, a psychological western filmed in color but using mostly a black & white color scheme. Couldn't work with Wellman? Clearly Mitchum had some issues to work out with himself. As the years past the 50's gave way to the 60's, Mitchum would continue
to grow as an actor, at times essaying portraits in films one would not
have expected of him. Vincente Minnelli's Home From The Hill and Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners
from 1960 and both, especially the Zinnemann film, becoming hits with
critics and audiences. In fact one could make a strong case for 1960
being Mitchum's Annus mirabilis, his year of years, as he was voted The
National Board of Review Critics Award as it's Best Actor of 1960 for
the two previously mentioned films. Oscar, as usual, turned a deaf ear.
Part, if not all, of Mitchum's problem with the Hollywood community {and
thus, Oscar}is his rep as a bad boy. As Max Cady in1962's Cape Fear, Mitchumfeeds off that rep showing the audience a study in sadistic bullying, threatening intimidation and finally, all-out physical violence.
1962 also brought the all-star WWII epic The Longest Day and Two For The Seesaw, which paired him up for the first time with Shirley MacLaine. According to her memoir My Lucky Stars, in which Miss MacLaine dishes on the famous co-stars from her many films, she and Mitchum had an affair which lasted several years. Although she was in love with Mitchum, MacLaine eventually called it quits when it became increasingly clear that he would never leave his wife. The 60's brought a lot of junk Mitchum's way too: The Last Time I Saw Archie a feeble comedy, the jungle adventure film Rampage; Man In The Middle; a couple of westerns Villa Ride and 5 Card Stud and the artsy-fartsy Secret Ceremony with Mia Farrow and Liz Taylor. A couple of good ones came out of the mid to late 60's too. Howard Hawks' El Dorado with Duke Wayne {who apparently held no grudge against Mitch for the Blood Alley debacle}and a very young James Caan in what is essentially a re-working of Hawks' 1959 western classic Rio Bravo with Mitchum replacing Dean Martin as the drunk law enforcer of a small west Texas town. The other movie Mitchum made that I have a fond memories of is 1965's African-adventure saga called Mister Moses with pistol-hot Carroll Baker of Baby Doll and The Carpetbagger's fame. I say memories because I haven't seen this movie in at least 20 years, as it seems to be forgotten and never shows up on the cable channels I receive. Never put out to the home video market in any form, I recall seeing it on KCOP TV Channel 13 back in the 80's and was quite taken with Mitchum's portrayal of a con man trying to get an African tribe to relocate it's location, but as to the reason it must relocate is something I have completely forgotten. Made by the British director Ronald Neame, photographed by Oswald Morris, with a music score by John Barry. Perhaps a company like Olive Films, who have rescued several older movies from complete extinction in recent years, will come along and save it from lost-movie-purgatory.
On the beach with Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter, 1970
The 70's brought a new Mitchum. A kind of kinder, gentler Mitchum, a Robert for the New Age/New Male 70's. Oh Bob could still be big, bad and tough if the situation warranted it {such as 1972's Wrath of God and The Yakuza from 1975 would demonstrate} but there would be parts like the kind, cuckolded schoolmaster/ husband of Sarah Miles' Rosy Ryan in David Lean's much maligned Ryan's Daughter; 1971's Going Home with Mitchum as a man just released from prison for the murder of his wife, a crime which occurred years before, and having to deal with his young son {Jan-Michael Vincent} and the obvious issues they must deal with; 1976's The Last Tycoon starring Robert DeNiro as a Irving Thalberg-like movie studio head and Mitchum playing an L.B. Mayer type who pretty much opposes DeNiro at every turn and 1978's remake of the Bogart and Bacall classic, The Big Sleep. Directed by Michael Winner {Death Wish 1,2 and 3 The Nightcomers, The Sentinel]}, the remake changes locales from southern California 1940's to London, England circa 1978; to me that right there is a major flaw. The cast is a good one, though: Sarah Miles {taking the Bacall part}, James Stewart, Richard Boone, John Mills, Joan Collins, Candy Clark, Edward Fox. But Mitchum {whose presence is still being felt in every frame} in his second go round as Raymond Chandler's gumshoe, cannot do much to elevate the script, faithful though it is to the source novel; Winner's direction is by the numbers and his pacing flacid. The 70's also brought a couple of films I have yet to see, The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The Amsterdam Kill. In 1974 Mitchum was set to play in Rosebud, an international thriller with Otto Preminger at the helm for what would be the third time in for a Mitchum movie. But it wasn't meant to be. Bringing back shades of his Blood Alley debacle, reportedly Mitchum showed up on location in Corsica drunk. On location for two weeks, Mitchum had worked a total of three days. As reported in Lee Server's terrific bio of Mitchum called Baby, I Don't Care, Mitchum gets bored and moves from professional actor to erratic liability, fighting with Preminger and being replaced by Peter O'Toole, another actor with a hell-raising, hard drinking reputation.{Mitchum's take on it:"O'Toole! Hell, that's like replacing Ray Charles with Helen Keller"}.
Lobby card for Farewell, My Lovely, 1975
Which brings me to what may be my favorite Mitchum movie of all-time. Its certainly is one of my favorite Mitchum performances: 1975's Farewell, My Lovely.Critics at the time liked Mitchum's take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. As pointed out by critics at the time, Mitchum, at 57, was least at decade too old; yet he made the part his own. My only regret is that he didn't play the part earlier. Made fast on the heels of that other all-time great neo-noir Chinatown {1974}, Farewell, My Lovely takes Mitchum's age factor and put it front and center in the opening voice over narration, with Marlowe explaining to the audience that he is holed up in a seedy hotel and coming to grips with "the plain fact that I am tired, and growing old". The femme fatale is played by Charlotte Rampling, fresh from her romp with Dirk Bogarde in the explicit, controversial The Night Porter, and though British, she brings the right amount of Bacall-esque sultriness the part requires. As Marlowe, Mitchum is tough and seen it all but shows great empathy toward some of the characters; the old floozy Jessie Florian, ex-bandleader Tommy Ray and his family, even for the big lug who hired him and started the whole thing, Moose Malloy. The film also features an early Sylvester Stallone, pre-Rocky, as one of the thugs who works for Madame Frances Amthor.
Released on August 8, 1975, Farewell, My Lovely reminded fans and critics alike why Robert Mitchum was a great screen actor. There was buzz about a possible Oscar nomination, with his increasing age making him a sentimental favorite. But, no. Hollywood chose to look away and ignore another great Mitchum performance. And it was his last great one, too
The 80's brought a few theatrical releases, most of them negligible. In 1982, age 65 and still capable of doing good work, Mitchum made his dramatic small screen debut in the noir-ish mystery One Shoe Makes It Murder with Angie Dickinson. A year later, Mitchum was absolutely frightening in the TV movie A Killer In The Family, as the title role. Then came the big behemoth 1983's TV event of the decade, the adaptation of Herman Wouk's bestseller The Winds Of War. In it Mitch is Victor "Pug" Henry, a middle aged Naval officer and confidante of FDR. The mini-series was well received by the critics and TV viewers alike. It was a reunion of sorts for Mitchum; Polly Bergen who played Gregory Peck's wife in Cape Fear was cast as Mitchum's wife, Jan-Michael Vincent played his son, just as he did in 1971's Going Home and Peter Graves who appeared with Mitchum in The Night Of The Hunter in 1955. Also in the extravaganza were Ali MacGraw, John Houseman and Ralph Bellamy. In 1988, it's sequel War and Remembrance, was broadcast to acclaim and huge ratings, though most reviews noted that at 71, Mitchum had become too old for the part whose character was about 50 in the book.
Group Portrait. The Winds Of War, 1983
The last nine years brought mostly cameos {Scrooged, the remake of Cape Fear}and some TV spots including a weekly sitcom called A Family For Joe. Broadcast in 1990 on Saturday nights at 8pm, it ran for nine episodes and was cancelled. His last filmed performance came in something called James Dean:Race With Destiny in 1997. In 1996 when he was informed that his lungs were shot from too many cigarettes, doctors wanted to put him in hospital, but he refused. Robert Mitchum died at home in Montecito, California on July1,1997 at the age of 79. His wife Dorothy, still with him after all those years, had gone into his room to check on him. He had stopped breathing. She kissed him, one last time. Peace had finally come for Robert Mitchum.
"I don't want to die."
"Neither do I baby, but if I do....I want to die last."
Quote from Out Of The Past
Sources: Baby, I Don't Care by Lee Server
Wikipedia's Robert Mitchum page
My Lucky Stars by Shirley MacLaine
Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies: Robert Mitchum by John Belton
And the movies of Robert Mitchum
In case anyone has noticed, I am having a little trouble putting thoughts down on keyboard here in blogland. I am working on several things including a Robert Mitchum piece as part of an on-going series on movie Tough Guys {much like my Crush of the Week has been}, a Billy Wilder thing-a-ma-jig, some articles on my favorite character actors {Peter Lorre, George Sanders, etc;}and a couple of other things I have been juggling but can't quite seem to finish {in some cases, even start}.
Mitchum seems unimpressed with my road block issues.
Call it lack of motivation, call it laziness, call it life getting in the way, or call it any damn thing you please. One of my goals for 2013 was to be more productive on this thing, this blog that has given me so much satisfaction these {almost} 2 years. In fact, in May it will be 2 years and I would like to cook up something special, but creativity is at an all-time low at the present. Any suggestions would be helpful. I would measure them with a grain of salt. Even as I write this ideas are leaving my brain and moving on to other body parts.So I will close this brief post with one of my inspirations:Oscar Levant. Levant is one of several legends I have yet to touch on. His sharp, witty mind {like razor blades}, his talent as an actor, concert pianist, talk show host and self destructive behavior seems like a perfect fit for my jagged sensibility.
I was never voted anything, but the second quote seems apt.
Miss Novak's lovely back in Strangers When We Meet, 1960.
Unlike Elizabeth Taylor, Hepburn {Audrey}, Grace Kelly and other Hollywood actresses and sex symbols that rose to stardom in the 1950's, Kim Novak, having celebrated her 80th birthday last month, is still with us. Because she was unfairly compared to that other blonde bombshell of the 50's, Marilyn Monroe, Novak possibly hasn't registered as heavily as she should have. In fact aside from being blonde and beautiful, when it came to their screen persona Novak and Monroe had nothing in common. Whereas Marilyn's screen image that has passed down through the years is of a somewhat innocent, childlike creature almost unaware of her sexuality, Novak's screen character's are generally more somber, isolated, melancholy and she is completely aware of the power she has over men, sometimes to her regret. In her private life she seemed a reluctant goddess, turning her back on Hollywood in the late 60's and, though there would be brief comebacks in the 70's and 80's, she never really returned.
Giving her all for her art: Novak as Mildred in 1964's Of Human Bondage.
In the 1960 film Strangers When We Meet, which contains one of Novak's best performance's and is a favorite film of mine, helmed by her one time fiance and maybe her best director Richard Quine {the pair would end up making 4 films together}, Novak playing an unhappily married housewife, continually rebuffs married architect Kirk Douglas' advances until her resolve breaks down and she plunges into an affair that is at times sexy, tawdry, sensitive, yet ultimately doomed not to last. A time capsule film, Strangers When We Meet seems wonderfully perceptive when confronting the mores and morals of the late 50's and challenges anything Douglas Sirk was doing over at Universal Studios around the same time. It would also be of interest to any Mad Men fans.
Novak as the lonely housewife, Maggie, getting ready to leave the no-tell-motel she shares with Kirk Douglas, Strangers When We Meet.
Perfectly cast in Hitchcock's Vertigo from 1958, Kim gives us two Novak's:The ethereal Madeleine and the down to earth working girl Judy. Novak, who always had a somewhat dreamy quality, was perhaps better suited to the Madeleine character than the common Judy. Her portrayal of the sad, lost Madeleine rings true, with Novak giving an almost effortless performance and is as much a part of the film's continued success as James Stewart's Scottie, Bernard Herrmann's influential musical score and Sir Alfred's steady pacing and flowing images. The film has grown in stature so much that in 2012 Vertigo was voted by the British film publication Sight And Sound, in a poll begun in 1952 and done every ten years since, as the #1 film of all-time, the first time since 1962 that the honor wasn't awarded Citizen Kane {maybe we can now simply enjoy that picture without having that 50 year burden of All-Time Greatest Film hanging over it}
As the haunted Madeleine in Hitchcock's Vertigo, 1958
One of my favorite movie's of Novak's and one that gets overlooked is 1964's Of Human Bondage with Lawrence Harvey. In it she plays the low class waitress Mildred, the same role that Bette Davis made her own in 1934. Mildred's character takes advantage of the club-footed, failed-art-student-now medical student Phillip {Lawrence Harvey}. It was a stretch for her, with a cockney accent and a down-to-earth opportunistic demeanor, Mildred is not the type of part she would normally take but Novak was obviously looking for challenges. Supposedly the film was a difficult shoot. Originally Henry Hathaway, an old hand at John Wayne westerns, was hired. Hathaway had just completed the Wayne opus Circus World and was probably not the right man for the job. He left production early on and retreated to more comfortable ground with The Sons of Katie Elder, another Wayne western. Ken Hughes took over direction. Novak and co-star Harvey didn't see eye to eye and working with him was a strain for her. In the book Kim Novak On Camera by Larry Kleno, Kim is quoted "For some reason, known only to him, he refused to talk to me except in the line of duty" {Novak was another in a long line of actresses who didn't get along with Harvey}. The good thing is that none of this shows on screen. In fact their roles on screen are somewhat the reverse of their off-screen situation, with Novak being the bitch and Harvey having a forgiving nature and not being able to let go of his feeling for Mildred. I like the film and admire the effort of all involved but at the time it was considered a failure both with the public and critics. The movie is worth seeking out {it plays on Turner Classic Movies from time to time} for Novak's atypical work, Oswald Morris's photography, John Box' production design which perfectly capture gas lit London and Ron Goodwin's memorable score.
Larry shows Kim how he really feels about her, 1964's Of Human Bondage
Other Novak movies worth a look or two are Richard Quine's Bell, Book and Candle with Novak as the witch Gillian who casts a spell on Jimmy Stewart, Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm with Sinatra impressive as a druggie trying to get clean and Novak as a "hostess" of a nightclub who tries to help him to go straight, as Madge {the "Pretty One"} in Joshua Logan's Picnic opposite William Holden, the noir drama Pushover under Quine's direction with Fred MacMurray as the poor sap who falls for her charms and Pal Joey a not-to-faithful adaptation of the 1940 Rogers & Hart Broadway musical about a heel nightclub entertainer {Frank Sinatra} who charms his way into the life of rich society dame Rita Hayworth, while also trying to get Novak's Linda English in the sack. These films, all from the 50's and all big, big hits helped Novak to be voted 9th in Quigley Publications annual top ten list of 1956.
Novak with Pyewacket, Bell, Book and Candle 1958
While under exclusive contract to Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures in the 1950's, Novak got deferential treatment at the studio with top scripts, directors, co-stars, cameramen. She was given the best of everything. When Harry Cohn's heart gave out on February 27, 1958 Novak's career would never quite be the same. Cohn had discovered, nurtured, pampered, disciplined {Novak's "friendship" with Sammy Davis,Jr caused Cohn no end of grief}, molded her into a rival of Monroe's and also to replace Columbia's aging sex symbol Rita Hayworth. With Cohn gone Novak's career lost much of it's steam. Her box office allure took a slow fade to black as the 60's went psychedelic, yet 1964's Kiss Me, Stupid, co-starring Dean Martin at the peak of his popularity and Billy Wilder at the helm, must have seemed a good idea at the time. But when the film was released, it was condemned as a filthy near-porn movie by the Catholic Church, which forbid it's parishioners from seeing it and the movie's critic's tarred and feathered writer/director Wilder, who some felt had gone too far in his tastelessness with this tale of a hooker who poses as the wife of an aspiring songwriter, essentially pimping her out to sell his song to Dino-who is stuck in a desert town overnight with car trouble-while the aspiring composer's real wife, through circumstance's far to intricate to relate here, winds up in the hooker's trailer and has a one night fling with Dino. Ring-a-ding-ding!
1968's Legend of Lylah Claire
In 1968, after three years away from the screen, Novak came back to give her last real stab as the lead in a Hollywood feature in Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Claire. Her last few films not being particularly successful, a lot was riding on Lylah Claire's success. If it didn't hit big with the public Kim would be pretty much through as an A-List Hollywood star. In it Kim plays Else Brinkman a struggling actress in Hollywood going nowhere. Because of Elsie's striking resemblance to her, she is hired to playin a biopic about the mythic Lylah Claire, a kind of Garbo-Dietrich star from the golden days of the movies who died years earlier amid scandal and innuendo. Peter Finch plays her Svengali/Sternberg-ish director/former lover and Ernest Borgnine plays a Harry Cohn-like studio head who is funding the picture. Director Aldrich coming off 1967's mega hit The Dirty Dozen - although an entirely different kind of movie from Lylah - was hotter than a firecracker on the 4th of July, but he had some experience with this kind of story, as The Big Knife {his 1955 take on what was a version of the John Garfield story} demonstrated, so Kim's decision to take the part, whatever private thoughts of the script she may have harbored, showed a shrewdness on her part. She clearly wanted Lylah to put her back to her pre-1962 days. Well, it didn't happen. Lylah Claire has gone down in history as one of those "Guilty Pleasures" of cinema, a movie perhaps only appreciated by a movie-drunk-on-movies cinephile like myself, and as big a box office bomb as Dirty Dozen was a hit.
Kim, casual in the 70's.
That pretty much ended Novak's career as any kind of force in Hollywood. She would come back now and then, once in a while, in films which she may have been the female lead - White Buffalo opposite 70's tough guy Charles Bronson or the 1979 curio, hard-to-see Just A Gigolo, one of David Bowie's forays into film that also contains Marlene Dietrich's last screen appearance - but her career essentially ended in the 60's. One of the few bright spots in her post-60's filmography is the1980 Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mirror Crack'd, that co-starred Kim with such 50's stalwarts as Rock Hudson playing a movie director/husband to Elizabeth Taylor's fragile actress and Tony Curtis doing his best Sidney Falco from Sweet Smell of Success as a bottom-line producer. But stealing the show as diva movie star Lola Brewster, delivering some of the movie's best lines and looking like a million bucks, was Kim Novak. The scenes with La Liz are like outtakes from Cukor's The Women or Mankiewicz' All About Eve : Bitchy!! I love Taylor, but she did not look her best in this movie - she appears to be rather frumpy - and when she and Novak have their picture taken together for a publicity gathering of the film Hudson and Curtis are trying to make, Novak says to Liz "Chin up, dear. Both of them". What a moment! Unfortunately that kind dialogue doesn't hold up for the entire movie and Novak has only a handful of scenes, but she makes them count and leaves the strongest impression in the picture.
Novak, with Rock & Liz, looking like a million dollars in The Mirror Crack'd
In a recently televised interview with Robert Osbourne on Turner Classic Movies {taped from 2012's TCM Classic Film Festival} Novak mentioned that she would have liked to have gotten more, or at least some, recognition from her peers in the film industry. Novak went on to say her life has been a good one, that she doesn't have any regrets, yet one could sense a sadness and longing to have some respect for her efforts. Osbourne said that he hoped she appreciated the turn out from fans at the film festival and an emotional Novak said yes she did and it seemed to mean a lot to her. The fact that in 2012 Vertigo was named the # 1 film by Sight & Sound,proves that Kim Novak is appreciated. Long after bigger stars have come and gone and been forgotten, Kim Novak will live on through her films and her work in them.For that reason and also because she is, was and always will be hot, Kim Novak is my Crush of the Week {and beyond}.
Sources : Kim Novak on Camera by Larry Kleno
TCM's Interview with Kim Novak
Ok, so here I am again gloating. I got 6 of the 8 categories correct, not as good as last years 7 of 8 but not too bad. I thought I was in some deep shit when Waltz won Supporting Actor because no one, I mean no one, picked him to win. It was suppose to be between DeNiro and Tommy Lee Jones. So that little surprise set me up early for some shockers that, to be honest, never materialized. Looking back, I think Tarantino winning for Original Screenplay was something I had overlooked. I didn't take into account how much the Academy feared a win for Mark Boal. For his acceptance speech could have been a real lollapalooza about political suppression and smear campaigns that Oscar didn't want to deal with. Has Hollywood and more specifically the Academy of Arts & Sciences gotten that gutless? Remember these moments :
And poignant moments like this :
The only Oscar Cary Grant, above, would ever get, four years after he made his last film
Charlie Chaplin, above, receives a Lifetime Achievement Oscar twenty years after being exiled from America for being an "undesirable" Communist sympathizer. This closed the Oscar show in 1972.
Stanley Donen, above, giving one of the best acceptance speeches ever for his Lifetime award.
I remember when I saw these events as they happened and every year I tune in to the Oscars hoping there will be a memorable moment like these. But I gotta tell you, the last ten years or so have been pretty bland. And the fact that the Academy has regulated the special Lifetime Achievement, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian and Irving Thalberg Award to a separate time and place and then show just bits from that ceremony, robs the Oscars of it's heart, it's history and, yes, it's sentimentality. My first thought when Jennifer Lawrence got stuck on her dress and fell was " OMG poor thing ". I also immediately after that said to myself, "yes! Awesome". Because something unscripted happened and it was something memorable, however humiliating for her { I'm sure she is over it by now }.
JLaw's "oh shit!" moment.
As for the show and it's entertainment value, I kind of liked it. Yes it ran too long, the musical tributes were bogus {if one is going to honor musicals in movies why limit it to the past ten years? And who gives a shit about a Chicago cast reunion, like it's some kind of West Side Story or Sound of Music reunion?} But I liked Seth MacFarlane, thought his jokes were generally funny and in bad taste {if you're funny, taste goes out the window} and after the first fifteen minutes or so, it's all awards and little humor anyway.
I'd like nominate, on second thought declare, Quentin Tarantino the winner as "Worst Dressed Male", the dude may be able to write some snappy dialogue but he needs a fashion guru. But I didn't watch the red carpet nonsense cuz I don't care who anyone is wearing. I'm over with all the ladies dressing up like it's prom night at the local high school. It's plain boring and no one really cares if you wear Valentino or Versace or whoever. The "interviews" are lame as well. I say, do away with the red carpet altogether.
So, as far as Oscar is concerned, that's all from Tinseltown this year. Only the Tinsel is wearing a bit thin. Maybe next year will give us all some real surprises.
This Sunday, Feb. 24th, are the Oscar's and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I always watch the show. They may not mean much to me anymore, but Oscar is the only award show I have to see. Maybe it's because I remember when I thought winning an Oscar really meant something. Well, I was young and naive and I now realize winning an Oscar doesn't mean a damn thing, except to the folks who win one. Last year my Oscar predictions were pretty awesome. Of the top 8 catagories I got 7 of them right. This year I may not do as well. Little more of a crapshoot in some of the races. I won't give a rundown of all the nominees so if you wanna know who they are, Google it. But here are my predictions. Are you ready? Here we go:
Best Picture - Argo
Best Actor - Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor - Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actress - Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Best Director - Ang Lee, Life Of Pi
Best Original Screenplay - Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Adapted Screenplay - Chris Terrio, Argo
My picks and I'm sticking with them. These are the ones I think will win. I don't want all of them to win, but I think they will. Some are tough calls. DeNiro has stiff competition from Tommy Lee Jones and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. All the Supporting Actors have won an Oscar before, but I think Bobby D may have the edge. Silver Linings is a most enjoyable film and DeNiro, a great actor, has spent far too long in the wilderness making a lot of crappy movies and giving uninspired performances. I think Oscar will welcome him back home. The Adapted screenplay vote for Argo is mostly based on the fact that Affleck failed to get a Director nom, despite his winning the DGA. There is no way Argo can take Best Pic and not take Screenplay. Best Director is the toughest call. Will Spielberg beat out Ang Lee? Maybe. Lincoln is predictable, stately and unimaginative but Spielberg is Spielberg and may be tough to beat. If little Stevie beats out Ang Lee it won't be by much as I feel they are neck and neck going down the stretch. I would love to see David O.Russell win for Silver Linings, but I don't think it's gonna happen so my bet is on Lee for Life of Pi. For Supporting Actress I would prefer to see Amy Adams over Anne Hathaway. I liked Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings but would like to see someone else get Best Actress. Lawrence is only 22 and has time on her side to win for a different movie. But I feel she will win, she's the flavor of the month, the new Julia Roberts and Hollywood loves a golden girl, the fairy tale princess. If she wins she will have no where to go but down. Unlike their male counterparts, Actresses have a history of winning young. Males, not so much { no male under 29 has ever won Best Actor }. 28 women under the age of 30 have won Best Actress, so Lawrence seems to have age on her side as well. The shoo-ins are DD-Lewis for Best Actor and Hathaway and Argo for Picture. So enjoy the show and check back a day or two after the awards and we will review how I did or didn't do.
