best film: Out of the Past. Most would say Night of the Hunter but I still find some weaknesses in Charles Laughton’s only film as director that I can’t find in Out of the Past. Mitchum maybe be slightly stronger (or at least louder in his brilliance) in Night of the Hunter but Out of the Past is narrative precision at its finest, features a talented ensemble, and the outcome is a hallmark film of the noir genre. Mitchum does the heavy lifting in front of the camera and I’m not sure that script sounds as good if there’s any other actor on the planet (living or dead) doing the voice over.
best performance: Night of the Hunter has a fair amount of time with no Mitchum on screen and for that period of time it’s a fine film- some flaws- entertaining but not exceptional. It’s when Mitchum comes on the screen that the film takes off. His Harry Powell is an all-time hypocrite, charlatan and all around villain. It’s a haunting portrayal and the hymns (sung beautifully by Mitchum’s booming baritone) and love/hate monologue are justifiably legendary at this point.
stylistic innovations/traits: Mitchum is a bit of an anomaly as he’s largely done this without the backing of a singular collaborative auteur (he doesn’t have a Fincher, PT Anderson, Ford, Kurosawa) and he was ignored by the Academy (one supporting nom- non-win- in a film that isn’t in the archives (The Story of GI Joe– 1945)). He’s here because of two reasons: 1. Villains and 2. Noir. His trio of films at the top of his 10 best performances feature two turns as villains (Cape Fear, Night of the Hunter) and one noir. It’s one of the best 5 noirs of all-time (and Mitchum here is the greatest male lead in a film noir) and as far as villains if you’re making a short list of best performances by an actor in a villainous role I don’t think you could get past the top 6 or so (Health Ledger in Dark Knight, Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs and a few others)—but you’d have two Mitchum performances). It also doesn’t hurt that in Cape Fear you have De Niro (spoiler alert but he’s a top 5 actor of all-time at least) who remakes and takes on the same role as Mitchum and Mitchum wins in that square off battle. Mitchum isn’t about versatility or range. He plays himself (or the screen version of himself) largely—an existential loner, an outsider who doesn’t give a rip. Mitchum called the dialogue “lyrics” and there’s a rhythm to his way of speaking. I don’t really believe as the actor as auteur but he makes a case here—his character is always in the know, brooding, with his destiny always set.
directors worked with: Preminger (2) and then once a piece with Nichloas Ray, Hawks, Lean, Kazan and then small roles with Scorsese and Jarmusch in the 90’s.
Top 10 Performances:
- Night of the Hunter
- Out of the Past
- Cape Fear
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle
- The Lusty Men
- The Big Steal
- El Dorado
- Crossfire
- Angel Face
- River of No Return
Archiveable films
| 1944- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo |
| 1947- Crossfire |
| 1947- Out of the Past |
| 1947- Pursued |
| 1948- Blood on the Moon |
| 1949- The Big Steal |
| 1951- His Kind of Woman |
| 1952- The Lusty Men |
| 1953- Angel Face |
| 1954- River of No Return |
| 1954- Track of the Cat |
| 1955- Night of the Hunter |
| 1962- Cape Fear |
| 1962- The Longest Day |
| 1967- El Dorado |
| 1970- Ryan’s Daughter |
| 1973- The Friends of Eddie Coyle |
| 1976- The Last Tycoon |
| 1991- Cape Fear |
| 1995- Dead Man |
I think Mitchum is terrific in The Sundowners.
Robert Mitchum month on Criterion, very excited! His performance in Out of the Past is one of the greatest film noir performances ever.
It got me thinking, is there a modern day Robert Mitchum?
@James Trapp- I saw that, too. Exciting. I do not see a modern day Robert Mitchum sadly. Seems like one of a kind.
@Drake – “Seems like one of a kind”. agreed, Roger Ebert called him the “soul of film noir” and obviously Hollywood is much different today so a modern Robert Mitchum probably does not really exist. It was cool seeing him in Dead Man (1995) with Johnny Depp which seems like a strange thing to say, always interesting when actors/actresses from different eras cross paths.
@James Trapp- Yeah on one of these pages I talked about how at home Mitchum was in both an urban (noir) and rural (western) setting. Pretty rare. Compare that with Bogart and John Wayne.
@Drake – interesting, yeah I could kind of see Bogie in a Western. Seeing Wayne in film noir would be strange though. Just watched Mitchum’s Cape Fear, impressive performance. I liked the Scorsese version better, it’s more over the top but in a way that works. Mitchum was great though my bigger issue there was Peck’s performance was substantially weaker than Nick Nolte’s.
There is an excellent case that he gave the best performance of either sex in both 1947 and ’55.. He’s so casually badass and world weary in Out of the Past (that delivery of “build my gallows high, baby” my God it gives me goosebumps every time) and he’s one of the most frightening and unforgettable villains of all time in The Night of the Hunter.