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Post by manfromplanetx on May 29, 2020 22:35:28 GMT
" I kept the same suit for six years and the same dialogue. They just changed the title of the picture and the leading lady " "I gave up being serious about making pictures around the time I made a film with Greer Garson and she took one hundred and twenty-five takes to say no"... The kind of modesty those statements reflect were very much a part of the "Baby, I don't care" image that this most self-deprecating of actors projected, but I don't believe for a minute that he ever didn't take his craft seriously. A don't-sweat-it attitude must certainly have been an inherent part of his natural personality; an aspect of his ability to own the screen with confidence and authority without appearing to do much of anything. It enabled him to sail through a conviction and brief sentence for possession of marijuana in the mid-'40s which, rather than tarnish his public image, burnished it. It's what they call "star quality." As Katherine Hepburn told Dick Cavett on that subject in the '70s, "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, I've got it." What more can there be to say about it? Mitchum had it. But those natural gifts alone don't account for the performances he put onto the screen in films like Track Of the Cat, The Night Of the Hunter, The Sundowners, Cape Fear or Ryan's Daughter. Mitchum reportedly said about his profession, "It sure beats working." And it clearly suited him to leave the impression with the public of just a laid-back guy who lucked into a career that brought him fortune, celebrity and adulation. But performances like those don't happen by accident, and while watching his work, I'm convinced that he knew exactly what he was doing every second, was fully committed to it and was a true "thinking man's actor." Many Thanks doghouse6.... I greatly appreciated your valuable comments & insight which compliment the photo collection especially at the beginning the album. The photos here backing your comments clearly putting to rest many of Mitchum"s nonchalant "modesty statements" so famously oft quoted. I did have a similar rave but not as expressive after that first quote but decided on a bare minimum narrative to focus on the pictorial. PS Thanks for The Dancing Masters , stretching the point certainly... but its a personal thing, I just cannot bring myself to click the like button with having such an aversion to that irritating duo...
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Post by Doghouse6 on May 29, 2020 23:36:13 GMT
Many Thanks doghouse6.... I greatly appreciated your valuable comments & insight which compliment the photo collection especially at the beginning the album. The photos here backing your comments clearly putting to rest many of Mitchum"s nonchalant "modesty statements" so famously oft quoted. I did have a similar rave but not as expressive after that first quote but decided on a bare minimum narrative to focus on the pictorial. PS Thanks for The Dancing Masters , stretching the point certainly... but its a personal thing, I just cannot bring myself to click the like button with having such an aversion to that irritating duo... And many thanks for your kindness. Also, no worries about my facetious submission of L&H. We don't like what we don't like and that's all there is to it. I'm rather that way about Martin & Lewis. Funny thing about comedy (if you'll forgive the lame play on words): there's just no explaining why some respond to this or that joke, this or that team or this or that style, and others don't. It's probably one of the great mysteries of entertainment. Just to make it more mysterious, my hubby claims to hate the Marx Brothers, but always laughs at them when I happen to be watching them. And in between laughs, he says, "Can we please switch to something else?" He's the same way with Woody Allen and Bob Hope. A couple years back, I watched a multi-part documentary on The Three Stooges that was produced and narrated by Moe Howard's son, which gave me a new appreciation for the craft of conception and skill of execution that went into their routines. During their bits, I'd be thinking, "This is really well done." But I still didn't laugh. Like I said, mysterious. Pardon me for going off on a tangent on your thread about Bob Mitchum (who was pretty funny in What A Way To Go simply by playing it straight).
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