So I've been preparing for months. And months. And months for a Robert Mitchum Week. A follow up on my highly successful Norma Shearer Week. It made sense. Norma Shearer is my favorite actress so why wouldn't I do a second themed week with my favorite actor Robert Mitchum.
I read the Robert Mitchum biography Baby I Don't Care by Lee Server and I watched various documentaries on Mitchum's life and work. I've been viewing Robert Mitchum movies from various sources: old videotapes, Netflix, YouTube, even Hulu. I've even been listening to his Calypso album! So why couldn't I pull off Robert Mitchum week?
First off, I wanted to write all the pieces together. In one fell swoop. Every time I came up with a brilliant idea for a post, I'd tuck back into the recesses of my brain for later use only to have said ideas lost in the void that is my mind. Plus I had way too many ideas to cram into just one week. I thought about doing a whole Robert Mitchum month but I didn't have enough content for that. And that was a lot of pressure to put on myself.
How about a Robert Mitchum 1 week and a half? Or two weeks and a third?
Did I mention I have to write a review on a Mitchum-related book for a publisher? Yeah. I better get on that.
Then there was the bio. Oh how I dreaded writing that bio. How am I going to cram Robert Mitchum's crazy life and prolific career into a few paragraphs?
So this morning I decided to toss Robert Mitchum Week out the window and just have what I call "A Veritable Robert Mitchum Explosion". I'm going to post lots of Mitchum stuff, willy-nilly, no form, no structure, just Mitchum stuff spewed onto this blog, in post form. And you know what, I feel liberated. I feel like a poet who was try to cram thoughts into a haiku but decided to use free-form poetry instead.
Watch this space as I proceed to post about Mitchum, in all his glory, with no schedule or structure at all.
I'll be here!
ReplyDeleteA while ago saw Macao (not his best but pretty good) and I've been thinking of RM ever since.
Hi Viridian - Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll like my series. I like Macao mostly because I think Mitchum and Russell were superb together. I much prefer His Kind of Woman though!
ReplyDeleteYay Bob! Grab a hold of those jugs! :)
ReplyDeleteThis will be an exciting series!
I couldn’t help it. I just had to give you this award:
ReplyDeletehttp://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-skies-are-gray.html
Keep up the good work!
Will look forward to this! That lead off picture does get one's attention.
ReplyDeleteLoving the idea! Can't wait !
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteJust curious what documentaries you would recommend on Mr. Mitchum. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteJonas - ROFLOL!
ReplyDeleteIvan - Gee you're swell! Thanks.
John - I needed something that was eye grabbing! And that picture is definitely that.
Wawa - Thanks! Stick around.
Mercurie - Thank you!
Anonymous - I posted one on here. It's in my post "Robert Mithcum Video #1".
Going to a screening in a few hours at the Museum of Modern Art in New York of what amounts to one of Mitchum's two most memorable roles (the other being the original "Cape Fear"): "Night of the Hunter." MoMA's screening it as part of a Lillian Gish retrospective and that's a great if very strange film, directed by Charles Laughton. I was always intrigued by the fact that Gable and Mitchum each first made a splash in similar roles, as bearded villains, in William Boyd westerns, at least a decade apart. Their great voices really put them over (and they should've worn beards more often). By the way, I know how you felt running into the Mitchum lookalike at the office party. Years ago, I encountered a guy who looked exactly, and I mean precisely, like the young James Stewart except that he had red hair. I asked him if anyone had ever told him that before and he answered no, and he had no idea of the resemblance, which kind of drives me crazy to this day, and this was a hell of a long time ago.
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