Robert Mitchum Video #6 ~ Mitchum on What's My Line?

Robert Mitchum was known amongst his drinking buddies as a great impersonator. He had an art for doing impressions and various accents and voices (although he couldn't quite master the Irish accent or the Boston accent in movies such as Ryan's Daughter and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, respectively). This is a cute clip in which you see Mitchum do various voices. Notice that he sort of plugs his Calypso album?! Enjoy.

Robert Mitchum is Dead

Well deh.

People have been talking about a Norwegian film entitled Robert Mitchum is Dead. The film will premiere on May 15th at the Cannes Film Festival. What is the movie about? I have no idea! What does it have to do with Robert Mitchum? Beats me!


After some research, the only description I could find was this one from Yahoo! Movies:

Franky is an actor suffering from insomnia. Franky is his manager Arsene's friend, spiritual son and source of income. When Arsene steals a car and takes Franky to the Arctic Circle under the pretence that the two are going to meet a famous director shooting an American film there, an adventurous journey ensues across Europe as Franky has problems distinguishing between what's real and what's not. 

As my good friend Jonas can attest, Norwegians are strange! But is it Norwegian? It's filmed by a Norwegian company, in Poland and the dialogue is in French. Really? I feel a headache coming on.

After even more research, I found a whole bunch of clips online. Here is one. Here is another. Here is one more. Can you make sense of it? Is it called "Robert Mitchum is Dead" because that is a truth and the film is trying to show a truth? That's the best I can do because otherwise this goes right over my head.

------------------

Regardless of the movie, Robert Mitchum really is dead. He passed away on July 1st, 1997 from lung cancer and emphysema. He had been sick for some time but it was only the spring of 1997 in which doctors had diagnosed him with lung cancer. Robert Mitchum had been smoking cigarettes for many years, as one can tell from his incessant smoking in films such as Out of the Past (1947). In his last months, his illness caused him to deteriorate so quickly that he became unrecognizable. He died peacefully at his home, his wife Dorothy by his side.

On July 2nd, 1997, Robert Mitchum's death made headlines. His death was eclipsed by Jimmy Stewart who passed away on July 2nd, the day after Mitchum, and the newspaper headlines and TV reports that followed focused even more on the uber-famous Jimmy. Mitchum was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific ocean. Only his wife, a few family members and one close friend, actress Jane Russell, were present at the quiet ceremony.

God Speed Robert Mitchum.

Robert Mitchum Video #5 ~ Mitchum on the Dick Cavett Show

This is a really great interview with Robert Mitchum done by the legendary Dick Cavett. It's pretty clear that Cavett is a bit afraid of bad boy Robert Mitchum. Mitchum was such a great storyteller though and Cavett really brought that out of the people he interviewed, by asking the right questions and allowing the interviewee to go on rants but also keeping them on track.

While this is only a clip, you can watch the entire interview in The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats .