I had been wanting to write about Thomas Mitchell for a long time. He’s one of my favorite actors and there really isn’t all that much out there about him. Everyone knows how great he is, and he shows up constantly in essays about films because he was in so many damn great ones. Classics. Stagecoach, Gone With the Wind, It’s a Wonderful Life, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame … I mean, one or TWO of those would mean you had had a good and memorable career. But all of them? And FIVE OF THEM in the same damn YEAR?? WHAT??
Anyway, Moontide is a weird little movie, starring Jean Gabin – in his brief foray in Hollywood, in exile from Vichy France. It was designed to turn him into an American superstar (he was already a superstar in France and Europe). It wasn’t meant to be. Thomas Mitchell plays Gabin’s sidekick, and he gives a truly frightening performance, unlike anything else he ever did.
It was my great pleasure to write about Mitchell in general – and Mitchell in Moontide specifically – for the latest issue of Film Comment. It’s print-only so you’ll have to, you know, go to Barnes & Noble to pick it up – or order it online!
