My essay on Thomas Mitchell in the current issue of Film Comment (print only). It looks so good! I love how huge the image of him is, with that big wide striped tie. Such a superb actor.
Pick up a copy. I know Barnes & Noble sells them, or you can order here.
Just managed to track down a copy this week Sheila. It’s as lovely and insightful as us regulars have come to expect. Have added Moontide to my must see list!
Beyond all his wonderful acting Mitchell is near and dear to my heart for another odd reason. When I was a teenager I read Fenimore Cooper’s The Pathfinder with considerable ease and enjoyment. Then I got to college and found out he wasn’t cool–and, of course, read Twain’s essays (which I wasn’t impressed with, but still). I always meant to get back to Cooper and judge for myself, but with one thing and another I didn’t get around to it for about twenty years.
When I did, I decided to read the Leatherstocking tales in order of the character’s chronology (not the order they were written) so I started with The Deerslayer…and was completely stymied. I set the book aside and didn’t get back to it for another decade or so. Then, for whatever reason, I decided to try again.
One thing that had happened in the interim was I’d started watching a LOT of old movies (which had, against all reasonable expectations, become much more readily available). So when I picked up the book again, I automatically started hearing Cooper’s characters in the voices of old Hollywood character actors…among whom Mitchell was the first and remained the most preeminent. Cooper does not go long without introducing somebody whose voice fits Thomas Mitchell’s exactly.
Cooper had his problems, but, at least for me, Mitchell’s voice unlocked an awful lot about him that has been unjustly ignored.
These days, I tell people no discussion of The Great American Novel is complete without The Deerslayer and we forget it at our peril. And give thanks to the shade of Thomas Mitchell and now thanks to you for giving us all a great way to celebrate and appreciate his genius.
(And just oh by the way, Mitchell’s cadences couldn’t unlock Natty Bumppo’s own voice–all those long speeches!…but, following on Mitchell’s example, John Wayne’s did.)