“During filming [The Night of the Hunter], as they drove along a freeway, [Charles] Laughton told [Robert] Mitchum, ‘I don’t know if you know, and I don’t know if you care, and I don’t care if you know, but there is a strong streak of homosexuality in me,’ to which Mitchum replied, ‘No shit!’ and then ‘Stop the car!’ to Laughton’s tortuously worded admission. This was a well-worn routine for Laughton, and Mitchum’s joking reaction put Laughton finally at ease, a precious moment of understanding between two very different people.”
– Dan Callahan, The Art of American Screen Acting, 1912-1960
this anecdote! When I get some spare cash this book is high on the list of gifts to myself. What a legend Mitchum is. I was watching Farewell My Lovely the other day (prompted, finally, by a conversation in a 2nd-hand bookstore in which the owner gave me a Godfather-like speech — you come to me, asking for Jim Thompson paperbacks, but you say you haven’t seen FML) and his performance made me reflect on something I had never quite articulated about this detective/private eye genre, which is, the main character’s susceptibility or receptiveness or a willingness to follow. To be lead to the next scene, encounter, clue, with all the risk of bodily and emotional harm that entails. A quality that the narrative demands of both the actor and the character. There’s a lot of saying yes, in other words. Gay guy? Interracial couple? Ruined alcoholic? Yes, I’m here, I’m listening. For all that he is so broad and cynical and capable — for all that he does the key detective work of always looking under cushions — Mitchum in it had a level of inner passivity in this film that fascinated me. I love him!
(and will you believe me if I tell you that that miserable yellow crumbling hotel room drove me wild?)
// you come to me, asking for Jim Thompson paperbacks, but you say you haven’t seen FML //
Oh my God, no way, this is amazing!
// There’s a lot of saying yes, in other words. Gay guy? Interracial couple? Ruined alcoholic? Yes, I’m here, I’m listening. For all that he is so broad and cynical and capable — for all that he does the key detective work of always looking under cushions — Mitchum in it had a level of inner passivity in this film that fascinated me. //
Oh Jessie. This is good good stuff.
ha! well, a thought half-formed, that would require more thinking. It’s an interesting thing about the private dick genre, operating outside of institutional authority, in these grey spaces that need you to be receptive, watchful. Different narrative strategies required, different personalities, interactions with the world.
(heh — I’m watching Kiss Kiss bang Bang right now and our protag Harry is definitely someone to whom things happen.)