How Do You Assemble An Essential Robert Mitchum Filmography?
“Movies bore me; especially my own,” said Robert Mitchum. They thrilled everyone else. Mitchum made 136 films between 1942 and 1997 (when he died), including an unseemly comedy about a boxing kangaroo (“Matilda,” 1978). But indifference was his style; he was the inspiration for such actors as Michael Madsen and Paul Newman. You need only collect a few films to have an essential Robert Mitchum filmography. Buy “The Story of GI Joe” (United Artists, 1945), the movie which launched Mitchum from B movies. The film was based on the World War II correspondence of Ernie Pyle, and starred Mitchum as the tragic Capt. Bill Walker. He received an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. (No luck.) Dwight D. Eisenhower called it the greatest war film he had seen, and Mitchum’s portrayal brought audiences to tears (See Reference 1). Buy his film noir bookends, “Night of the Hunter” (United Artists, 1955) and “Cape Fear” (Universal, 1962). “Hunter” was directed by Charles Laughton, with Mitchum as
