When I did my first eye candy post, I put Mitchum in at the top. He may not be classically beautiful, but in my lexicon Mitchum is very drool-worthy! Something to do with the combination of the voice, the face, and those massive shoulders, I guess… Anyway, no Robert Mitchum Week could ever be considered complete without a post that just dwelt on the sheer magnetism of this man. So here goes.
I think he looks wonderful in one of his early films, West of the Pecos (1945; that first screen cap is also from this film):
And even more so in the excellent Western noir, Pursued (1947):
…which is also the source of the photo on my blog’s current header…
…and the film which has my all-time favourite Mitchum still. He looks gorgeous here in the coat-tails and cravat, almost Darcy-ish. I wish someone had made an American version of Pride and Prejudice around this time, starring Mitchum. Mmmm.
He’s sweet enough to charm the birds off the trees (or, as in this scene, a magistrate) in Holiday Affair (1949):
And looks yummy in two of his best-known noir films: Macao (1952),
…and The Big Steal (1949):
An older Mitchum still manages to look good, even in moonlight, in Heaven Knows, Mr Allison (1957):
Or in bright sunlight, in The Enemy Below (1957).
Frankly, I think even a middle-aged Mitchum with crow’s feet and a not-too-well-defined jawline has a certain charisma about him that makes him very alluring. This is from The Sundowners (1960).
This guy merits an eye candy post all his own. Sigh.
Dustedoff 
Definately drool worthy !
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He’s so especially gorgeous in Pursued… I need to watch that film all over again to see what happened in it; the first time round, I was too busy simply gawping at Mitchum to make sense of the plot. ;-)
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Actually there is a Pride and Prejudice made in 1940. I don’t know whether he was already an actor then.
It starred;
Greer Garson…………… Elizabeth Bennet
Laurence Olivier………….. Fitzwilliam Darcy
It was more of an ode to ‘Gone with the wind’ though. ;-)
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Yes, I’ve seen the Olivier-Garson starrer; such a disappointment. They changed the story and the characters a lot (unforgiveable, as far as I’m concerned – I’m a Pride and Prejudice fanatic and purist)!
And no, Mitchum wasn’t an actor in 1940 – according to imdb, his first appearance (unconfirmed) is in Hitchcock’s Saboteur, which was made in 1942. Maybe they should’ve made an American Pride and Prejudice around 1947, when Mitchum was around and looking good – then reusing all those costumes from Gone With the Wind would’ve been valid too!;-)
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I liked Mitchum’s scruffy look in the films where he played the seasoned cowboy (though I cant recall which film it was), as well. And I must admit to liking his “crow-feet”-face a lot better than his younger self – he was to-die-for gorgeous in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison.
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Yes, he’s sooo utterly gorgeous in Heaven Knows, Mr Allison – I saw it for the first time last November, and was so absolutely fascinated by Mitchum that I began building up a collection. Before that, the only Mitchum film I’d seen – and that was eons back – was The Longest Day.
By the way, could the scruffy cowboy look have been El Dorado? He plays a sheriff who takes to drink after the girl he’s in love with leaves him. It was a remake of Rio Bravo.
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Sean Penn has a touch of Mitchum, esp. that still from Macao, no?
You are right! He would have made a very dapper Darcy…and look at those cheekbones. How did I miss that?
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Yes, you’re right… I hadn’t noticed it. In that still from Macao, there is a resemblance to Sean Penn.
I wish there was some way to create one’s own films, using the actors one would like to… a software in which you select your actor(s), which film/story you want them to be in, and then click go – and your film’s done. My first film would’ve been Pride and Prejudice with Mitchum as Darcy! (Can’t decide who Elizabeth would be, though)
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The scruffy cowboy look may have been Rio Bravo – but I think it was a film that I saw in its entirety (John Wayne’s presence makes it certain that I probably saw no more than a few scenes here and there!). Doesnt he have any other Westerns? I’ll have to do some research over at imdb to find out.
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“I wish there was some way to create one’s own films, using the actors one would like to… a software in which you select your actor(s), which film/story you want them to be in, and then click go – and your film’s done. ”
Now there’s an idea that you should sell to Steve Jobs ;-)
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Bollyviewer: I meant El Dorado was the Mitchum starrer – Rio Bravo was the original, but it had Dean Martin in the role that Mitchum played in El Dorado. Mitchum had some early Westerns too: West of the Pecos and Pursued are two I’ve seen recently, but he’s very young and not at all scruffy in either. But there are bound to have been later Mitchum Westerns as well – he acted in a lot of them. Let me know if you remember which one it was!
Sabrina: I wish! I have a feeling that’s a pipe dream, though. ;-)
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Your special eye-candy post might inspire me to do a similar post on Christian Bale. I am cursing myself for forgetting to put him on my eye-candy list.
He is currently gracing my desktop and I think it is about time I share it with the world ;-)
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Oh yes, please! Edition 2? I’d love to see your current desktop – Christian Bale is a favourite of mine too!
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>”Maybe they should’ve made an American Pride and Prejudice around 1947, when Mitchum was around and looking good – then reusing all those costumes from Gone With the Wind would’ve been valid too!;-)
:-)
I meant the ‘aura’ in the film was that of ‘Gone with the wind’, rather than the costumes itself which might have been new for all I know.
The feeling was ‘colonial’ rather than ‘regency’.
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I know what you mean ;-)
Incidentally, they did reuse the costumes from Gone with the Wind because their budget was pretty low – wartime cinema and all, you see.
But anyway, an American version of Pride and Prejudice could hardly have recreated Regency England, since that was an alien concept to them. I suppose it would have been a colonial/Virginia plantations setting…
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