FILM 1556: OUT OF THE PAST
TRIVIA: Robert Mitchum told Roger Ebert he smoked so
much, that when the camera was rolling on this film and Kirk Douglas offered him a
pack and asked, "Cigarette?", Mitchum, realizing he'd carried a
cigarette into the scene, held up his fingers and replied, "Smoking."
His improvisation saved the take, and they kept it in the movie.
By all accounts, it was obvious
that an undeniable tension developed between Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum early on
during the filming. Certainly the acting styles of the two men could not have
been more different. Mitchum's relaxed, laconic manner contrasted with the aggressive,
grandstanding Douglas. In the first scenes to be shot with the two actors,
Douglas attempted some scene stealing by manipulating distracting props, such
as swinging a key chain or flipping a coin, George Raft style. Jacques Tourneur saw
through these ploys and put a stop to them. For his part, Mitchum would
retaliate by making faces when the camera was behind his head, so as to throw
off Douglas' reaction shots. Eventually the one-upmanship faded, and the two
let their natural styles compliment each other.
Jane Greer recalled that
the laconic Robert Mitchum
projected an equally cavalier attitude off camera. She got the impression that
he came to the set unprepared, in order to give a more spontaneous performance.
She explained, "I remember him saying 'What are the lyrics?' to the script
person. 'I never know the lyrics,' he'd say, and she would give him the lines.
I said, 'You don't learn your lines beforehand?' and he'd said, 'Naah.' Gosh, I
learned mine a week ahead of time. I thought that might be part of why he
seemed so much more spontaneous, why he was so easy and underplayed. I decided
I'd do that, not be letter perfect. So I tried learning my lines under the
dryer in the morning. I hoped I'd look as though I was thinking. But I blew
take after take, and he was letter perfect. Well, I figured out later that, of
course, he knew the lines."
Filming got off to a rocky start
with a near-fatal plane accident at the Bridgeport, California airport landing
field. The pilot, accompanied by Robert
Mitchum, a studio accountant and an assistant to executive Walter
Duff, realized his brakes didn't work when they touched down, causing the plane
to crash through a fence, over a ditch, and through an outhouse before coming
to a stop. Although the two men in the back seat were knocked unconscious,
Mitchum and the pilot were not hurt. Typical of Mitchum's nonchalant attitude,
he quickly crawled out of the wreckage, dusted off his clothes and thumbed a
ride into town to begin filming.
On November 14, 1987, Robert Mitchum was the
guest host on Saturday
Night Live (1975), broadcast from the NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller
Plaza in New York. One of the sketches he participated in was a black-and-white
spoof of the film called "Out of Gas." The sketch featured an
unbilled guest appearance by none other than Jane Greer.
Included among the "1001
Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
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