I am a fan of Mitchum's acting, although I wish they had put him in a Chandler movie earlier in his career. He is kind of set into his image by the time this film was made; he had the cowboy down, and then the slightly seedy offbeat character like this one.
One funny thing I read in a bio on RM; the suit he wears in the film (the only costume he wears) is an original from the costume department from the 1940's and had Victor Buono's name in it; RM complained it stunk the whole time he was in it. Also the scene when he sings with Jessie (Sylvia Miles) the former saloon singer, was an ad-lib scene, the song chosen on the spot since he knew the words. They got the rights to use it cleared later.
I'm not quite sure if it was filmed in color, or if the version I saw this week was a colorized one; seems like it should have been done in black and white, and I was almost sure it was. It loses a lot of atmosphere in color, in any case.
In any case, it is a decent piece of entertainment with pretty good acting by all, though some of the characters seem to hardly be acting at all. Of course that is Robert Mitchum's style and claim to fame.
One funny thing I read in a bio on RM; the suit he wears in the film (the only costume he wears) is an original from the costume department from the 1940's and had Victor Buono's name in it; RM complained it stunk the whole time he was in it. Also the scene when he sings with Jessie (Sylvia Miles) the former saloon singer, was an ad-lib scene, the song chosen on the spot since he knew the words. They got the rights to use it cleared later.
I'm not quite sure if it was filmed in color, or if the version I saw this week was a colorized one; seems like it should have been done in black and white, and I was almost sure it was. It loses a lot of atmosphere in color, in any case.
In any case, it is a decent piece of entertainment with pretty good acting by all, though some of the characters seem to hardly be acting at all. Of course that is Robert Mitchum's style and claim to fame.