1) Heaven Knows Mr Allison (1957) - a nun
and a sailor trapped on a tropical island... and it's done really tastefully!
2) The Sundowners (1960) - Mitchum as an
Aussie - he doesn't nail the accent but he's the best American star who ever
captured the essence of this particular type of Australian and makes me wish
he'd been able to play one of the cutters in Summer of the 17th Doll instead of
Ernest Borgnine
3) His Kind of Woman (1951) - bonkers film
noir which is one of my favourite movies (with a nod to all his RKO noirs which
are all great flawed fun eg Big Steal, Macao, Angel Face)
4) Farewell My Lovely (1975) - enjoyable
Chandler adaptation with Mitchum as Phil Marlowe
5) The Winds of War (1983) - I actually
haven't seen this mini series in like 30 years so I hope it holds up but I
remember loving it
6) El Dorado (1967) - to my mind a better
film than Rio Bravo (which it remakes) and made me wish he'd made more films
with John Wayne (and James Caan for that matter)
7) Night of the Hunter (1955) - a film
buff's favourite and a great scary movie
8) Out of the Past (1947) - fantastic noir
9) Cape Fear (1962) - he's a terrifying
villain in a performance that one suspects was closer to the real Mitchum than
anyone wanted to know
10) Matilda (1978) - sure there are heaps
of better movies I could have put at number ten instead of a comedy made by AIP
about a boxing kangaroo (Pursued, Thunder Road, The Longest Day, Crossfire) -
but you watch this silly comedy, and see how Mitchum, despite his wealth,
despite his age, despite the quality of the material, was still completely and
utterly committing and you can see why he lasted so long
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