Angel Face (1952): Otto Preminger, who showed how to mix a beautiful woman with murder in the landmark Laura, directs this tale of a passion gone haywire. Frank's (Robert Mitchum) a regular guy with a steady girl and a dream of owning his own garage when he crosses paths with Diane (Jean Simmons). She wants him. Or does she want a fall guy to blame when Diane's stepmother plunges off a high cliff and leaves her fortune to Diane? Alibis, betrayals, courtroom thrills and the fire of a woman too dangerous to trust and too alluring to resist make Angel Face a film-noir classic. His pairing with Simmons was the first of three.
Macao (1952): Robert Mitchum's the cool male - broad shoulders, hooded eyes and laconic wit. Jane Russell's the incendiary female - voluptuous curves, lushly lipsticked mouth and sardonic comebacks. Together they're two dead-on talented and drop-dead gorgeous stars who brought out the best in each other in His Kind of Woman and Macao, the two gutsy film noirs they made together. In Macao, directed by the legendary Josef Von Sternberg, audiences know they're in for a dynamite ride from the moment he saves her from a lecherous goon - and she picks his pocket. The story, set in the exotic East Asian port, involves stolen diamonds, undercover New York cops, mistaken identities, double crosses and murder.
Home from the Hill (1960) : Wade Hunnicutt is a big man who casts a big shadow, one that looms over the Texas backwoodsmen who work his land... over the beautiful, embittered he wife cheats on... and over the sons - one from marriage and one illegitimate - who strive for their father's respect. Robert Mitchum gives one of his finest performances as Wade, and Vincente Minnelli directs this sprawling, emotionally volatile tale of an epic clash between generations. In early-career roles, George Peppard and George Hamilton co-star as Wade's sons, determined to be their own men, yet in danger of repeating their father's life-crippling legacy of lust and violence.
The Sundowners (1960): Four-time Academy Award-winner Fred Zinnemann directs this warm-hearted tale of 1920 Australia. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr play Paddy and Ida, a devoted couple suddenly at odds. Ida and her son, Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.) want a farm of their own. But settling down is more than Paddy's untethered spirit can bear. The Sundowners earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, won Kerr the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award and made Mitchum the National Board of Review Best Actor choice for this and Home from the Hill.
The Good Guys & the Bad Guys (1969) : Robert Mitchum and George Kennedy ease into their roles like long-time saddle pals in this western comedy directed by Burt Kennedy (Support Your Local Sheriff). One (Mitchum) is dedicated to the law, the other (Kennedy) to lawbreaking. Each has seen better days. And each gets to relive them when they team to stop ice-blooded Waco (David Carradine) and his gang of gold thieves.
The Yakuza (1975): Robert Mitchum is Kilmer in this haunting East-meets-West head-on thriller powered by a team of heavy Hollywood hitters: writers Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) and Robert Towne (Chinatown) and director Sydney Pollack (The Interpreter). Co-starring Japan's Takakura Ken and veteran character actor Brian Keith, The Yakuza is a modern film noir in which honour and loyalty become issues of life and death. Violence erupts with the speed of a Tokyo-bound bullet train. And the last thing to die is tradition.
