Border Patrol

Okay, maybe I'm not Bibi, but I still am amazed at Archive.org as a resource. I'm reading Robert Mitchum - "Baby I Don't Care" by Lee Server, a bio of the undisputed king of calypso and sometime movie actor, most notably famous for his role as the killin' preacher in Night of the Hunter.

His first movie role was in Border Patrol, a Hopalong Cassidy film.

A couple of cool things:

When Mitchum arrived on the set, everyone was mourning an actor who had been killed the day before by having his head crushed under the wheels of a stagecoach he was driving in a scene. When Mitchum was issued his cowboy costume he noticed the interior of the hat was a little "crusty".... the prop man gave it a brushing and informed Mitchum it was the hat the dead man was wearing at the time of his fatal accident. Gruesome.

Server notes that the script was by Michael Wilson, who went on to write It's a Wonderful Life, A Place in the Sun, Bridge on the River Kwai Lawrence of Arabia and Planet of the Apes. Some list of hits, huh? Many of his scripts went uncredited because of a HUAC ban, and Server points to the content of Border Patrol- good guys busting up slave labor, as one of the contributing factors to his suspicion by the HUAC. Funny.

Lastly, and this is the coolest thing of all, it was there on Archive.org! You can own it for free...




Lastly, it's definitely a B movie, but the backstory's so cool it deserved a mention. Plus we don't charge and neither does archive.org.....

Lost Mitchum Calypso footage from Night of the Hunter

A short while back I posted about Robert Mitchum's dedication and skill and authenticity with Calypso, and how he actually tried to convince director Charles Laughton to incorporate some tunes into the script to "balance" the mood.

Now my research has led me to this lost reel of footage in which Laughton indulges Mitchum and actually does incorporate a song from his album of authentic Calypso hits entitled "Calypso.....is like so."

Sometimes Ya Gotta Dance, Dontcha?

This first clip shows us a slightly older Rita Hayworth steaming up the screen in the Caribe-noir film The Fire Down Below, costarring Bob Mitchum (the undisputed king of all Calypso) and Jack Lemmon (inspiration for Ol' Gil). While the direction's pretty uneven, that same unevenness provides license for this kind of over-the-top dance number, opportunistically echoing the feverish performers limboing in the opening of the film. I think it's supposed to be "look how evil she is - dancin' all sexy like that - she's tryin' to seduce Mitchum!" but it's more like "huh?!?!?" Regardless- she dances her ass off, it grips one, and is absolutely worth setting your mind free with.




This one is completely different but just as why-you-watch-dance gripping. From Band of Outsiders, it's a means for Godard to set the mood for danger and tension to come by doing the opposite of danger & tension, underscoring the fun of the scene with commentary that abruptly stops only the music, not the wild track, and states in different ways just what tabulae rasa these fools playing at gangster are by describing feelings that have nothing to do with robbery. Quentin Tarantino named the production company A Band Apart after this film and it's easy to see why - Godard plays with the tools that are used to build a narrative in unconventional ways- breaking rules, even by today's standards, in order to step outside the traditional narrative to reinforce it. Plus cool music, and a great dance routine in a bleak mise-en-scene.



Get it here, BTW.