Undercurrent, original vintage half sheet, 1946

Undercurrent, 1946, Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli, former Ziegfeld Follies dresser extraordinaire, male make-up aficionado and spawn-pop of Liza with a Z! got along just fine with reefer roaster and chain-gang refugee Robert Mitchum on the set of Undercurrent.

Kate Hepburn. Not so much.

The Oscar-winning star famously  snooted/screeched/sneered at Mitchum,

“You know you can’t act. If you hadn’t been good looking, you would have never gotten a picture. I’m tired of playing with people who have nothing to offer.”

Kate felt lots of folk fell into the  “can’t act” category. Silly girl. As if people in Hollywood are cast on their thespian powers.

Mitchum and Hepburn in Undercurrent

According to Minnelli, Hepburn was a ball of fire on the set and no one was safe from the scorch of her laser lips. Minnelli got lots of directing and dialogue “help”; the actors got “critiques”.

Let’s cut her some slack. Maybe the aging actress was all bitched up about having to re-channel Ingrid Bergman’s Oscar performance in Gaslight in a really hideous wardrobe. Maybe after playing a chinese peasant in Dragon Seed* she desperately needed a hit. Maybe Mitchum  just looked younger and prettier than her on screen.

In the end, critics gave Hepburn plenty of snaps. But it must have twitched her lip that Mitchum got singled out for his relatively small role. Robert Taylor, another of Hepburn’s “light-weights”, stole the show.

Over the years Minnelli followed Mitchum’s career and was only too happy to find an opportunity to work with him again in 1960′s  Home from the Hill. The gin-soaked southern melodrama would easily serve as inspiration for all the prime-time priviledged Millionaires in peril soaps of the eighties.  Minnelli lured Mitchum into the deal with promises of a  lightweight acting schedule and plenty of fishing on location in Oxford, Mississippi.  Mitchum was conned.

Entre communal foil #2, George Peppard.

Young Peppard arrived on set totin’ a bucket full of sass. “Have you studied the Stanislavsky Method” Peppard asked Mitchum. “No,” replied Mitchum, but I’ve studied the Smirnoff Method. ++

And so it went. Downhill. Minnelli, who had infinite patience for finding the right light, the right angle, or the right pattern of moss on a tree trunk had absolutely no patience for Peppard”s need to find the right mood to act out a scene.  Peppard hoped “fellow rebel”  Mitchum would support him and walk off the set. Instead, Mitchum told Peppard the studio could sue his butt off if he refused to do what he was told to do.

Robert Mitchum. Artist, Iconoclast, Beefeater.( Professional Nitwit, never.)

Condition

Undercurrent, 1946. Original Vintage Half Sheet, 22″ x 28″.  Near Mint condition.

*Undeterred by Kate’s reviews,  John Wayne would lobby for the part of Ghengis Khan in The Conqueror,– long considered one of the worst films of the 1950′s and perhaps one of the WORST EVER. Producer Howard Hughes kept the film out of circulation until 1974. Tragically, the film was made in Utah within 100 miles of nuclear weapons test sites. Within 20 years half the cast and crew had died of cancer. The government had assured everyone that they were safe.

++Please take time to read the super biography of Robert Mitchum: “Baby I Don’t Care” By Lee Server