Mr. North

I have to admit that I am fascinated by this movie. It has some of the best acting I ever have seen set beside some of the most ill-at-ease.

You can feel the influence of Thornton Wilder in the dialogue as the words trill across the ear. But it seems at times that the writer started out to write a play & ended up with a movie.

There is an enormous charm to this movie. The writing is a bit ... odd... at times, but creates a compelling story.

The acting is incredibly sweet and natural, for the most part (Mitchum is painfully awkward at first, Bacall overacts, and a couple of small parts are acted like a middle school play).

Anthony Edwards as Mr. North is astoundingly superb. Honestly, I am "shocked" at how charming he makes this character.

The writing may have helped the acting, actually, as it seems that cast must push against the occasionally slow screenplay to make their words more believable. It's almost a marvel to behold how good some of the acting is at times.

I wish my kids would sit still long enough to see a sweet movie like this.

If you want to be in a better mood, watch this charming movie.

In the late years of his life, actor Robert Mitchum played a number of roles which in my opinion miss their mark. From his acclaimed mountain man, Moon-shine whiskey runner in 'Thunder Road' to his heroic role in 'Winds of War', he was always a great actor and a bit larger than life. In this movie called " Mr. North " he plays an aging but wealthy patriarch Mr. Bosworth bent on doing something right for the world and his pet project. That project involves a remarkable young man named Theophilus North (Anthony Edwards) who it seems has a special gift and shocking personality which the town finds so incredible. Mrs. Cranston (Lauren Bacall), Henry Simmons (Harry Dean Stanton) and Persis Bosworth Tennyson (Anjelica Huston) find the young man remarkable and personable and seek to help him. In fact, with the exception of Doctor McPherson (David Warner) the town physician, everyone believes he is a natural 'Healer' something he emphatically denies. The movie is slow to develop but is seriously dramatic in that the individual is notably compassionate and wonderfully likable. A good and sincere film and one for Mitchum and Becall fans which make it worth seeing. ****

Here's a bit of trivia about the making of this film. The character played by Anthony Edwards is hired to read to the character played by Robert Mitchum, a wealthy recluse who lives in a home with a well- stocked library. The elegant bookcases had to filled with elegantly- bound books, so the film crew asked the Newport Public Library for help in filling the shelves of the bookcases. I worked as an assistant to the cataloger at the library, and I was assigned the task of choosing such books from the books that we had in storage. We had several multi- volume sets with nice uniform bindings. I recall choosing a set of the works of Henry James (who was a regular visitor to Newport in his younger days) along with some other sets by various writers and some individual volumes that would look appropriate for the library of a rich man in the 1920s. John Huston was bed-ridden during the filming and died --- he did not die before filming started. I observed the filming of the parade scene -- I was relatively close behind the camera as it started to move on tracks to follow the parade. I hung around for at least two "takes," maybe three. Lauren Bacall rented movies at a Newport video shop which specialized in classic films (including silents) and foreign films. The name of the video store was Rosebud, and its owner was a film school graduate whose dog was also named Rosebud. I was a patron of the store and was friendly with the owner --- Bacall kept her updated on John Huston's deteriorating condition. Bacall recommended the store to Anthony Edwards and he came in regularly to rent movies --- when the owner told Edwards that she did not have a copy of "Top Gun" (his biggest movie role up to that time) in her store, he laughed. What did I think of the movie? -- as most of the other comments have said, it's a pleasant film -- not a great film, but an appropriately modest adaptation of Thornton Wilder's nostalgic revisiting of the summer he spent in Newport.

This one certainly was a family affair! Directed by Danny Huston. Anjelica Huston has a role as Persis. John Huston was going to play Bosworth, but due to an illness, Mitchum filled in, according to the trivia. Co-stars Lauren Bacall, Harry Stanton. In our story, North (Edwards) will read the bible to Mr. Bosworth, for pay. He explains right off that his body has the unusual ability to spark when he touches someone. And this all takes place in newport, rhode island, where the mucky mucks all have money and boats. So the regular folk have to stick together; North makes friends with Mrs. Cranston and Simmons (Bacall, Stanton). When the townspeople find out he can make his hand spark, they interpret that as being a healer, and charge him with practicing medicine without a license. Very family friendly, as expected. Much ado about nothing! Edwards had just done Top Gun, so he was clearly a proven entity. Story by Thornton Wilder, of Our Town fame, among others. And apparently filmed in several rhode island locations!

I have never seen anything by Thornton Wilder that I have not loved, including this film. Mr. Theophilus North is new to a small, wealthy town and he has a special healing power. He is a gentle, loving man who befriends a rich recluse (One of Robert Mitchum's most interesting roles since Night of the Hunter), who is being kept in sick mode by his family for their own devious goals: to hurry his death and their inheritance. When his power becomes known, he gains many friends and a few enemies. Theophilus North (Theophilus is from the Greek and means Lover of God) is a little reminiscent of Jesus and the film is an allegory of human nature: the desire, of everyone, to be healed and the desire of the powerful to maintain the status quo. The film is another Huston family project: John assisted with the delightful screenplay; Danny directed; Angelica and Alegra acted. I highly recommend the film to anyone who likes films that are unusual.