Mr. North (1988)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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 picture was a Huston family project. The Director is John Huston's son Danny. His glamorous, versatile half-sister Anjelica has a cameo role that adds pizazz, class and sly humor. The gorgeous Virginia Madsen (John Huston's former daughter-in-law) has a key secondary role. The part of the super-rich patriarch was to be played by John Huston, but he died before the film was made and Robert Mitchum replaced him.With a screen play based on a Thornton Wilder novel, and a stellar cast, this film should have been better than it was. Still, I enjoyed it very much as just a pleasant upbeat fantasy. It could have been a G-rated family film but for a single brief scene of unnecessary fondling that didn't even seem to fit the boy scout selflessness of Theophilus North's character.The cast includes stars of old and new Hollywood as well as some whose stardom came from other media, including Tammy Grimes (star of Broadway's "On a Clear Day") and TV's Anthony Edwards (ER's Dr. Mark Greene.) But a couple of the actors deliver some lines as if they are in a script's first read through. Robert Mitchum seems horribly miscast. The part was really tailored for John Huston. While watching the film, before I later learned that the part had been intended for Joun Huston, I commented that the part was perfect for John Huston. While Robert Mitchum was a great film noir tough guy, this was not a role for him.Lauren Bacall, on the other hand, acquitted herself admirably and Tammy Grimes performance was interesting.

This is hardly an epic movie, but then again, it doesn't need to be. As another reviewer said, there are no aliens, nothing horrid occurs, no crashing soundtrack nor is there some deep dark message which You Must Get to enjoy the movie being thrown at you.Instead, this is a quiet way to pass a little bit more than an hour of time. Can you really ask that much more of a film? Given, the nastiness inherent in most modern films, I'd say that it's more than you'll probably find at your local cinamaplex these days.The cast is fine to exceptional with Mitchem in one of his last and most interesting roles, Huston looking terrific and Edwards as, well, Edwards. Helped by a rather stellar supporting cast, I can recommend this film to you as a full family type of event. By all means - take the kids and by the film's end, you'll all be in a better mood.

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.