Poseidon Quickies: Let's Go "Home"

I haven't been posting a frequently as I might like and it's partly due to my usual level of "busy-ness," but it's also due in part to just not finding the right projects to post about. I will record and watch something, certain that it will be perfect for a tribute here, and then it just won't grab me enough to do the trick. One movie I did catch not long ago, Going Home (1971), is along those lines although there were a few details I wanted to share nonetheless. So here we are.

At the time of this movie, Robert Mitchum had retired from the screen following his well-received turn in Ryan's Daughter (1970), but he quickly grew bored and began looking for a new film to do. Allegedly, he was choosing between two location projects and got tipsy at lunch and signed on for the wrong one, this one! He'd intended to head to San Francisco to play a jazz musician, but instead wound up in some shopworn suburbs of Pittsburgh, playing a man reuniting with his son after having killed his mother years before. (Mitchum really had done more than a month of time back in 1949 after a marijuana sting operation.)

The now-grown son was played by Jan-Michael Vincent, who has been the subject of at least one eye-popping post here before. Vincent's career was on the ascent, having done a fair amount of TV (including having survived Lana Turner's The Survivors!) along with a few movies like Journey to Shiloh (1968) and The Undefeated (1969.)

Playing a rather haunted teen, he was already 27 (!), but had maintained his fresh, wholesome looks nonetheless.

Helping in some ways to mend the chasm between father and son is Mitchum's perky girlfriend in the movie, Brenda Vaccaro. She was more than two decades younger than Mitchum and only about five years older than Vincent.

A TV veteran herself since 1961, she'd made a successful move to films including Where It's At (1969), Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Summertree (1971), with more to come. She and Mitchum established great chemistry in their unlikely pairing here.

Though it's brief, we're treated to a shower scene with Vincent as he uses the trailer park bathhouse to get cleaned up soon after arriving.

Physical display was a key component of his work for the better part of his career. Two year's later, he'd be sporting a loincloth for part of The World's Greatest Athlete (1973.)

And, needless to say, no one who ever saw Buster and Billie (1974) ever forgot the sight of him emerging from the woods to skinny dip!

Vincent in his prime was in amazing shape with what had to be a low BMI.

Papa Mitchum had a couple of shirtless scenes, too. His sleepy-eyed looks were still discernible despite the passage of time.

And even though he claimed to accept this role by accident, he is excellent throughout. He never liked to talk about it much, or even admit it really, but he was a pro at portraying most of his roles.  

There's a hooty sequence in the film, too, which finds Vincent shaking his ass on the dance floor in some figure-hugging pants.

He and his date in the film (Barbara Brownell) really boogie down in this scene.

What might have been a really memorable and considerable movie for Mitchum and Vincent was demonstrably altered by MGM studio head James Aubrey (the "Smiling Cobra"), who cut - depending on what you read - either 12 or 21 minutes from the picture, excising things that might give it an R rating and then dumping the movie with virtually no fanfare into just four cities before pulling it. The director Herbert Leonard, who'd worked on a deferred salary to keep costs at bay said, "He unilaterally and arbitrarily raped the picture."

On the subject of rape, there is an already gut-wrenching assault against Vaccaro in the film, which was once even more violent judging by this lobby card. The pitchfork does not appear in the final cut.

Likewise, an entire scene with Sylvia Miles as a prostitute is missing from the final print despite appearing on a card. Miles had not only also worked on Midnight Cowboy (1969), but also was Oscar-nominated for that and yet had her worked ruthlessly excised from Going Home. As a long time sucker for tan lines, I would love to have seen this sequence in the movie.

The moment depicted here does show up in the film, though the framing is totally different. All we ever see is Mitchum's scarred knee (from a war injury) and then his face. Next, he's seem with his pants pulled up and fastened.

Both Mitchum and Vincent worked hard to craft the complicated roles they play in this uneven film. We may never know if the unedited version allowed their relationship to play out more believably. But this was not the end of their working together...

A dozen years later, they would once again play father and son in the mammoth TV miniseries The Winds of War.

The sprawling, epic production saw Mitchum as the head of a family that included Vincent and Ben Murphy as his sons, Polly Bergen as his wife and Lisa Eilbacher as his daughter.

I had to grin at the discombobulated nature of this publicity shot. Vincent is distracted one way, Mitchum another, and Eilbacher is all in with no idea that her costars have other things on their mind! Vincent and his on-screen love interest Ali MacGraw had all the spark of an extinguished campfire and were recast (with Hart Bochner and Jane Seymour) in the sequel War and Remembrance.

This very brief moment in Going Homs depicts an undie-clad Mitchum standing over the body of his deceased wife as his little boy looks on in tears.

A still photo of the moment (without that pesky post from the bed in the way) made its way into the world, to be seen many times. The sequence was used in the poster art for the movie as shown at the top of the post, but with models re-staging the action.

However, for Italian audiences, the sight of Mitchum in his mutande was apparently deemed too much...! So some trousers were superimposed over the 53 year-old's jockey shorts.

Said pants were appropriated from this other, later scene outside Mitchum's ramshackle trailer. And with that I am zipping up this quickie. Till next time!

Fun Finds: TV Mirror Magazine, January 1977

I'm circling the drain on the Fun Finds I picked up two years ago at Ohio's largest antique extravaganza and the plans I had to go this year fell through when the date conflicted with an event my cohort was compelled to attend. This issue, like one I think I had a while back, actually doesn't feature any of "my" people, but I'm here to service the world at large, not just myself (!), so I present it to you for your own enjoyment or displeasure. Ha ha! Those who enjoy vintage country music and classic daytime TV will probably get the most out of it, but there are other things to take in along the way. Now on we go! 

Do y'all still have your Donny Most records? tee hee! The album did not chart and its single, "All Roads (Lead Back to You)" only reached #97 on the Billboard Hot 100. You can listen to that (rather busy) little ditty on YouTube where some kind soul (actually Donny himself!) has uploaded it.

Henry Winkler's date, Lisa Mordente, is the Tony-nominated daughter of Chita Rivera. This couple was soon to part, though. At the end of 1976, he met the woman who later became his wife in 1978 and they are together still. I straight up thought that Leonard Nimoy was stepping out with Rosemary Clooney! He left this first wife on her 56th birthday in 1987, marrying a second time in 1989. I can recall seeing Farrah Fawcett playing tennis a lot back in the day with Vincent Van Patten (now Vinnie and married to Eileen Davidson.) Her marriage to Lee Majors finally ended in 1982.

Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson stayed married until 1980. He was married four times in all. On a happier note, Monty Hall and his wife were wed from 1947 till her death in 2017! That's an amazing run.

Speaking of amazing runs, famed TV producer Norman Lear turned 100 years old this past July! Laughter must truly be the best medicine. David Soul was often depicted in confrontational situations (my mother couldn't stand him, claiming that he "beat his wife.") What I didn't know before today is that his third wife (of five) had once been wed to his Here Come the Brides costar Bobby Sherman!

 

Needless to say, Robert Blake (who was quite an adorable child) ran into his own share of significant trouble in later life. I have a now-vintage post on this site about Anissa Jones, who was such a precious child actress as well. Funny the things you can discover in these old rags. Dorrie Kavanaugh is someone I'd never heard of. Looking into her further, she was from Cincinnati, where I am imprisoned situated! And her book, "Listen to Us! The Children's Express," was published and seems to mean a lot to those who recall it. She did, however, return to TV before becoming afflicted with cancer and passing away in 1983 at only age 38.

Since I was 9 years-old when it premiered, I never saw (or would have gotten, even if I had seen) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I also have seen only the teensiest bit of Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, so Joan Darling isn't too familiar to me. You may be surprised to know, though, that she was the first female director to be Emmy-nominated (for the iconic episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Chuckles Bites the Dust.") Now 87, she acted in a short film in 2020.

Dody Goodman was best known to me for her appearances in Grease (1978) and Grease 2 (1982.)

Goodman died on natural causes in 2008 at the age of 93.

As a 10 year-old, I was ALL about Happy Days and well knew the character of Pinky Tuscadero.

Hot for a time (including a starring role in the hooty New Year's Evil, 1980), she was off screen for good by 1983 and ran into a variety of problems with the law by the late 1990s. She's 79 today and out of the public eye.

Meet John-Boy's boy...

Richard Thomas of The Waltons was about 25 at the time of this article. He and Alma would proceed to have triplet girls in 1981, but were divorced in 1993. He rewed his present wife the following year.

Somehow I don't see this article bringing everyone together...!

This marital union ended in 1979. He wed for a second time in 1983 which broke up in 1994. His present wife (since 1998) is actress Rachel Ticotin, who you might recall from Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) or Total Recall (1990.)

It would surprise me if most of you guessed these gals, but startlingly enough I did know them both. The first one from the set of her mouth and the second because she still looked just about like that as an adult.

This is quite a getup on Tanya Tucker. Apparently she was but 18 at the time of this article/photo!

Full disclosure... when I was a youth (and she was conjoined with Glen Campbell), I thought there was simply no one on earth tackier or trashier than Tanya Tucker! LOL But I must admit that the woman has maintained a lengthy career and has even won Grammys in recent years for her music.

For better or worse, Freddy Fender was another performer who just didn't do it for me.

Probably my chief contact with his music came from snippets on those K-Tel compilation commercials.

I had to include this continuation of the article if for nothing else than the ad for research into birth defects in which the graphics resemble a condom! No better way to prevent 'em! LOL

I had to look up The Amazing Rhythm Aces as they weren't familiar to me at ALL. And their songs also didn't seem to ring a bell. (Except for a period between 1981 and 1994, they've still been going and are active yet today!)

Poor Freddy apparently got the ride of his life...!

Wow. Imagine a time when Dolly putting a pin in Lynn's balloons was considered too risque to air on TV! The number "That'll Be the Day" did air, if the popping moment didn't.

When it came to her love life, hell even her life, Tammy Wynette's unfold like, well, a country song...!

Reportedly this husband (her fourth of five) was a big spender on the surface, but had no real money in reality and would rent things that appeared to be his own... Wynette had a lot of heath problems and died at the age of only 55 in 1998.

I'm sure these color, shirtless photos of then white-hot John Travolta made this magazine fly off the shelves. My God, that putrescent goldenrod color that was also big at the time...!

That's a great headshot, upper-left, which really makes his eyes stand out. His sister Ellen, in the shot below that one, really did resemble Lily Tomlin (his costar in the lamentable Moment by Moment, 1978.)

I didn't know that he'd done Bus Stop on stage with Anita Gillette. In keeping with the theme of this issue of TV Mirror, I have a very low tolerance for her, too...! LOL

Man... I like to think I'm up to snuff on classic daytime performers, but I have no memory of this person. And she was reportedly written to by more teens than any other daytime performer during this period on One Life to Live. By 1980, she'd exited the biz, concentrating more on her husband and family (of two children.)

Are you able to recall which one of John Aniston's children could claim Telly Savalas as a godfather? Shouldn't be too difficult. Michael Nouri's secret, sudden marriage was kaput by 1978. A second marriage from 1986-2001 fared better. Fun to see Ruth Warrick and Debbie Reynolds in a candid shot!

Kind of condescending to suggest that Morgan Fairchild could only get a job on Kojak thanks to dating Barry Newman...! Fairchild was very successful on TV no matter what. The movie Frances Heflin appeared in was released as Mr. Billion (1977) and costarred Terence Hill and Jackie Gleason, among others. And there is Telly with Jennifer's father John Aniston (misspelled in print.)

Geesh... I had no knowledge of this actress either! I guess I need to get out more (or stay in more - ha ha!)

The Edge of Night was cancelled in 1984 and Cook went on to success with Loving in 1988 (until 1994.) She later segued into ADR voiceovers (folks who provide background dialogue and reactions in movies.) Sadly, she passed away of breast cancer in 2012 at age 63.

I would have been hard-pressed to name this actress, but I certainly knew her face. She was the first one to play Bea Arthur's sister Gloria on The Golden Girls. But she was known for more prominent projects than that. Apart from an extensive resume on soaps, she also did several movies, including playing a brittle soap opera producer in Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie (1982.) And she for worked more than a decade as a recurring no-nonsense judge on a couple of the Law & Order series.

Belack's husband, Philip Rose, was a well-respected Broadway producer-director whose shows included A Raisin in the Sun, The Owl and the Pussycat, Purlie, Shenandoah and others. The couple was wed 65 years, dying four months apart in 2011.

It doesn't matter how many times I am reminded of it... I cannot wrap my mind around Emily McLaughlin having been married to Jeffrey Hunter! (I had no recollection of General Hospital being a 45-minute show, which is was from 1976-1978, before going to an hour!) As for Michael Gregory, he apparently remained "VERY single" to this day. He actually enjoyed a very lengthy and busy career as a character actor (and pops up as a member of SWAT in Two Minute Warning, 1976.)

Denise Alexander so resembled my mother when I was a kid watching GH that it boggled my mind. I used to wonder how someone could look that much like a parent of mine and be on TV. But there was no chance whatsoever of them having been related in any way. You might recall Don Matheson from his role on Land of the Giants. Patsy Rahn only played Monica from 1976-1977, when the more familiar Leslie Charleson took over the part (and plays it still today!)

Dan Hamilton (surprise!) was unfamiliar to me. He later segued into soap opera directing in the 1990s. Prior to his roles on daytime, he has the distinction of having played one of the Greek gods in the notorious Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Hercules in New York (1970!)

His wife Stephanie Braxton later became a successful soap opera writer. Their son, Josh Hamilton, grew up to be a busy TV actor with American Horror Story, Madame Secretary 13 Reason Why and The Walking Dead among his credits.

This is Rita McLaughlin, whose grade school photo was depicted in an earlier page. She married a Reverend in 1976 and after departing As the World Turns in 1982 retired for the most part (and goes by Rita Walter.) Trivia Tidbit: From 1963-1966, she played the "other" Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show, which featured identical cousins, both played by the Oscar-winning child star.

The actor she mentions, Stephen Bolster, did appear on ATWT, but was far more associated with Another World. And it's not the man she wound up marrying. In the Travolta section, note the mangling of Saturday Night Fever's (1977) initial title, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night."

Finally, I give you this ad for the once-everywhere Frederick's of Hollywood catalog. My stepdad used to make references to "two-dollar whores" (!) and this ad reads, "I did it for $2 and I'm glad." Alrighty then....!

:::BONUS PIC:::

Dan Hamilton appearing alongside Arnie as Mercury in Hercules in New York. In the upper left photo, he's wisely situated behind some branches!