Published quite some time ago by Granta, the wonderfully titled O.K You Mugs is an all-too little known treasure. The immaculately attired jacket proclaims the tome to be about the unsung heroes of popular culture, 'the character actors, the ones whose faces you always remember and whose names you invariably forget'.
The main strength of this engrossing and illuminating collection is the esoteric character actors on whom it shines attention: Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea, Elmer Fudd (!), Robert Mitchum, Thelma Ritter and perennial favourite J.T. Walsh to name but a few. The choice subjects, many of whom were either shamed by petty or otherwise misdemeanors or were at best second leads, forever consigned to playing bums, petty hoods or love-desperate vamps are covered by an equally iconoclastic and eclectic bunch of writers from varying writing disciplines.
Thus we have singer, songwriter Patti Smith expounding the virtues of Jeanne Moreau, acclaimed novelist John Updike on Doris Day - of whom he professes a lifelong crush - and Robert Polito on Barbara Payton. Polito's book on crime scribe Jim Thompson - Savage Art - is simply one of the finest biographies written and here the writer takes a similarly scalpel sharp look at the tragic blonde Hollywood contender whose career was wrecked by scandal. Like much of the writing collected by editors Sante and Holbrook Pierson (both of whom contribute fine entries, with Pierson's elegy to Peckinpah's favourite fish-eyed actor Warren Oates being one of the most memorable), Polito's piece is filtered through his own subjective relation to the actor in question. In this instance, his personal dealings with Payton as he sought to commit her biography to print when the former beauty was a washed up skid row alcoholic, oozing booze and cigarettes from every pore.
Film writer Michael J. Weldon's celebration of the diminutive Angelo Rossitto (just 33 inches tall) is wonderfully illuminating and refuses to patronize or make light of its subject. Best known for his performance in Tod Browning's seminal Freaks, Rossitto enjoyed a long and fruitful career, taking in everything from experimental horror pictures such as Daughter Of Horror (aka Dementia) and cheap exploitation films (Jungle Moon Men) unworthy of his talents. Weldon displays an encyclopedic knowledge of Rossitto's career which ultimately spanned seven decades, several popular 'cult' hits (The Trip included) and saw him work for all six of the major studios. Weldon's enthusiasm is highly infectious and he manages to paint a moving portrait of a distinctly unsung talent.
Picking the best of the bunch is certainly a close call. Dave Hickey's piece on the laconic Robert Mitchum, characteristically insouciant after his 1948 marijuana drugs bust which famously caused him to quip 'former actor' when asked to state his occupation is pretty near the top. But just edging it is Chris Tsakis' short but oh so sweet 'first person self-portrait' of Timothy Carey. Carey graced some of American cinema's finest films - Paths of Glory, One Eyed Jacks and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - imbuing each with a crazed, wild-eyed intensity. Railing against anything and everything (especially his creep-like pallor) with the claim that 'I can give the best fucking scumbag you ever saw' Tsakis' witty evocation of the man behind the madness is never less than right on the money.
Priced at an almost criminally good value £10, O.K You Mugs is highly recommended, entertaining reading.
Reviewed by Jason Wood
