Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

No match for bad dad Robert Mitchum

“If I see you put your hand in the plate one more time, I’m gonna’ stab you with this knife. You hear me?”

Raging Bull: Fadder o’ the year Joey LaMotta!
Raging Bull: Fadder o’ the year Joey LaMotta!

Bad dads: there are no George Baileys or clownfish named Marlin in this reprobative grouping of sires.

Video:

Home from the Hill trailer

Home from the Hill (1960)

There were two venal Vincente Minnelli patriarchs to choose from, neither of whom had Liz Taylor as his on-screen daughter. Arthur Kennedy is pure scum in Some Came Running. On the surface he’s Parkman, Indiana’s #1 son, but his heart pumps silt. Still, revulsive though he may be (in a good way), he is no match for Robert Mitchum in Home From the Hill. Director Minnelli asks us to accept George Hamilton in the role of Mitchum’s son. (And I goof on Spielberg’s inability to suspend disbelief!) But wat delight awaits, watching Mitchum belittle the ever-tanned (and ever-fledgling) actor. But all roads lead to Bob’s heated moment of comeuppance: eighty-seven minutes in, Hamilton enters dad’s study/arsenal to make it known that he’s hip to the fact that one of the ranch hands is his half-brother. So what if pop sewed a few wild oats with a tramp who gave birth by the side of a ditch? Hamilton follows with the line of his career: “She must have been some pig to crawl into bed with you.” Thawing momentarily, Bob stammers, “We’ll just let that...We’ll just let that pass in the heat of the moment.” Flustered Mitchum. How often does that appear on the menu? When it does, savor it!

Sponsored
Sponsored
Video:

Written on the Wind trailer

Written on the Wind (1956)

“A great man! A giant of a man!” To hear his family speak, you’d half-expect Jonas Salk and Amazing Colossal Man Glenn Langan to enter hand-in-hand. Instead of a titan, director Douglas Sirk portrays oil tycoon Jasper Hadley (Robert Keith) as a pocket-sized but powerful house mouse. The inheritors to his throne are his impotent lush of a son (Robert Stack) and a doxy daughter (Dorothy Malone) who makes Mitchum’s “sand hill tacky” look like a Disney Princess. Halfway through the picture, Old Man Hadley’s ticker gives out, forcing him to take a fatal spill down the family’s grand staircase. (If a diminutive oil tycoon falls in the middle of a mansion, does anybody hear?) It doesn’t help that his daughter — Sirk’s framing reducing her to a calcitrating torso — is blasting a molten version of “Temptation” on her Victrola. Patroclinous trivia: milquetoast Robert Keith was the real life sire of strapping Brian Keith, movie dad to both Hayley Millses in The Parent Trap and TV’s “Uncle Bill” on Family Affair.

Video:

Raging Bull trailer

Raging Bull (1980)

Jake La Motta (Robert DeNiro) is by no means Judge Hardy, but the father of the year award goes to the younger LaMotta brother. Unfortunately there isn’t enough quality screen time devoted to Joey (Joe Pesci) and his kids, but the thirty seconds we do get to spend around the family dinner table is magic. Joey points a knife at his young son and threatens, “If I see you put your hand in the plate one more time, I’m gonna’ stab you with this knife. You hear me?” We never learn if Joey, Jr. got the message, for no sooner is his dad about to bludgeon the tot with a butter knife than Uncle Jake saves the day by bursting into the house and putting his brother’s head through a glass door. Every day is Father’s Day in the LaMotta household, ya’ son of a bitch! And while we’re on the subject of father figures, here’s a little mob movie trivia. Russell Bufalino, the character played by Joe Pesci in The Irishman, was the real-life godfather to Al Martino. Upon learning that Martino’s role as Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather had been taken from him and given to Vic Damone, the singer put in a call to Bufalino, who stepped in and smoothed things out.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Raging Bull: Fadder o’ the year Joey LaMotta!
Raging Bull: Fadder o’ the year Joey LaMotta!

Bad dads: there are no George Baileys or clownfish named Marlin in this reprobative grouping of sires.

Video:

Home from the Hill trailer

Home from the Hill (1960)

There were two venal Vincente Minnelli patriarchs to choose from, neither of whom had Liz Taylor as his on-screen daughter. Arthur Kennedy is pure scum in Some Came Running. On the surface he’s Parkman, Indiana’s #1 son, but his heart pumps silt. Still, revulsive though he may be (in a good way), he is no match for Robert Mitchum in Home From the Hill. Director Minnelli asks us to accept George Hamilton in the role of Mitchum’s son. (And I goof on Spielberg’s inability to suspend disbelief!) But wat delight awaits, watching Mitchum belittle the ever-tanned (and ever-fledgling) actor. But all roads lead to Bob’s heated moment of comeuppance: eighty-seven minutes in, Hamilton enters dad’s study/arsenal to make it known that he’s hip to the fact that one of the ranch hands is his half-brother. So what if pop sewed a few wild oats with a tramp who gave birth by the side of a ditch? Hamilton follows with the line of his career: “She must have been some pig to crawl into bed with you.” Thawing momentarily, Bob stammers, “We’ll just let that...We’ll just let that pass in the heat of the moment.” Flustered Mitchum. How often does that appear on the menu? When it does, savor it!

Sponsored
Sponsored
Video:

Written on the Wind trailer

Written on the Wind (1956)

“A great man! A giant of a man!” To hear his family speak, you’d half-expect Jonas Salk and Amazing Colossal Man Glenn Langan to enter hand-in-hand. Instead of a titan, director Douglas Sirk portrays oil tycoon Jasper Hadley (Robert Keith) as a pocket-sized but powerful house mouse. The inheritors to his throne are his impotent lush of a son (Robert Stack) and a doxy daughter (Dorothy Malone) who makes Mitchum’s “sand hill tacky” look like a Disney Princess. Halfway through the picture, Old Man Hadley’s ticker gives out, forcing him to take a fatal spill down the family’s grand staircase. (If a diminutive oil tycoon falls in the middle of a mansion, does anybody hear?) It doesn’t help that his daughter — Sirk’s framing reducing her to a calcitrating torso — is blasting a molten version of “Temptation” on her Victrola. Patroclinous trivia: milquetoast Robert Keith was the real life sire of strapping Brian Keith, movie dad to both Hayley Millses in The Parent Trap and TV’s “Uncle Bill” on Family Affair.

Video:

Raging Bull trailer

Raging Bull (1980)

Jake La Motta (Robert DeNiro) is by no means Judge Hardy, but the father of the year award goes to the younger LaMotta brother. Unfortunately there isn’t enough quality screen time devoted to Joey (Joe Pesci) and his kids, but the thirty seconds we do get to spend around the family dinner table is magic. Joey points a knife at his young son and threatens, “If I see you put your hand in the plate one more time, I’m gonna’ stab you with this knife. You hear me?” We never learn if Joey, Jr. got the message, for no sooner is his dad about to bludgeon the tot with a butter knife than Uncle Jake saves the day by bursting into the house and putting his brother’s head through a glass door. Every day is Father’s Day in the LaMotta household, ya’ son of a bitch! And while we’re on the subject of father figures, here’s a little mob movie trivia. Russell Bufalino, the character played by Joe Pesci in The Irishman, was the real-life godfather to Al Martino. Upon learning that Martino’s role as Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather had been taken from him and given to Vic Damone, the singer put in a call to Bufalino, who stepped in and smoothed things out.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.