Without a doubt the most scarce film on my Mitchum list, Mister Moses is the joker in the deck and contains one of Bob's best light comic performances as a con man who helps re-locate an entire African village with the help of blonde bombshell Carroll Baker and an endearing elephant for transportation. British director Ronald Neame had originally envisioned a 24 year-old Julie Christie (Billy Liar) as Bob's leading lady but she was not yet deemed a big enough star, although that would soon be remedied with her next film Darling (1965). According to Neame, Mitchum was his usual professional self on set but did not refrain from some significant imbibing during his off hours while on the remote Kenyan locations. He also befriended the tribe of Masai warriors who were featured in the film, and enjoyed participating in many of their tribal rituals, although he didn't take to their diet of cattle blood and milk. The lively music is by John Barry who would come to be the film composer most associated with East Africa for his award-winning scores of Born Free (1966) and Out of Africa (1985). Unfortunately the availability of Mister Moses has been been sporadic at best over the years having never been released on any home video format. Due to its dated colonial attitudes it may never see the light of day and as such it remains my most sought after Mitchum movie.
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