- Self - Cultural Historian: You can see Mitchum and Stewart as complimentary. And that Stewart is a kind of hero, in that way, whereas, Mitchum is almost always the anti-hero. So, between the two of them, they correspond to the opposite ends of the American idea of what a hero is, you know. Is a hero somebody who has to stand for something, who has to run something, who has to be a leader? Or, is the hero somebody who is true to himself?
- Self - Actress & Writer: Mitchum was a quietly powerful hero on screen. He didn't exercise a lot of the external properties of somebody macho, somebody - a brawler or anything like that. But, you knew that was all there. It was in him.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: He never talked about the war. Mom said he never talked about it to her. He never talked about it with us. I think it meant it was devastating to him. Absolutely devastating. And I think that is part of why there's a sadness in Dad even in all his films.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: I read his diary. After he died, I found it way, way up in his closet. I found his diary and - it gave a list of the squadrons who would go out with him. And there were "x's" through all of them - except for one and that was him.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: When Dad came back from the war he wasn't even sure he wanted to be in films any more. I think it really changed him. And he was wondering if it was too frivolous - after what he had seen. You know, if it wasn't important - making movies was was't important enough. The immediate scene that comes to mind is him praying in 'It's A Wonderful Life." The bar scene. Such a good depiction of complete desperation - when you're trying to cling on to anything that might keep you going. And I think to have that movie, the movie he made after the war was very important.
- Self - Actress & Writer: What I find fascinating about Jimmy Stewart, first off, here I'm calling him Jimmy. People felt so comfortable with him. They felt they knew him. And he ceased to be James, though he was billed that way, and became in people's minds: Jimmy, the more familiar.
- Self - Cultural Historian: So many of Hitchcock's films, in general, but particularly after the war and with characters sometimes played by Jimmy Stewart, are about the innocent bystander who gets drawn into a criminal situation. And part of being drawn into that, it turns out that, in fact, the bystander is not so innocent. So, it's by the bystander's own guilt, the subterranean guilt, that pulls them in. Now, if you look at the progression of the kinds of roles that Stewart plays in those Hitchcock films, he starts out separate. In "Rope" he is the lawyer who, you know, can understand that - he's sort of detached from it - he discovers that what's actually going on there. With "Rear Window" he's trying to be detached. Right, he's sitting there, has the camera and everything, but he get pulled into it. I mean, once again he gets pulled into, you know, there's this kind of whirlpool of crime that you're pulled into, in fact, because you're somewhat guilty yourself. And then, of course, by the time of "Vertigo," he is the one who manipulates the whole situation. He's the one who sets it all up. If you want to put it under a large umbrella, it's again a kind of what's become the consciousness because of the war - and the capability of normal people, let's say, to kill. You know, even in your head. So, to discover that potential in yourself, I think is reflected in some of the themes of these Hitchcock films.
- Self - Daughter of Robert Mitchum: The fact remains that he did enjoy smoking marijuana for much of his life.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: I remember doing drop drills in school. In case there's a nuclear blast, everybody drop and hide under your desk - like, that's gonna help. But, there was that paranoia and maybe the films that Hitchcock made reflected that darkness and that fear. It's a fear of being watched all the time. Hitchcock was very into voyeurism and "Rear Window" was all about that. "The Man Who Knew Too Much" was knowing too much - that's bad guys thinking that you know too much - you know something you shouldn't. So, they're out to get you. And that could all be part of that paranoia that was going on then.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: He had been asked to be an informant about Hollywood people for the FBI - for J. Edgar Hoover. And I think that Dad just did not like the idea of spying on his friends. So, he didn't do it. That was another very strong part of Dad's character was loyalty to friends.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: Dad never made a war film that glorified war. He was very loathe to do that. And he didn't want the glory to come to him when the men he flew with, and some of whom died, weren't getting the recognition. He never wanted to outshine those men. And, I think, that's why he didn't want to glorify war. And he didn't talk about it very much.
- Self - Daughter of James Stewart: My Dad and Robert Mitchum had very different lives and different careers. But, they died one day apart. And we were good friends with Robert Mitchum's daughter, Trina. We went to school with her. And I remember her, we talked to each other on the phone and she said, "Well, your Dad's death took some of the heat off of our house, because the helicopters and the cameras have left and gone to where your parents are - where your Dad is." So, you know, in the end they were together and it's - I like to think of it as the big sleep - was the name of the film they made together. And it was viewed by America as the end of an era, because, they represented a lot about America, a lot about American history, and film history. And to have them both go so close together was - just seems fitting.