Mitchum was 70 and looked it and for 25 year old luscious pam to say things like "Oh pug, you're the most exciting man i've ever known" was silly.
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Reckless drivers are a bigger threat to you than all other criminals put together.
No argument there. And his visible indifference made it even worse.
shareThere are plenty of young hotties who are into old men - and not just for their money. Here's a guy who hobnobs with FDR and Churchill, and has met both Hitler and Stalin, and then becomes Truman's Naval aide. Power is a great aphrodisiac.
Also, during the war, most of the younger men suddenly became unavailable, so women had to lower their standards and take whatever they could get. ;)
The problem was that Mitchum was far older than Pug was supposed to be and he looked bad for his age.
In the book, Pug is in his late forties when he first meets Pam while on the S.S. Bremen, en route to Berlin. He turns 50 in early 1941. He's described as being short and stocky, but has kept himself in good condition through the years. (Rhoda says that Pug still takes the same size clothing as when she and him first got married.)
Another passage describes him has having few gray hairs with the main signs of facial aging being lines on his face from years of staring out at sea. As well, he's described as having a little indulgence of wearing loudly certain types of suits with loudly coloured ties when in civilian clothing, but his athletic frame allows him to get away with it.
So, in the book, while Pug is indeed older than Pam by about twenty years he looks younger than his age and is apparently still attractive and in very good condition.
Mitchum simply was too old and too out of shape to realistically play Pug as a viable romantic lead die for Pamela.
It also didn't advance the story. I guess because Rhoda had playmates, "Pug" had to have them too
shareI thought an equally big problem was that Victoria Tennant is completely dislikable IMO. She engenders total revulsion in me from the minute she appears on-screen and starts making her creepy like moves on Pug. Mitchum I think was generally succeeding in getting by whenever he wasn't on-screen with Tennant. It's only when they were together that it became embarrassing to watch.
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