'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’: Bruce Weber’s Love Letter to Chet Baker and Robert Mitchum

Bruce Weber still remembers his first encounter with legendary jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker. It was winter in New York City and the snow was falling. As Weber crossed the street by Tiffany’s at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, he saw Baker sitting at a red light behind the wheel of an old Chevy convertible.

The convertible top was down and the jazz was up loud. Baker could have cared less about the snow because it was obviously all about the jazz.

“I wanted to jump in with him,” Weber recalled in a recent phone interview from his home in Montauk. “Instantly I knew who he was. He was listening to either Zoot Sims or Dizzy Gillespie, it was a little concert at the stoplight. There were 15 to 20 people watching him, staring at him. Women would meet him, say he’s so sweet. They always wanted to help him.”

Years later, Bruce Weber came to know Chet Baker much better, this time not as a pedestrian, but as the world-famous photographer he had become.

“My wife, Nan, and I wanted to see if we could meet him,” recalled Weber who, after making his first feature film, “Broken Noses” about flyweight boxer Andy Minsker in 1987, began thinking that he’d like his next film to be about Chet Baker. “We knew he was in town, but I couldn’t go to the show because I was working. So, Nan went and talked to him. I went the next week with a cameraman and an assistant. I said, ‘I’ve been searching for you and would love to take some photos.’ He said, ‘OK. Can you take them with Diana, my girlfriend?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So the next day we went and made an appointment to make a short film called ‘Blame It on My Youth.’

“We left it for a long time, then I decided to make a full-length film. Sometimes you start something and don’t know why, but I just did it.”

Weber hit the road with Baker with the goal of gathering footage of the musician’s life and music. That collection of travel footage, recording sessions and interviews ultimately became Weber’s 1988 feature length documentary “Let’s Get Lost.” The film debuted in Venice (where it won the Cinecritica award) and was subsequently nominated for a Grand Jury Award at Sundance and for an Oscar for best documentary feature. It premiered four months after Chet Baker’s death at age 58.

“I knew the good side of him and the bad side of him. But he could charm anyone,” Weber said. “Deep sea diving off Catalina Island was his favorite sport. He always had a woman in his life. So many people came up to us after the film to say, ‘Why wasn’t I in the film? Chet lived with us for six months.’ Or, ‘He was our babysitter.’”

This weekend, in conjunction with its annual Festival of Preservation, Sag Harbor Cinema will present “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Bruce Weber Films Chet Baker and Robert Mitchum.” The third-floor gallery exhibition opens with a 5 p.m. reception this Friday, November 7, and features collaged film journals reflecting Weber’s process and his work with Baker as well as a second film journal from a separate project Weber created with the late actor Robert Mitchum as part of his 2018 documentary “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast” (which will be screened at the festival on Sunday). The two journals were originally prepared for showcases of the films in Europe, but have never been presented before in the United States. Also on view are portraits of film directors that Weber shot over the years.

For the curation of the cinema exhibition, Weber, his wife, Nan Bush, and art director Nathan Kilcer, Weber’s archivist, discussed concepts for the show with the cinema’s artistic director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.

“We worked with Giulia and talked about what the exhibition could be,” Weber explained. “It was kind of nice to leave it open. We’ll have photographs of different directors I photographed over the years. Also, we’ll have these pictures from a book about Bob Mitchum that was done when he was young, and the photos I took of him. Opposite that are photos from another book about Chet and ‘Let’s Get Lost.’

“It’s a sweet exhibition and kinda personal. I like the cinema there so much,” said Weber, who is also a fan of Sag Harbor in general and has fond memories of staying there with a friend years ago.

“Sag Harbor has changed so much,” Weber said. “Nan and I were friends with Otto Fenn, who had an antique shop. We stayed in his little house. He never would have AC, even in the dead of summer. It was a little bed with a curtain and it was 110 degrees.”

Coming back to Sag Harbor for this exhibition is giving Weber several reasons to celebrate. Coincidentally, on the very same day the show opens, a new album curated by Weber featuring the music of Chet Baker will be released by Slow Down Sounds.

“This is wacky, but Nan and I have an album of music that’s never been heard before of Chet Baker,” Weber said. “These are things we recorded with Chet 30 years ago. It’s a nice album and I’m really proud of it. It comes out during the festival.”

Titled “Swimming by Moonlight,” the two-record album is a collection of previously unreleased music, dialogue and live concert recordings from sessions Chet Baker had with Weber in 1986 and 1987 during the making of “Let’s Get Lost.” The material has been in Weber’s archive for some 40 years and is likely the last new, unreleased Chet Baker music in existence.

“We produced it with John Leftwich, who’s worked on my films,” Weber said. “I’ve never recorded an album before, but it was so much fun. It’s kind of crazy. I wanted to do something different, so, John, Nan and I decided to make a record.”

In addition to Chet Baker, the other big name highlighted in Weber’s exhibition is the late actor Robert Mitchum, who Weber first photographed for Vanity Fair back in 1987. Though he perpetuated the bad boy image throughout his life, it wasn’t long after meeting him that Weber realized that underneath it all, Mitchum had a softer side.

“I went to see Bob because I got the assignment for Vanity Fair and it was a story on tough guys like Richard Widmark. I went to Montecito and knocked on the door. There was a sign that said, ‘Gone Fishing,’” Weber recalled. “I pounded, thinking he’s not here, I’ll have to tell my editor. He finally opened door, reading glasses on edge of nose, he goes ‘Yeah?’

“I introduced myself and said, ‘I’m here from Vanity Fair magazine to do some photos.’ He didn’t say anything,” Weber added. “I mentioned this friend of mine who he knew and he said, ‘Would you believe everything this guy says?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Good. C’mon in.’”

Weber recalled that at that first meeting, Mitchum sat in his La-Z-Boy chair and complained about everything. When they finally got around to taking some photos (after Weber suggested a wardrobe change to some neutral khaki-colored pants), Mitchum took out a cigarette and shoved the filter part up in his nose.

“He does everything he can to alienate you,” Weber noted. “I said ‘Bob, I have a whole busload of people out there, can they come in?’ Ultimately, he was very charming.”

Weber also told Mitchum that he wanted to make a film about him someday.

“He got so annoyed, he said, ‘OK. Next week,” Weber said. “He came down to see me with a guy who was his gas station worker and also his driver. I was totally charmed by him. He was so smart and read lots of books and talked about them in a nice way.

“We started shooting that day he came down,” Weber said. “So many times during the shooting, I thought that after Chet Baker, I really wanted to make a film on Jimmy Stewart. It woulda been so easy.”

But in the end, Weber understood Mitchum and realized what his personality was all about.

“I always thought that Bob had just wished he was an uncle and not a father and husband,” Weber said. “He sang. He had a calypso album. He also had these great loves, Shirley MacLaine, his wife, Dorothy, and he was really in love with Deborah Kerr.

“His wife never wanted him to do this film. They were very private,” Weber said. “I got friendly with her after he passed away. I was at my local Italian restaurant and a kid walked in who looked just like him. It was his grandson. Dorothy was there and I said, ‘How are you?’ She said, ‘Sometimes I really miss that son of a bitch.’

“I loved that he could be so funny and charming. He was very kind to me, but I don’t think he liked a lot of people,” Weber added. “He was so human. When people ask, ‘Who’s the sexiest guy you ever met?’ I say, ‘Bob Mitchum.’ His confidence was so easy and everyone who worked with him adored him.

“Bob Mitchum was like a fighting poet. He was very different,” Weber noted. “He was mine and my dad’s favorite actor. I wanted to make a film my dad would like.”

On Saturday, November 8, at 3 p.m. the cinema will host a multi-faceted Bruce Weber program tied to his exhibition. It will include screenings of Weber’s Robert Mitchum documentary “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast,” along with a brand-new five-minute music video for the Chet Baker song “Make Me Rainbows” (from the new album). Carrie Mitchum, granddaughter of Robert Mitchum, will join Weber for a Q&A following the screening. The event will also include a signing of Bruce Weber’s newest book, “My Education.” Published by Taschen in September, the book contains over 500 photographs exploring Weber’s life, work and collaborations over the course of his 50-year career as a photographer and filmmaker.

“Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Bruce Weber Films Chet Baker and Robert Mitchum” remains open to the public on Sag Harbor Cinema’s third floor through January 2026. For more information and tickets to the screening, visit sagharborcinema.org. Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor.