Any students who flocked to Visiting Lecturer Elvis Mitchell’s film course this spring in search of a spectacle surely got what they were looking for.

First, the fame: Though many Harvard professors stamp their names on the covers of textbooks or bestsellers, Mitchell’s undergraduates could look forward to seeing their professor’s distinctive byline placed prominently in The New York Times several times a week.

Shuttling back and forth to New York, Mitchell weighed in on the silver screen’s triumphs and flops as one of three Times film critics until his resignation from the paper late in the spring.

Then, the treats: Back in Cambridge, Mitchell gave the students in Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) 173x, “History of American Film Criticism,” a big-screen showing of a noteworthy film every Thursday at 1 p.m. and followed each screening with an hour or so of his thoughts.

If the dusty classic reels weren’t enough for any seasoned film buffs in the class, Mitchell also managed to furnish them with a special pre-release screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Mitchell’s array of novel offerings was rounded out by a suite of guests. The critic used his extensive connections to bring the distributor of The Passion of the Christ and then the director of The Yards to the Carpenter Center, culminating in a surprise cameo from star Bill Murray at VES 173x’s final meeting.

And then, by semester’s end, came the headlines. The man known for his idiosyncratic takes on others’ work turned out to make an irresistible story of his own, as his departure from The New York Times played out in the public eye.

In the flurry of speculation about where the charismatic critic would go next—to another newspaper? to a film studio?—few seem to have predicted what is, for the time being, the answer. Mitchell is coming back to Harvard, where he will again teach one course each in VES and in the Department of African and African American Studies in the spring of 2005. Mitchell did not respond to repeated requests to be interviewed for this article.

The brick halls on the banks of the Charles might not seem like an obvious choice for Mitchell, whose departure from The Times was attended by suggestions from some observers that he never quite fit into its stodgy old New York environment—and yet who maintained a full-time job there while teaching his Harvard courses.

Then again, VES’ Le Corbusier-designed concrete complex on Quincy Street is not quite your average Harvard class space.

DOUBLE FEATURE

VES has long welcomed professional artists without formal academic backgrounds to its ranks as visiting faculty.

And VES Chair Marjorie Garber, who is also Kenan professor of English, says Mitchell and his day job fit squarely within this tradition of the department.

“All our visiting artists have another job,” Garber says. “This is just like that...the value, in part, of these folks is that they have another life in the world.”

Still, even VES has had problems with busy professors balancing non-academic careers in past years.