Loading...
49th out of 311 books
—
52 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care"
by
Lee Server
One of the movies' greatest actors and most colorful characters, a real-life tough guy with the prison record to prove it, Robert Mitchum was a movie icon for an almost unprecedented half-century, the cool, sleepy-eyed star of such classics as The Night of the Hunter; Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Cape Fear; The Longest Day; Farewell, My Lovely; and The Winds of War. Mitchum'...more
Paperback, 608 pages
Published
March 6th 2002
by St. Martin's Griffin
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
178)
Not so much a pinch of salt, an entire sack of the stuff is required to be taken when reading this book. It's not an autobiography I accept, but the author has clearly been given limited access to even Mitchum's immediate family and as a result the book is entirely anecdotal. It boils down to first he did this, and then he did that, and then he did this for well over 600 pages. In all honestly he probably only made two films of any real merit but neither of these are given any additional cove...more
view all 3 comments
And frankly, after two hundred pages, neither did I. I was already suspecting this wasn't much more than a hagiography of "and then Mitchum did this, and then he did that", when my dad said he'd read a total stinker of a book about Mitchum, and proceeded to say exactly what I was thinking about this! That applied the reading brakes big time, and I was left thinking why did I spend seven quid on the damn thing, and could I flog it on ebay?
I always like Robert Mitchum, but this biography tells the story of a true hero, namely an American who was able to live without fear. His personality is not presented in a fawning way, but rather takes advantage of a subject who was transparent because he was self-aware. By way of contrast, the Dean Martin biography is about a man who didn't care, but who was ultimately shallow and not self-reflective. Great reading!
Troy
added it
Boozin', babes and brawling. And being the part of some ass-kicking films as well. If there is anything cooler than Mitchum I don't want to know...
Learned alot about Mitchum's life. There was a chapter devoted to my 2 favorite Mitchum movies & learned alot about the films themselves.
Seems like Mitchum really "didn't care" about scandalizing anyone and everyone. Hard to put down bio.
This hobo actor borders on the genius. Lee Server really knows the era and the works of Robert Mitchum, which is important for a bio like this. "Night of the Hunter" is such an important landmark for American cinema as well of course for Mitchum's performance - so it was nice to read about it in this book. Basically Mitchum sounds like a real cool guy. He must had a zillion hysterical stories - and there are some in this book. A hard-to-put-down bio.
I've thought it was unfortunate timing that Robert Mitchum died a day or two before/after James Stewart. His passing didn't get the attention it deserved. For fans of indelible old films like The Night of the Hunter and the (real) Cape Fear, this is a must read.
I found this book to be an entertaining chronicle of Robert Mitchum's life and career, but the author's prose style was a bit too choppy for my taste and it was sometimes difficult to tell whether he was quoting someone or improvising appropriate dialog.
"There are snakes out tonight. Everybodys got snakes. I got snakes, but they're friends of mine." - my favorite Robert Mitchum line - just can't find the movie it was in. Up late watching TV a night years ago after being on-call.
So bogged down with details! It was like deciphering the biography from Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I mean, Robert Mitchum.
I'm not sure I learned much of anything from this book - a bit of a "mind wash" really.
I enjoyed it though.
I enjoyed it though.
I love movies as well as books, but I never thought of Mitchum as being that wild.
Dave
marked it as to-read
Michael Arden
marked it as to-read
sally4774
marked it as to-read
Kate
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
