Rating: 
Summary: Fine Robert Mitchum Biography
Review: This is one of the best Robert Mitchum biographies ever crafted. It presents in-depth details about many of his major films. The book also covers much information about his personal life apart from acting.
I found this biography very useful in researching my mother's family history. Mitchum was personally connected to some members of my family. Lee Server's biography mentions the names of Felton, Delaware's Charley and Annie Welch and Manuel Barque ( whom they "took" into their family household ). In his youth Mitchum befriended Manuel Barque. It so happens that Charley Welch was a member of my mother's Aunt Rosalie Fear Welch's husband Benjamin Welch's family.
This book provides a good description of Mitchum's independent personality and his attitude toward numerous topics. I highly recommend this wide-ranging biography.
Rating: 
Summary: He Didn't Care: Should We ?
Review: "Baby, I Don't Care" is a meticulously researched biography of the late film star, Robert Mitchum. It features no less than 25 pages of sources. The title is from a Mitchum line in an early noir film (I believe it was "Out of the Past"). The story takes us from his childhood through a hardscrabble early adulthood to Hollywood. Readers are led through virtually each and every (!) Mitchum film, whether famous, infamous or anonymous. Inside gossip and tidbits abound. We learn, for example why Mia Farrow backed out of the female lead in "True Grit". The reader encounters a faded Rita Hayworth, a drunken Trevor Howard, a strange Howard Hughes, an unlikable Kirk Douglas, and a quite appealing Jane Russell. Since Mitchum worked for nearly every major director in his career, they too are included in BIDC: Hawks, Hathaway, Huston, Minnelli and Dmytryk. One problem is that we are surfeited with such blessings. The tidbits and gossip are unceasing. Another problem is the character of Mitchum himself. If he "cared" about anything or what he "cared" about is conspicuously unexplained! His behavior is just plain boorish. The public drunkenness, gross public and gratuitous rudeness spread over 536 pages, become progressively boring. An additional caveat is that despite the ample documentation, this reviewer questions the general authenticity of BIDC. Author Server had certainly done his homework but how much of the text is fact and how much insinuation? Other reviewers have also raised this point. BIDC is difficult to rate. For hardcore old movie fans, it easily rates 5 stars. As a "moderate" but not fanatic old movie fan, this reviewer feels 3 stars is more appropriate. I like watching movies on AMC and TCM etc too but all good things have their time, place, and limitations. Author Server has simply exceeded those limitations, his valiant effort notwithstanding.
Rating:
Summary: The King of Cool
Review: Actor Robert Mitchum was the Real Deal, and author Lee Server has written a wonderful book about him entitled "Robert Mitchum, 'Baby I Don't Care'." Relatively unschooled, the naturally intelligent Mitchum hit the Depression era American roads at age 14. A dozen years later, in the midst of WWII, the roustabout made his motion picture acting debut as a bad guy in a Hopalong Cassidy western. That began a "magic carpet ride" that spanned six decades of glamorous, rough and tumble Hollywood history. Server's thoroughly researched page-turner takes us along for the ride. And what a life it was! If you love movies, you'll love this book. Mitchum took a lifelong lunch bucket approach to his work. He was not about making high art, he was there for the paycheck. He showed-up on time, hit his mark, and delivered his lines. Then he went out and played hard, oftentimes until it was time to show-up again. As a studio contract player for RKO early in his career, he assured himself a lasting place in cinematic history by starring in many of the "dark" potboilers that became a beloved genre, film noir. When the studio system came apart in the mid-fifties, Mitchum transitioned into a globe-trotting international star who held his own with anybody for the next twenty years. He never quit working, even as age and lifestyle finally caught up with him. It is astonishing to remember that his last picture was released just six years ago. Like all good biographers (and good filmmakers) Server does not get in the way of the story. He does not burden the reader with any amateur psychoanalysis or judgmental moralizing about his subject. As Server leads us chronologically through this unique actor's 120-film career, his admiration and sympathy for Mitchum are self-evident. But Server pulls no punches. As he so ably and entertainingly relates, Mitchum was a contradictory and sometimes complex character. A fundamentally liberal and philosophical man who enjoyed writing poetry, he was also quite capable of chauvinism, bigotry, and the crassest vulgarianism. Some of Mitchum's story hurts, but most of it is pure pleasure. Pull on a trench coat. Stick a gat in your pocket. Saddle-up your horse and ride out and buy Server's book. Then take it home, get in your favorite armchair and "roll 'em." It doesn't get any better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Still a Mystery Man
Review: As a dedicated fan of Robert Mitchum, I was happy to see a full-scale biography available at last. It does an excellent job of cataloging Mitchum's films and acting methodology. I would have appreciated less repetition of "understated, natural, stole the film" etc., and more insight to the particular strengths he brought to his best movies. The author tells us the movie might have been bad, but Mitchum-never. I have seen almost all of Robert Mitchum's films, and I am here to tell you, there were a few that he strictly walked through his part. This is true of almost any actor that has had a 30+-year career. The book is severely limited by the lack of access to the principal players in Mitchum's life: his wife, sons, and many of his closest relationships. There are disadvantages to an "authorized" biography if the family wishes only the positive virtues of the subject to be included. However, without their input or cooperation, it is almost impossible to get any realistic picture of the man. Before I read this book, I knew Mitchum was a drinker, a brawler, a womanizer and a bad boy. When I finished the book, I didn't have much to add to that impression. His early life though sketchy, was interesting. His famous detachment is easily understood when you read about his childhood. His mother, though a hard worker, was a drifter and her children more or less raised themselves. The direct sources are questionable. His sister is an unusual woman who claims "ESP" with Robert; though her view of him is so laudatory I sometimes wondered if she was speaking of an entirely different person. The tales from "barroom buddies" are just that - highly questionable. He seems to have been aloof toward his children and slightly skeptical. Mrs. Mitchum is a mysterious character throughout the book. Why did he stay with him? Why did he keep coming back? We never find out. According to the book, he had a long relationship with Shirley MacLaine, yet the author did not have one conversation with her. Robert Mitchum remains an enigma. The definitive biography remains to be written.
Rating: 
Summary: If You Like Mitchum, You'll Like This Book
Review: As a Mitchum fan, I got a lot out of this book. I enjoyed the anecdotes that the author included because they really imparted a strong sense of who Mitchum was. And of course in many ways his screen persona wasn't a whole lot different than the man himself.
On a personal level, I've heard a lot of Mitchum stories from local people in my area. Mitchum visited here quite a bit in the '60's as he had a local friend who raised quarter horses. He became a commonly seen fixture in a lot of local bars and restaurants and was known for being quite a hell raiser. So everything I heard was only confirmed many times over in this book in one way or another.
While Mitchum appeared to be one tough guy in the movies, I think the private Mitchum was a lot more interesting. What is even more amazing is that death seemed to be the only thing that slowed this man down.
The title is a good one in that it seems to say it all. Mitchum did exactly what he wanted to do and he followed his own drummer.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best biographies I've ever read!
Review: I can't say I was a big fan of Robert Mitchum's before I read this book. I bought it based on the reviews, and because I'm always on the lookout for a good biography. I hit the jackpot on this one. Lee Server's portrait of Mitchum left me feeling I knew him intimately. I found myself laughing out loud many times on the train to work at Mitchum's hilarious comments on the absurd world of show biz. Server interviewed zillions of people who knew Mitchum to draw a consistent and thoroughly convincing portrait of a man who was both sensitive and caring, and obnoxious - even dangerous - when he boozed it up, which was most of the time, it seems. Anyway, I can only say this ranks as probably the most entertaining biography I have ever read ... it ranks right up there with Scott Berg's biographies of Lindbergh and Hemmingway.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Entertaining and Informative Star Bio I've Read
Review: I first read this biography tye year it came out after it had been named one of the Best Books of the Year in the Los Angeles Times list. This took me by surprise since Robert Mitchum was not the type of actor who usually ended up on Best anything lists when he was alive. I would go so far as to say he was one of the most overlooked great actors and stars. I read the book from cover to cover and it was as good as the Times said and better, enthralling, informative, full of new information about Mitchum and the hundred movies he made. More crazy things happened to Mitchum than all the other stars put together. This book has some of the most entertaining and funny Hollywood stories I have ever read. Mitchum was an eccentric man who didnt play by anybody's rules. He refused to take Hollywood bull-- (I don't think i can use the word that Mitchum aimed at Hollywood most of the time. The book recounts a larger than life story and tells it so that you feel like you are reading a novel and want to know what happens next. You go from the hard living of the Depression and Mitchum running away from home and riding the rails until he gets into big trouble and on a chain gang. Then the first years as a struggling movie actor falling on his butt in a lot of b westerns. Then stardom but he almost ruins that by a little problem with drugs and a police raid when Mitchum is playing around with some sexy young actresses. This is a long section in the book that covers his trial and jail time and it is great. Some of the stories in the book had me rolling over with laughter (I won't spoil it but the best oneis about a big donnybrook fight with Frank Sinatra and some other actor and Mitchum and it involves eating Sinatra's toupee). The author writes in a very readable style that is like watching a Mitchum movie if you know what I mean, with a lot of tough snappy lines and a cynical attitude but I don't think Mitchum could have asked for a better biographer because he never lets you forget what a great actor Mitchum is and how much he brought to these movies. Sever interviewed hundreds of people who knew Robert Mitchum. He found the people who went to grade school with him in the 1920s, and they proved that Mitchum was an original even then. He talks to relatives, co-stars, drinking buddies, his personal assistant for fifty years, people who knew every aspect of Mitchum's life so that you get a fully rounded picture of the man. He finds the most amazing people to talk to about Mitchum and they all have amazing, funny, outrageous stories to tell (oh yes let me mention the story about sneaking the hashish out of India or the story about The Night of the Hunter when Mitchum has a little disagreement with the movie's producer and does something to the man's car (it is the producer himself who tells Server this funny story) The biographer seems to have spent a lot of time with the one person living who knew Mitchum from the time he was born, his older sister, and she gives a very interesting perspective on Robert's whole character as a child and as a young man, all the things that shaped the adult who became a star.. She too is an eccentric character and she is very interesting on the family as he was growing up, kind of like early beatniks, wandering around and with no discipline and very artistic. Mitchum sister gives insights to the side of Mitchum most people don't know about, the intelligent curious young man who wrote poems and song lyrics and this is one of the things I love about the portrait that is painted of Mitchum in this book. You see the man who gets into trouble with the police and gets stoned and doesn't give a damn and then you see the man who liked to write sensitive poetry and knew just about every subject on earth. Server's picture of Mitchum getting older and more cynical is very sharp and painful with some incidents that you feel is Mitchum lashing out at the world in his psychic pain of age and alcohol dependence. And then comes old age and illness. Server handles these scenes with an understated tendernes and you feel like you are saying goodbye to an old friend or a family member when Mitchum finally takes his last bow. I took this book with me this past summer and re read it after three years and I found it as exciting and impressive as I did the first time.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Mitchum's Persona - A Tough Call
Review: One wonders what Robert Mitchum's reaction would have been to this ambivalent, highly-detailed account of a life that was sadly convoluted and, at the same time, humorous in aspect. If Mitchum were alive today, the hope is the author wouldn't have frequented many of this controversial star's watering holes/pubs. What may best summarize this very detailed bio is the ominous tattoo on Mitchum's fingers in "Night of The Hunter": LOVE - HATE...or was it GOOD - EVIL? Either would apply in trying to sum up the reader's feelings at the end of this sizeable tome. Although I enjoyed his films tremendously, this book would probably elicit a "To hell with this noise" response from Mitchum if he was indeed around today. He seemed to have signed off on his sensibilities and decency way too early in life, in spite of the traumas of his abysmal childhood. Typical example: The description of his autograph signature to an admittedly intrusive Aussie: "F--- you. Kirk Douglas". Is this the same actor who portrays such a sense of decency and integrity in "The Lusty Men" and "Rachel and The Stranger"? It's painfully obvious that Mitchum wasn't one to "suffer fools lightly". But in doing so, he often played the fool himself. In spite of obviously not caring, it's certainly a considerable achievement to have held it together and even survived to the age of 80 in compiling such an extensive filmic legacy.
Rating:
Summary: more like 3.5, but I give his personality the nod to 4
Review: So Mitchum, Movie Star was human. So. I guess the argument that some on the site regard this as a filmography holds true. Still there is certainly a biographical element laced throughout. But the hearty middle is about the films, and there were many of them, with a rundown of who was involved, where, the story/character, and then the goings on during the filming. Lots of drinking. Lots of humping mostly unknown females, lots of brawls and messin'. There are plenty of first hand accounts of Mitchum's kindness and generosity and many also of his nastiness and callousness. So he was moody? So. I will say an element is missing though. His family must not have supported this because there is relatively little from them, so Lee Server fills in the rest. I do wonder at his wife's putting up with what must have amounted to hundreds of affairs/liasons, and a seeming lack of argument. But there it goes...Who knows what makes a marriage, and after all I've just read an account of a busy and active and influential and rich life, but I'll never know the marrow, and apparently Mitchum's friends didn't even know such depths. I now appreciate him, will look out for his films more then ever, and marvel at some peoples appetite for drinks, brawls, affairs and cigarettes. To conclude, Mitchum is portayed here as a guy who I'd look forward to chatting with...
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable But Thin
Review: This big book rekindles an interest in an actor whose work is much neglected these days and almost impossible to find in video stores or on TV. It's fun to read about Mitchum's career, especially the early phase of it, and interesting to trace his decline due to alcoholism. What's disappointing is the lack of penetrating insight into either his uniqueness as a person or his special talent as an actor. The author repeats the same superficial descriptions over and over again, without ever getting below the surface of the man. Mitchum was a "natural;" he pretended not to care, but was always ready, prepared and focused. He never took himself too seriously, and was considerate of his colleagues -- unless they took themselves too seriously. He was a lousy husband and father whose wife and children had difficult and conflicting feelings about him to the end. He found it difficult to relate to anyone except through drugs or alcohol, which he abused most of the time. But, somehow, in spite of his chronic bad behavior, the author implies Mitchum is worthy of forgiveness and admiration. Why? I can't figure that one out. But, in spite of the book's faults, it's full of insider views of other celebrities from the movie biz, which keeps it fun and interesting. And it has prompted me to search for old Mitchum movies in the hope of seeing some of those performances which the author singles out as special and illustrative of Mitchum's specialness.
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