Here's my review for the Robert Mitchum biography. It was
printed on the contentville.com site:
by Tosh Berman January 20, 2001
Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't
Care"
Current Titles in Film Tosh Berman, Book Soup, West
Hollywood, California
Cool can be defined in two words: Robert Mitchum. In this
world where nothing is consistent, we have one man who was
consistent in his ability to convey a sense of "I don't give
a fuck" throughout all of his 79 years. Reading Lee Server's
biography Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care", one is struck
by Mitchum's skill in making things look easy -- when Mitchum
actually bothers to use any skill. His acting technique was
closer to Zen than method acting: His primary concern was to
memorize the shooting script and make sure he didn't bump
into the furniture.
Of course, the directors were all warned not to have Mitchum
work past 6 P.M., due to his alcohol intake during the
early-morning hours and his 24-hour-a-day passion for the
"devil weed." Aside from that, he was the perfect employee --
he was always a friend to the shooting crew (he often ensured
that the set was supplied with good food), while challenging
the higher-ups at every opportunity. Although he was married
for over 50 years, he was the ultimate skirt-chaser. Either
he must have done something right, or his wife should have
gotten a Purple Heart just for putting up with him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lee Server's Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care" is the next
best thing to having Mitchum himself tell these stories at
his favorite watering hole. -- Tosh Berman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's also obvious to anyone who has seen any of his
impressive screen roles -- The Night of the Hunter; Cape
Fear; Farewell, My Lovely; Thunder Road; Out of the Past --
is that Mitchum was a highly intelligent man who understood
the space around and beyond the material he had to work with.
He was extremely well read, a writer himself (it is one of
the great disappointments that he never wrote his
autobiography), a hard-core record collector who had a
passion for hard bebop as well as for opera, and a true
connoisseur of marijuana. In other words, Mitchum was the
ultimate hipster, who somehow found himself as one of
America's great movie stars. In a way, he was the
proto-Elvis, in that his image conveyed certain wild,
untamable urges, with a look of "so what?" tattooed all over
his eyelids.
Server's excellent biography lists numerous examples of
Mitchum starting bar fights, farting in people's faces,
attending swinging bachelor parties, whipping out his penis
(and pissing on various objects and persons), and telling
uproarious stories. Like the time he woke up -- still drunk
-- with a woman in some room he didn't recognize. He got up
and left quietly, quite fearful that his wife would find out.
Later, he realized that he had left the wristwatch his wife
had given him in the bedroom. As Mitchum began to panic, his
wife casually mentioned that he had left his wristwatch by
their bedside. He hadn't realized that he had been sleeping
with his own wife!
The pairing of Mitchum the subject with Server the biographer
is a perfect one. Server fairly balances Mitchum's rough
edges (of which there are many) and his notorious character
with his kindness to his coworkers and his great skill as an
actor. Server is also one of the leading film noir
historians, so he knows film history, in addition to the
economic and political circumstances without which film noir
never would have thrived. This book is the next best thing to
having Mitchum himself tell these stories at his favorite
watering hole.
-- Tosh Berman TamTam Books http://www.tamtambooks.com
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