American Legends: The Life of Robert Mitchum

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Geremy "Wolf" DuBois

Length: 1 hr and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

"I never take any notice of reviews - unless a critic has thought up some new way of describing me. That old one about my lizard eyes and anteater nose and the way I sleep my way through pictures is so hackneyed now." - Robert Mitchum

A lot of time has been spent covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute. And they can do so while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

If one assembled a list of the most iconic actors of the film noir genre, Robert Mitchum would surely rank at the top of the list. With his deadpan façade and slow, monotone verbal delivery, Mitchum encapsulated the disillusioned hero of the postwar crime genre. In many of his most famous movies from the postwar era, including Out of the Past (1947) and Angel Face (1952), Mitchum plays anti-heroes who are victims of circumstance. But even as he is placed in situations beyond his control, he maintains a cool, if dispassionate countenance. Mitchum was, in short, neither a hero nor a villain but someone who seemed to defy the often-simplistic distinctions between protagonist and antagonist, hero, and villain.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Not deserving of the use of Robert Mitchum’s experience.

I guess I expected to hear something as ample & epic as Robert Mitchum himself. I was let down by the disinterest of the narrator and the quick list of A-Z facts. IMHO It was mindlessly read without any inflection or lilt to his story.. certainly no acting here.. Just regurgitating historical fact while the dates in his life were raced over and chronicled with disinterest. It was very hard to listen to someone who may not even be familiar with the meaning of the term yakuza .. try and stumble through events meant to describe.. while the left in mistakes.. such as “libraries”pronounced “lie berries” annoy like nails down a chalkboard. Much un-edited butchering.. all serve to insult the fan.. leaving the accomplishments of Robert Mitchum who contributed so much with his artistic embodiments & embellishments a one dimension number in Hollywood unsung. I expected a little honor for his 79 years.. at least something fascinating about his very capable life story. I wanted to see his ornament on top of the tree.. feel the glow of the ark of the covenant I guess.. something beyond name dropping & association. Sorry mates.. thumbs down on this.. rather glaring gap of the need for a well done biography on such an icon.