Celebrating an original Hollywood bad boy who was one of the greatest screen actors of the 20th century, this account examines Robert Mitchum's largely mysterious pre-fame life as a Depression-era hobo, prizefighter, escaped felon, and secret poet. Here writer and broadcaster Lloyd Robson trailed the Eastern Seaboard in search of Mitchum, his poetry, America, a surrogate father, and how to be a man. This resulting tale is a boozy, drug-fueled attempt to define masculinity in the modern age and to match the standards set by the ultimate man and personification of film noir, Robert Mitchum.