His Kind of Woman

This B&W film is a great film to view because of the many famous actors who contributed their great acting skills. Robert Mitchum(Dan Milner),"BackFire",'95, gave a great performance as usual. Vincent Price,(Mark Cardigan),"Edward Scissorhands",'90, provided humor and drama to his supporting role in this film. Jane Russell,(Liz Brady),"Darker Than Amber",'70, provided sexual charm to all the gentleman she met, along with dresses that showed plenty of Jane, nothing like the "OutLaw" 1947. Raymond Burr,(Nick Ferraro) played a real bad bad gangster from Chicago and if you look close, you will see Jim Backus, famous for the voice of Mr. Magoo! Great entertaining of the 1950's! ENJOY.

A broke California gambler is paid thousands to travel to a resort in Mexico and meet someone who'll instruct him on what comes next. The plot is initially quite muddled and does not become clear until about halfway through. It starts as a film noir, turns into a romantic comedy, and finishes with furious action. Russell is a sultry presence and she and Mitchum have good chemistry. However, Price steals the film in a hilarious turn as a hammy Hollywood actor. The action scenes are not convincing. The bad guys take forever to aim their guns, allowing Mitchum and Price adequate time to react. There is also a ridiculously protracted scene where bad guys try to stick a needle into Mitchum.

Robert Mitchum as Dan Milner does well here, as he most always does, despite a confused script that starts out as a gangster drama and, about 80% into the movie, with Cardigan's (Vincent Price) rescue effort, tries to become a comedy, with little success. In addition, there are a few too many absurdities in the plot (e.g, why would Milner, having escaped being dragged aboard Ferraro's yacht, then go back there on his own to put himself in a situation where he is outnumbered 15 to 1?). The villainy of Raymond Burr's Nick Ferraro borders on the cartoonish. And the purpose of the presence of Jim Backus's clownish Myron Winton is unclear. The redeeming feature is Jane Russell. This is the first movie in which I have seen her, and the salivating adoration of thousands of American GI's in WWII is completely understandable. Just imagine if she could act!!

This flick was entertaining enough but in the end was exactly what you expect from a Howard Hughes production - a mismanaged laugher that tries to be Out of the Past, stumbles over some unintentional comedy midway through and goes with it with fearless gusto. Vincent Price's character, like Jane Rusell and Jim Backus' characters, is a superfluous ornament padding out the incredibly empty plot once Mitchum arrives in Mexico. But then, as though the director(s) got bored with the script, he gets the green light to chew the scenery with a funnier than hell bit of flamboyant goofiness, rescuing Mitchum, but not quite the picture. This starts out quite well. Nicely directed noir in the vein of Out of the Past. Nothing indicates a tongue in cheek about face for the first hour. But by the first hour is over you're almost asleep because you don't know the point of the story anymore than Mitchum does. He strolls around the resort bumping into people who have nothing at all really important to do with anything, then finally meets Charles McGraw who only spells out a small piece of what his mission is. Then it's back to more tedious romantic interludes with Jane Russell who is there strictly for the marquee value. The pacing is dreadful after about 35 minutes, plot holes abound, and the film is overlong no matter which way you slice it. Good performances from all involved keep it watchable, but no one can deny the plot is a mess. A real schizophrenic 2 hours. But some kind of cult classic no doubt and definitely worth a look.

Robert Mitchum shows up in Southern California, having just been released from the slams, and hasn't got a shoe to his foot. Some strangers show up and offer him ten grand to go on a mission to a Mexican resort where he will be given a lot more money. What is the mission? They won't say. So Mitchum, having nothing better to do, flies to the lodge on the ocean where a room is waiting for him. Nobody greets him. None of the other guests seem to know who he is or what he's doing there. The others are of diverse type -- seedy-looking guys with mustaches or dark glasses, Vincent Price as an egomaniacal actor putting moves on the nightclub canary he's squiring around, Jane Russell. Mitchum noses through them, asks questions, refuses drinks, does small favors, flirts with Russell. That's what he does for a full hour. That's ALL he does, while the plot stagnates and develops a severe case of pond scum. Finally he discovers that the mastermind behind his mysterious vacation is Raymond Burr, a deported gangster who wants -- somehow -- to take Mitchum's face and identity and make them his own, while disposing of what remains of the original Mitchum. That way, Burr will be able to sneak back across the border posing as somebody else. It's a LONG sucker too, and I found it nearly excruciating to sit through. I saw one second-unit shot of a beach somewhere. The rest was all shot on an RKO sound stage. The place is colorless. The art direction and set dressing is abominable. Nothing looks like Mexico. At best it looks like a failed attempt to duplicate somebody's sunken living room in the San Fernando Valley. If you must watch it, just for the hell of it, check out the paintings on the walls. I am no art snob but these are truly offensive. They fall into two categories. Some are bad paintings of sailing ships, straight off a motel room wall. The others look like something Juan Miro might have done on mushrooms. There are some tense moments towards the end, when Mitchum is beaten to a pulp aboard Burr's yacht and is about to be injected with a drug that will render him immediately unconscious and, when he wakes up, will have turned his brain to tofu. But this is undercut by Vincent Price's attempts at humor while trying to board the ship against the resistance of its hoodlum crew. While the film could use some comic moments, the suspenseful, action-filled climax isn't the place for them. Every dilatory slapstick gag associated with Price is an irritation because, only a few yards away, the scenes in which Mitchum is fighting for his life are treated in dead earnest. It's not worth much further comment. Mitchum walks sleepy-eyed through his part. Jane Russell has big knockers. Vincent Price was a much better narcissistic ham actor in "Theater of Blood." Two of the tunes are memorable: "Five Miles To San Berdoo," which is a variation of "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall," and the dance music played in the resort's night club, which is a shameless rip off of Gershwin's "The Lady Is A Tramp." It has a few virtues. One is that the photography is dark and menacing, very nicely done. (A beach scene fails completely.) Another is -- well, that's the only virtue I can think of. No -- wait! I thought of two more major cinematic breakthroughs! (1) When Tim Holt and Charles McGraw are listening to a report on a short-wave radio, the Morse Code is correct. "TOA" followed by a number, which Holt accurately interprets as "time of arrival." And the call sign of the station they're at is "XFO." Well, if it's a commercial land-based Mexican station, the call sign must consist of three letters and the first one must be "X". (2) Some brief but pleasing shots of two popular small airplanes of the post-war period: a V-tailed Beechcraft Bonanza and a low-wing Ryan Navion. That's about it for the good parts.

Film history recalls that everyone working on this film was either stoned or drunk. They therefore paid little attention to the script, and basically made it up as they went along. The result is more coherent than you would expect. The first half is excellent noir, and Mitchum, Russell and Price are all enjoying themselves.

This is an odd but entertaining film. Don't take any of the story too seriously -- the film seems to be a satire of classic cliches including a slick but really, really evil villain vs. the crude but sort-of worthy hero. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it does have a happy ending which should come as no surprise. The real treat of the film is Price mocking himself as a B-picture actor who gets a chance to be heroic and plays it for all the melodrama it's worth.

Executively produced by Howard Hughes and directed by John Farrow, His Kind of Woman seems to have it all. It has a great cast under more than competent direction with a good, interesting, and inventive script. The film tells about gangster Raymond Burr, deported from the country, planning on using drifter Robert Mitchum's identity. Mitchum is flown down to a resort for the wealthy in Mexico awaiting further instructions after having been given $5,000 as a down payment on $50,000. Mitchum goes but is very curious as to what he has to do for so much dough. On his way he meets with sultry Jane Russell(Hughes's squeeze - and a LOT at that to squeeze!) who is trying to endear herself to hammy actor Vincent Price. The film really does a good job with the characterizations of all the major and minor characters. Mitchum is rock solid in his role. Russell is just beautiful and believable in her role. Tim Holt, Jim Backus, and the rest of the cast do very well. Burr plays one mean gangster. But it is Price who steals the film(for me). The first 3/4's go quite smoothly with Mitchum wondering what is going on with waiting for instructions and getting close to Russell. Price gives the film an energy boost though when he starts to play the real HAM actor in the final fourth of the film. No actor I know can be as hammy and that good as Vincent Price can. He aids Mitchum with an aplomb of such audacity and rhetoric(quoting the Bard on several occasions) of such depth and exaggeration as to make his role almost camp. But his hammy performance works well with the tension of Mitchum's plight with Burr. Director Farrow does a very nice job pacing the action in the film and adding humour here and there. Russell almost disappears from the end - but what's a girl to do wearing a dress she is barely able to walk in when action is needed. His Kind of Woman is one of those classic Noir type films with a great cast that should have your complete attention. Afterall when all is said and done: Robert Mitchum playing the leading man, Jane Russell wearing low-cut gowns, good vs. evil conflict, Howard Hughes production, character actor Jim Backus, and Vincent Price hamming it up as only he can - PRICELESS!

The central character of `His Kind of Woman' is Dan Milner, a down-on-his luck gambler, who is persuaded by local villains to undertake a mysterious assignment that involves his travelling to a luxury Mexican holiday resort. On arriving there, Miler meets and falls for Lenore, the beautiful mistress of the famous actor Mark Cardigan. Lenore is hoping to marry Cardigan after he has obtained a divorce from his wife; he, however, is having second thoughts after being warned by his agent that a divorce would be bad for his clean-cut image. As the film progresses, the reason why Milner has been lured to the resort becomes clear; the man behind the scheme is Nick Ferraro, an Italian gangster who has been deported from the USA for his criminal activities. Ferraro wants to return without attracting the attention of the US authorities, and is hoping to do so using Milner's passport, having first disposed of Milner himself and undergone plastic surgery to make himself look like the dead man. In a way, the film can be seen as three films in one. The opening scenes are shot in the dark, menacing film noir style. (Robert Mitchum appeared in a number of films of this type around this period). When Milner arrives in the resort the mood becomes lighter, and the film resembles more one of those `sophisticated' comedies about divorce and adultery that were the nearest that the fifties got to sex comedies. When the villains arrive and the nature of their plans becomes clear, the mood of the film changes again. It does not, however, revert to the dark mood of the opening scenes, but rather resembles a comedy action-thriller as Milner and his allies (principally Cardigan) try to thwart Ferraro and his designs. Despite these shifts from one style of film-making to another, the film hangs together reasonably well. The real star performance comes from Vincent Price as Cardigan, the sort of `luvvie' actor who overacts as much in real life as he does in the swashbuckling roles for which he has become famous, and whose conversation is enlivened by frequent resort to Shakespearean or pseudo-Shakespearean language. Cardigan is delighted to be caught up in a real crime drama, as it gives him a chance to act out his on-screen persona for real. (I found myself wondering if his character was based on Errol Flynn). Although he is at times outshone by Price, Mitchum succeeds in making Milner a likeable hero despite his rather seedy past. Jane Russell was not the greatest of actresses, but here she brings the necessary touch of glamour and sex-appeal to the part of Lenore. There are, as other reviewers have pointed out, holes in the plot, but given that this is light-hearted entertainment, played as much for laughs as for thrills, these should not trouble the viewer too much. Not a classic, but still very enjoyable for all that. 7/10.

This is a movie that should not have worked for me. I have never been a big fan of director John Farrow and the principal cast didn't impress me very much. Macho types like Robert Mitchum always seem to be trying to prove something. I never thought Jane Russell was all that sexy - too intimating for me. Vincent Price, and other super sophisticates like Hurd Hatfield and Zachary Scott just bored me. The plot is complicated. A deported gangster wants to get back into the USA. He devises this scheme to lure Robert Mitchum to a Mexican resort in order to kidnap him, adopt his identity with the help of his gang of cutthroats and a crooked ex-Nazi plastic surgeon, and dispose of him. The feds get wind of the scheme and wise the hero up. Vincent Price plays a ham actor who, after being a fake all his life, decides to get real and try to rescue him. Russell is a round heels who was making a play for the big time with Price only to fall in love with Robert Mitchum. There are flaws in this movie. There is something illogical in torturing Mitchum to get him to cooperate in his own destruction. The idea of spending eternity trying to inject a drug into him that will make him forget seems like an extreme waste of time when they could have just as easily cut his throat or strangled him. But all that aside: Watching Vincent Price recite lines from his movies as he launches his rescue mission, shoots the bad guys, and generally plays the hero is something not to be missed. There are even references to some of Hollywood folklore. He quotes the line attributed to one of the moguls (Sam Goldwyn or Harry Cohn I think): "If you want to send a message, call Western Union". There may not be a message in this movie, but boy is it great drama and great fun. For me this movie is all about Vincent Price. He showed a genuine flair for comedy in this movie and carried the picture.