His Kind of Woman (1951)

What a wonderful surprise this film was for me! It had been sitting in my Film Noir Collection Vol. 3 set for years without viewing for some reason until at last I popped it in. Mitchum plays a gambler in need of cash who reluctantly agrees to go to Mexico for a sizable sum of money. The problem? The shady mafia types who send him down there won't tell him what for and why he's being paid. I'll stop there with the story...if you want a further synopsis you can find that elsewhere on here.The film begins rather slowly but is never boring because of Mitchum (was there a more perfect noir actor?) and the dynamic visuals courtesy Harry J. Wild and Farrow's solid direction. The supporting cast is superb with Charles McGraw, Jane Russell, Raymond Burr, and especially Vincent Price, who steals the movie with a wonderfully comedic and hammy performance. The last third of the picture feels rather different in tone because it becomes more of a farce at that point, which I suspect will turn off many viewers, but this noir lover found it absolutely delightful. NOTE: The last third of the film was apparently shot after completion of the picture and was directed by Richard Fleischer.So don't go in expecting the typical classical noir (is there such a thing anways?) or else you may find His Kind of Woman not exactly your type.

A down-on-his-luck Mitchum is bribed to go to Mexico where he meets an assortment of characters, including a menacing Raymond Burr.According to TMC, studio honcho Howard Hughes was greatly impressed by Vincent Price and insisted that his part be expanded. It was, in spades, resulting unfortunately in two movies in one. The first half is pretty fair noir with the two icons Mitchum and Russell traipsing around a sound-stage Mexico. The second half, however, is little short of a mess, due to Price who appears to have been ordered onto the wrong set with the wrong script. Somehow, Russell has dropped out of sight, and in her place we get a Shakespeare spouting slice of ham, Price, who I guess is supposed to be funny. The intercutting between Mitchum being tortured and Price doing slapstick is almost like sticking the Three Stooges into the middle of a Nazi interrogation. If this is supposed to be clever satire of movie heroics, as some apologists claim, then I wish I could stop cringing.It might be interesting to know what the screenwriters originally had in mind (apparently, there were six of them, probably four doing re-writes to please kingpin Hughes). But the result is near incoherence and the waste of a noir icon and an Amazon princess. More damningly, it's the best argument I've seen in awhile for keeping the suits in their offices and as far from the set as possible.

I found - then watched this movie by accident on TCM last night - and so very happy I did so. The crew and cast must have had a ball making it. I laughed several times during viewing the movie. The wonderful sinking of the 'rescue' life boat looking like Washington crossing the Deleware River gone very wrong is a classic. And that is just one of many scenes that are truly inspired. And the Mitchum and Russell banters throughout the movie were wonderful. What a great pair of actors complimented by the performances of Vincent Price, Raymond Burr and Tim Holt - among many others. Howard Hughes must be smiling "down from heaven"? at the fine movie he produced. He deserves our thanks for the final product.

According to the average assessment of 7.1 this movie belongs to the overrated and his realistic assessment is up to 6. The highest lack of the movie is its excessive length of 120 minutes. Director John Farrow and the screenwriters have the problems with a feeling of measure for the duration of required scenes what this movie make sure a boring and at moments an uninteresting, although the theme of the movie itself is an unusual and one that promises. As I've written before the most of the scenes are too long, and some of them are missing as a scene that is supposed to explain the murder of agent Bill Lusk. Another shortcoming of this movie is the a great number of characters, what additionally burden on the already extensive action. All these are the challenges that require a more skill than they did in this movie, the listed director and screenwriter. And this movie will be remembered for being the supporting actor, great Vincent Price, was brilliant and his inspired acting surpassed the main actors, the solid Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell that by the way here shows your own singing talent. Great actor Tim Holt less appears in the movie so that the audience remained deprived to enjoy a little more in his role as Bill Lusk, an FBI agent. This is certainly not a comedy as it stands, already it's a classic crime movie, maybe movie-noir, as sub-genre.