A somewhat plodding but not uninteresting film noir morphs into a comic caper film in John Farrow’s His Kind of Woman.
The Production: 3/5
A somewhat plodding but not uninteresting film noir morphs into a comic caper film in John Farrow’s His Kind of Woman, a movie shot and reshot under Howard Hughes’ directives after he purchased RKO and eventually emerging as something of an entertaining mess. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell have unmistakable chemistry, and the film is filled with familiar and always welcome character actors sometimes in tiny parts, but without a reasonable pace and a deliberate objective for its audience, the film waddles along veering absurdly from heart-pounding to rib-tickling in the blink of an eye.
Down-and-out gambler Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) agrees to meet with an enigmatic contact at a faraway Mexican resort Morros Lodge with the promise of a $50,000 payout. Upon arriving, Milner meets an oddball collection of people, all there for reasons they won’t divulge, including a hammy, Shakespeare-obsessed movie star Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price) and his beautiful girlfriend Lenore Brent (Jane Russell) who claims to be an heiress. After an endless amount of waiting, Milner discovers that the man who hired him may be the notorious deported gangster Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr) now looking to re-enter the USA using any means necessary.
The screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton and Jack Leonard, but in the final analysis, who’s to say who was really responsible for the final product of this highly troubled production. We now know that the scenes with mobster Nick Ferraro were shot three times featuring different actors each time, Vincent Price’s role was being continuously expanded on the fly, and that the film was first directed by John Farrow and later reshot almost completely by Richard Fleischer with lots of low angled photography that catches the eye. These horror stories account for the film’s weird lack of pacing with the first act a rambling, directionless collection of scenes (Jane Russell does get to sing two songs during this first act, both delectably: “Five Little Miles from San Berdoo” and “You’ll Know”), and the last act switching between nail-biting shootouts on the beach and on a yacht and sadistic brutality with beatings and a needle filled with deadly poison aiming straight for Robert Mitchum’s pulsing vein and campy shenanigans with Vincent Price’s over-the-top actor taking charge of the rescue operation. We’re past the hour mark in the film before we’re actually made aware of gambler Dan Milner’s purpose for coming to this distant rendezvous point, and by that time, he’s romanced the pretty singer, saved a hapless young husband from falling victim to cardsharp Jim Backus’ Myron Winton, and made the acquaintance of a federal marshal (Tim Holt) who’s trying to bring down the mobster before he can reenter the United States. With the plots and subplots, the film runs an unconscionable two hours instead of a tight ninety minutes, but because the film is loaded with surefire actors, many might prefer the longer length to better spend time with them.
Robert Mitchum is playing his usual cynical gadabout with all of the necessary cool at his command, and Jane Russell matches him in laconic moxie when she saunters into the action. Vincent Price’s hambone bravura act is hysterical though his role might have been more welcome and appropriate in some other kind of film. Marjorie Reynolds as his put-upon wife and Carleton G. Young as his long-suffering manager get in some good lines in counterpoint to Price’s continual spewing of mangled Shakespeare. It’s a pleasure to see Tim Holt when he turns up, but he’s gone almost before he arrives. Raymond Burr is more manically disturbed than usual growing more agitated and unbalanced as the film progresses in the final act, and his various henchmen played by familiar faces like Charles McGraw, Peter Bracco, and Anthony Caruso all offer the malevolence we expect from them. Jim Backus as the smiling card-wielding snake, John Mylong as a poker-faced doctor, Paul Frees as Mitchum’s contact on the mainland, and Philip Van Zandt as the manager of the Mexican resort all bring satisfying familiarity to this ambling adventure noir.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film is framed at its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 and is presented in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Image quality is superb throughout as the meticulously clear and clean frames offer a depth and dimension heretofore unseen in this movie. Grayscale is quite striking, especially with the rich, deep black levels present. The movie has been divided into 30 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is exactly what one would expect from a film from this era except that the soundtrack is completely lacking the hiss, crackle, pops, and flutter that an unremastered soundtrack would likely convey. Dialogue has been expertly recorded and has been combined with Leigh Harline’s background score and the various sound effects for a very effective presentation.
Special Features: 3/5
Audio Commentary: film historian and professor Vivian Sobchack offers a researched and worthy commentary track tracing the film’s chaotic production history and noting the various noir elements as they appear.
Bunny Hugged (7:14, HD): Bugs Bunny animated short from 1950.
Theatrical Trailer (1:13, SD)
Overall: 3/5
Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell make beautiful music together for the first time in John Farrow’s His Kind of Woman though their vehicle with its months of reshoots and lengthy production schedule resulted in a mishmash of a film, still entertaining but not the masterful noir it might have been without Howard Hughes’ interference.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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