His Kind of Woman (1951)

Premiered August 21, 1951: HIS KIND OF WOMAN, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, and Vincent Price.  Directed by John Farrow (The Big Clock, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, A Bullet Is Waiting) and Richard Fleischer (uncredited) (The Narrow Margin, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Soylent Green).

Robert Mitchum is a down-on-his-luck gambler in Los Angeles, who is offered a large sum of money by a group of shady characters to travel to a lavish resort in Mexico and await further instructions.  The “offer” is presented in such a way that Mitchum has no choice but to accept. Once at the resort, he spends his time in the company of various interesting characters that include Jane Russell, Jim Backus, Vincent Price, and Charles McGraw. Most of his attention is devoted to mild flirtations with Russell, however she happens to be romantically involved with Price, who plays an Errol Flynn-type movie star strangely obsessed with hunting.  After several days, Mitchum finally learns why he’s there: an exiled mob boss (Raymond Burr) wants to re-enter the US and plans to use Mitchum’s identity.  When Burr and his thugs finally arrive on their luxurious yacht, Mitchum refuses to cooperate and the situation turns violent. His Kind of Woman is an odd film that can’t quite decide what it wants to be.  The mob-related storyline is unmistakably noir, but only occupies about a third of the film. Most of the story is devoted to Mitchum’s whimsical encounters at the resort. During the film’s climax, when the mob plot becomes viscerally brutal, it’s counterbalanced by a rescue attempt that’s played for pure comedy and slapstick. To understand how this stylistic hodge-podge came to be, we must delve into the chaotic backstory of how this film was made. When director John Farrow delivered the finished film in late 1950, RKO boss Howard Hughes wasn’t happy with it and demanded extensive rewrites, adding an entirely new and costly ending, and replacing Farrow with director Richard Fleischer. Reportedly, Hughes wanted more action, more slapstick, more violence, and more Jane Russell, and was personally involved in the rewrites, that took several months to complete.  After Fleischer finished shooting all the new and retooled scenes, Hughes then decided he didn’t like Lee Van Cleef as the mob boss, and replaced him with Raymond Burr, requiring all the mob scenes to be reshot.  The end result is a peculiar mash up of noir, comedy, adventure, and romance, that seems like a recipe for disaster, but somehow the film manages to hang together (just barely) to deliver a moderately entertaining experience.  Even though the mob plot is effectively put on pause for most of the film, Mitchum’s encounters at the resort are brief and infused with sly humor, providing a rapid fire succession of amusing exchanges that keep the momentum afloat.  In a clever stroke of tongue in cheek humor, Mitchum’s character doesn’t drink alcohol, which is played for a subtle gag every time drinks are served in the film, which is often. Of course, shunning alcohol is not the noir way and certainly was not Mitchum’s way. He reportedly showed up thoroughly inebriated for his climactic scenes on Burr’s yacht. The film is helped along by some sharp and snappy dialog, especially when Mitchum and Russell trade witty one-liners and comebacks.  They were close friends off screen, and their ease and comfort with one another translates into a wonderful on-screen rapport.  In fact, after seeing the first cut of the film, Hughes immediately signed them to star together again in Macao (1952).  In his role of the swashbuckling movie idol, Vincent Price clearly has a good time poking fun at the pretentiousness of movie stardom. His satirical portrayal is in many ways reminiscent of Peter O’Toole’s performance in My Favorite Year (1982), albeit a bit more on the silly side. What really makes His Kind of Woman unusual is that it leans so heavily into both its noir and comedic identities, as opposed to the more commonly encountered noir film that might have a brief moment of comic relief, or a pure comedy that satirizes noir tropes.  The scenes with Mitchum and Burr are about as brutal as they come in 1950s cinema. Mitchum endures a severe beating, is viciously lashed with a belt buckle, and prepped for an excruciatingly slow death. Meanwhile back at the resort, Price prances around in a cape, comically spouting Shakespearian lines as he tries to rally a rescue party of misfits to save Mitchum.  The juxtaposition of such incongruous styles can work if we’re invested enough in the characters and story, and His Kind of Woman mostly pulls it off.  However, if you come to this film expecting a full dose of dark gritty noir, you’ll be rather disappointed.  We give His Kind of Woman 3 out of 5 fedoras.