JohnHowardReid "His Kind of Woman" is a distinctly odd and muddled film. It starts off quite dramatically in true Farrow fashion with a striking shot, in this instance a long shot in which Raymond Burr advances quite sinisterly into the camera. This sinister mood is maintained deftly through Mitchum's opening scenes and the arrival at Morro's Lodge where Farrow gets quite a menacing portrayal out of Phil Van Zandt by shooting enormous close-ups of his face. Mitchum looks old (not inappropriately so far as the script is concerned) and Miss Russell is not all that attractively photographed either, though she wears a stunning assortment of costumes.The sinister mood at Morro's Lodge is gradually dispelled, particularly by the romantic scenes and the introduction of other characters. Our hero becomes involved in the financial problems of a pair of newly-weds when hubby is taken to the cleaners by four-flushing card sharpie, Jim Backus, - who drops out of sight as soon as the mood of the film changes back to menacing, when drunken playboy, Tim Holt (a small role but one of his most dazzling portrayals), is murdered.Farrow makes atmospheric use of the Lodge's peculiar architecture with its sliding panels and venetian blinds. There are no really long takes, but some effective ones of middling length particularly the opening tracking shot at Morro's Lodge in which the camera picks up and follows successively no less than three people before settling on Mitchum and following him to a table where he is joined by Van Zandt. And then follows the effective use of close-ups in the ensuing dialogue scene as mentioned earlier.We are obviously in for a violent climax when suddenly the film splits into two - the violent confrontation between Mitchum and Burr, with Mitchum being pursued in a real ship (something on which Farrow was an expert, having commanded one in the war), the terrifying business with the needle and the close-up of Burr's ravaged eyes and the muzzle of a pistol - but all this is intercut with scenes of high comedy when Vincent Price unexpectedly decides to do a broad skit on John Barrymore and leads a riotous expedition (with Fritz Feld as his deputy) to rescue Mitchum. Although some of these scenes are very funny (especially the boat sinking) others are as strained as Price's over-performance. Worse, they tend to dispel the mood and atmosphere of the sequences with which they are intercut, even to giving a lie to the credibility of the film as a whole. It was a noble experiment but it doesn't work, partly because it is so unexpected and we were not prepared for Price suddenly acting in this fashion beforehand.

zardoz-13 The big question about the thoroughly entertaining "His Kind of Woman" is who staged the incredibly suspenseful action scenes? John Farrow received credit as the director of record, but the trivia section about this movie at IMDb reveals that producer Howard Hughes hired Richard Fleischer to re-shoot the entire film. "His Kind of Woman" is an indulgently-paced, ironic, skewering of machismo. This is refreshing ahead of its time when most heroic actors took themselves seriously. Frank Fenton of "Garden of Evil" and "Narrow Margin" scribe Jack Leonard are listed as the primary scenarists. Gerald Drayson Adams is listed as the man who concocted the story. Adams is remembered for an earlier Mitchum effort "The Big Steal" and the Audie Murphy oater "Duel at Silver Creek."Nevertheless, word is that Hughes rewrote the ending, but how much of it did he rewrite. This atmospheric but lethargic crime thriller pits naive gambler Don Milner (Robert Mitchum) against deported gangster Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr of "Perry Mason" fame), and the a hammy actor who breaks up their confrontation. Vincent Price plays Mark Cardigan who stupidly braves the odds and rescues our outnumbered hero in the last hour. The energetic last hour of this overlong thriller compensate somewhat with Farrow/Fleischer nimbly cross-cutting between Ferraro and the hero and Mark Cardigan as he musters a boarding party to storm the crime figure's yacht. Raymond Burr makes an excellent villain. Farrow does a first-rate job of generating suspense when Mitchum struggles against his captors who are about to inject him with a drug. Clearly, this movie came at a time in Mitchum's career that he could waltz around with his chest bared. Jane Russell enlivens things when our heroes aren't swapping blows or lead with the villains. Anthony Caruso capably plays one of Ferraro's evil minions.

Robert J. Maxwell 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.

Samiam3 I'm not sure how well it has aged, which is a bit of a shame, seeing as this is a rather delightful picture. As a film noir, is is distinctive in that there is more heart and spirit than one might expect. The film is also part romance, part comedy giving His Kind of Woman a fresh and riveting taste, Robert Mitchum is Slick, JAne Russell is Dazzling and Vincent Price is quite funny actually in a role that to a degree parodies his earlier work. The story is a little murky to get started but it ends up coming together. The ending is a little off in that it is built partically around actions that deny common sense, but in the long run, It's not too bothersome. the movie ends in spectacular fashion, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Full of thrills and kills and kisses, In the end, His Kind of Woman is a recommendable classic