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.

BoomerDT If you enjoy film noir, you'll find this very entertaining. Bob Mitchum and Jane Russell teamed up for two of these thrillers for RKO, "HKOW" in 1951 and they followed it up with "Macao" the next year. Both play similar characters, Mitchum is a drifter and a loner in both, Jane is a nightclub singer in "Macao" in "HKOW" she is pretending to be a wealthy heiress(who also happens to sing)but actually is a gold digger, having her sights set on the famous actor Mark Cardigan, played hilariously by Vincent Price. Bob and Jane meet in a cantina in a Mexican border town and share a plane to a resort called the Morros on the Baja coast. Jane is supposed to meet Cardigan there, while Mitchum has been hired by the mob to go there so his identity can be stolen by mob boss Nick Ferrraro (Raymond Burr)No need to get too wound up with the details of the plot, it's fun just to sit back and enjoy some old familiar faces in this. Charles McGraw, one of the more underrated dramatic actors of the era delivers a solid performance as one of the mob guys. Jim Backus, who would later entertain us as Mr. Magoo & Thurston Howell, provides laughs as a resort guest, Tim Holt drops in as an undercover Fed agent and Philip van Vandt, veteran bad guy of the Shemp era Three Stooges shorts is the owner of the resort. But Price steals every scene as a egotistical and hammy actor who actually leads the rescue of Mitchum from the mob. Mitchum is cool as always and Jane Russell, at pinnacle of her career, is sexy and funny. Unfortunately, that peak only had about 3-4 more years at the top and by the end of the decade just was virtually done in movies...too bad. My only complaint is that they stretched out the rescue scene way too long as it alternated between being serious drama on the ship, as Mitchum is about to be tortured by Burr and his mob henchman, to chaotic comedy as Price is trying to organize to hapless local federales into a posse to rescue Mitchum.

LeonLouisRicci People and Critics (even those that are People) Seem to Like this Train Wreck for the Sum of its Parts. There is Some Great Noir Dialog and Interesting Shading to the Film, but the Plot and Tone has More Cleavage than Jane Russell.It is Sliced Off Here and There, Cut with a Meat Cleaver, Inserting Non Sequiturs and Jarring Scenes that Make No Sense and Further Make the Heavy Plot Incomprehensible and Awkward.Robert Mitchum Stays in His Film-Noir Persona with a Sharp Tongue and Cynical Attitude and Jane Russell is On Display. Vincent Price was Inserted as the Oddball Actor and then More Insertion as a Shakespearean Speech Maker. It is Funny, Individually, but when Paired with the Violent and Sadistic Raymond Burr Scenes, the Addition May Bring Notice but its Not a Good Fit.There are Nazi-Drugs and Close-Ups of Veins Waiting for Needles, Beatings with Belt Buckles Intercut with Price in Flowing Cape, Hamming it Up and Spouting Quotes and Barbs and the Film Collapses into a Surreal Slapstick Composite with Film-Noir.Overall, Worth a Watch for the First Two Acts, the Good Snappy Patter (at least in the first half), the Good Supporting Cast along with Mitchum, and to See Just How Much Damage from a Meddling Howard Hughes Could Cause.

Get_your_azz_to_Mars 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.