His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum, Vincent Price, Jane Russell, Raymond Burr
Synopsis of His Kind of Woman
His Kind of Woman. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russel, Vincent Price and Raymond Burr star in a film noir about a mobster in need of an new identity, the man so desperate for cash that he is willing to sell his name, and the gold-digging beauty determined to land a rich husband.
Editorial review of His Kind of Woman courtesy of Amazon.com
His Kind of Woman (RKO, 1951) is a vehicle for both RKO’s reigning bad boy, Robert Mitchum, and Howard Hughes‘ definitive coup of distaff engineering, Jane Russell. Their characters cross paths en route to a seaside Mexican resort, where she aims to continue her gold-digger pursuit of Hollywood ham Vincent Price, and Mitchum will figure in a plot to get deported mobster Raymond Burr back into the U.S.A. The slow-brewing romance between this dauntingly tall, broad-shouldered pair gives off little heat, but the players’ good-natured, weary-pro rapport as they go through their mostly preposterous paces makes for very good fun.
Still more is supplied by Price, who just about steals the movie when he gets to extend his sub — Errol Flynn screen heroism into real life–all the while supplying his own florid running commentary on the action. The urbane director John Farrow filled the movie with one delicious, what-the-hell-is-going-on-here scene after another (highlight: a bored Mitchum ironing his money), but that wasn’t enough for studio boss Hughes. Richard Fleischer was brought in to stretch the climactic melodrama aboard Burr’s yacht in the harbor, and the picture grew to an overblown two hours in length. Not that you’re likely to regret a minute of it. Richard T. Jameson
Quotes from His Kind of Woman
Lenore Brent (Jane Russel): They tell me you killed Ferraro. How did it feel?
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): He didn’t say.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): Well, you see how it is: fools get away with the impossible.
Lenore Brent (Jane Russel): That’s because they’re the only ones who try it.
Jose Morro: She is beautiful as well as interesting, isn’t she?
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): She’s beautiful – that’s always interesting.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): I’m out of my mind to ask her… She hates everything I do.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): She likes you.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): Yeh, I know, that’s what I don’t understand.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): If she liked me, man, I wouldn’t try to understand.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): Whenever I have nothing to do and I can’t think, I always iron my money.
Lenore Brent (Jane Russel): What d’ya do when you’re broke?
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): When I’m broke, I press my pants.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): This place is dangerous. The time right deadly. The drinks are on me, my bucko!
Reviewing Mark’s movie
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): I’m too young to die. How about you?
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): Too well-known.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): Well, if you do get killed, I’ll make sure you get a first-rate funeral in Hollywood, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): I’ve already had it. My last picture died there.
Myron Winton (Jim Backus): [after he and the other guests have viewed one of Mark Cardigan’s films] Yes sir, I agree with those folks: that was one of the finest movies I’ve ever seen. They oughta’ make ’em ALL like that. None of this nonsense about social matters. People don’t go to the movies to see how miserable the world is – they go there to eat popcorn and be happy!
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [Addressing Mr. Krafft] What did you think of it?
Martin Krafft: [Dourly] It had a message no pigeon would carry.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [Slightly amused, turning to Mr. Winton] At my studios, all messages are handled by Western Union.
Myron Winton (Jim Backus): You know, you can’t take his opinion on anything: he’s an intellectual.
[Cardigan responds with a look of mild alarm]
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [to Milner and Lenore] Well, what did you think of the picture?
Lenore Brent (Jane Russel): [Sarcasm] Oh, it was fine. It was just a little long – about an hour and a half.
Vincent Price and Shakespeare
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [Preparing to go out and rescue Dan Milner] Now might I drink hot blood and do such bitter business the earth would quake to look upon.
Helen Cardigan: [Rolling eyes] ‘Hamlet’ again…
Gerald Hobson: Mark, this is no time for histrionics.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [Scoffing] What fools ye mortals be.
Helen Cardigan: Mark… you’re wounded!
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): ‘Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): This is man’s work. Women are for weeping.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [the rescue boat he was “commanding” has sunk beneath him] Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.
Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): I must rid all the seas of pirates.
Cast of characters
- Robert Mitchum (Holiday Affair) … Dan Milner
- Jane Russell (The Las Vegas Story) … Lenore Brent
- Vincent Price (The Comedy of Terrors) … Mark Cardigan
- Tim Holt (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) … Bill Lusk
- Charles McGraw (Spartacus) … Thompson / Narrator
- Marjorie Reynolds (Holiday Inn, The Time of Their Lives) … Helen Cardigan
- Raymond Burr (Bride of the Gorilla, Godzilla – King of the Monsters) … Nick Ferraro
- Leslye Banning … Jennie Stone
- Jim Backus (Gilligan’s Island season 1, Critic’s Choice) … Myron Winton
- Philip Van Zandt (Citizen Kane) … Jose Morro
- John Mylong (Robot Monster) … Martin Krafft
- Carleton G. Young (Abbott and Costello in Hollywood) … Gerald Hobson
Songs
- Five Little Miles from San Berdoo
- Written by Sam Coslow
- Performed by Jane Russell
- You’ll Know
- Music by Jimmy McHugh
- Lyrics by Harold Adamson
- Performed by Jane Russell
- Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech
- Sung by Tim Holt
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