His Kind of Woman (1951)

A deported gangster's plan to re-enter the USA involves skulduggery at a Mexican resort, and gambler Dan Milner is caught in the middle.

Directors:

John Farrow, Richard Fleischer (uncredited)

Writers:

Frank Fenton, Jack Leonard

Stars:

Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Robert Mitchum	...	Dan Milner
Jane Russell	...	Lenore Brent
Vincent Price	...	Mark Cardigan
Tim Holt	...	Bill Lusk
Charles McGraw	...	Thompson / Narrator
Marjorie Reynolds	...	Helen Cardigan
Raymond Burr	...	Nick Ferraro
Leslie Banning	...	Jennie Stone (as Leslye Banning)
Jim Backus	...	Myron Winton
Philip Van Zandt	...	Jose Morro
John Mylong	...	Martin Krafft
Carleton G. Young	...	Gerald Hobson

Storyline

Nick Ferraro, deported crime boss, needs to re-enter the USA. His plan involves "honest" gambler Dan Milner, who's subjected to a series of "misfortunes," then bribed to take a trip to Mexico. En route, Dan meets chanteuse Lenore Brent, truly his kind of woman. But on arrival at posh Morros Lodge in Baja California, Dan finds the ostensibly rich, carefree guests all playing roles...except, possibly, ham actor Mark Cardigan. What does Ferraro want with him? Can he trust anyone?

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Plot Keywords:

tucson arizona | tourist resort | murder | husband wife relationship | undercover cop | 

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Taglines:

They were two of a kind ! ...and bound to meet, but neither of them knew what such a meeting would mean!

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Italian

Release Date:

21 November 1951 (Congo)

Also Known As:

Smiler with a Gun

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film lost $850,000, the amount spent on making the new ending sequences.

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Goofs

One of the three whip marks on Milner's back is missing when he escapes his captors and backs away down the ship's corridor.

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Quotes

Mark Cardigan: Mind tellin' me who I'm shootin' at, and why?
Dan Milner: If this were one of your pictures you could just step right out there and ask 'em. But I'm afraid their guns are loaded.
Mark Cardigan: You know something? All my life I've suspected myself of being a phony. Half of it I've been acting. A hundred lives and a hundred stories, all phony. This is the only time the guns were ever loaded with anything but blanks.
Dan Milner: How's it feel?
Mark Cardigan: Fine... You couldn't know how fine.

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Connections

Featured in Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light (2006)

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Soundtracks

Five Little Miles From San Berdoo
Performed by Jane Russell (as Miss Russell)
Written by Sam Coslow

User Reviews

My Kind of Movie

This is a movie that should not have worked for me. I have never been a big fan of director John Farrow and the principal cast didn't impress me very much. Macho types like Robert Mitchum always seem to be trying to prove something. I never thought Jane Russell was all that sexy - too intimating for me. Vincent Price, and other super sophisticates like Hurd Hatfield and Zachary Scott just bored me.

The plot is complicated. A deported gangster wants to get back into the USA. He devises this scheme to lure Robert Mitchum to a Mexican resort in order to kidnap him, adopt his identity with the help of his gang of cutthroats and a crooked ex-Nazi plastic surgeon, and dispose of him. The feds get wind of the scheme and wise the hero up. Vincent Price plays a ham actor who, after being a fake all his life, decides to get real and try to rescue him. Russell is a round heels who was making a play for the big time with Price only to fall in love with Robert Mitchum. There are flaws in this movie. There is something illogical in torturing Mitchum to get him to cooperate in his own destruction. The idea of spending eternity trying to inject a drug into him that will make him forget seems like an extreme waste of time when they could have just as easily cut his throat or strangled him. But all that aside:

Watching Vincent Price recite lines from his movies as he launches his rescue mission, shoots the bad guys, and generally plays the hero is something not to be missed. There are even references to some of Hollywood folklore. He quotes the line attributed to one of the moguls (Sam Goldwyn or Harry Cohn I think): "If you want to send a message, call Western Union". There may not be a message in this movie, but boy is it great drama and great fun. For me this movie is all about Vincent Price. He showed a genuine flair for comedy in this movie and carried the picture.