Tonight's Movie: His Kind of Woman (1951) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The wild, crazy, and quite engaging HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951) has just been released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

The combustible Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell play the lead characters, backed by a strong supporting cast which includes Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Raymond Burr, Charles McGraw, Jim Backus, and Marjorie Reynolds.

Mitchum plays Dan Milner, a down-on-his luck professional gambler who accepts a large sum of money in order to travel to a remote Mexican resort, no questions asked. If he only knew the real reason he's been bought off...

On the way to Mexico Dan meets Lenore Brent (Russell), a gorgeous singer who claims to be well off, though the viewer has suspicions about that.

Once at the resort we're introduced to a wild cast of characters, headed by a scene stealing Price as a ham actor whose sharp-shooting skills will ultimately come in handy for Dan.

Holt's somewhat mysterious character doesn't show up until close to an hour into the movie; he's authoritative and sharp bantering with Dan, but unfortunately he doesn't stick around very long.

Burr and McGraw are, not surprisingly, bad guys; Backus is a genial card shark; and Reynolds shows up late in the game as Price's wife.

All these interesting folks hang around the resort, whipping off razor-sharp dialogue until the movie's violent climax.

I first reviewed this in this blog's earliest days, way back in 2006, and my feelings now, close to two decades on, were fairly similar.

The movie's for the most part of a lot of fun; it's completely unpredictable, but the cast is great and despite a large number of cooks, the script has some excellent dialogue. The screenplay was written by Frank Fenton and Jack Leonard, with uncredited work by several others, including Richard Fleischer and Howard Hughes.

Mitchum and Russell sizzle, Price gets a good number of laughs, and my fave Holt is great, although revisiting the movie I now realize why I couldn't remember him being in it. He must not have more than five minutes of screen time!

Russell puts over a couple nice songs and is appealingly forthright (except, perhaps, when it comes to the truth about her finances); the laconic Mitchum, when he's not combating boredom by ironing (?), helps a young honeymoon couple; and Price dramatically waves around everything from a duck he's about to roast to a rifle. He also has a fun scene where he's watching the audience reactions to his latest swashbuckler when the movie is shown at the resort.

My one problem with the movie is the sadism involved in Burr's complicated plan to borrow Mitchum's face (!) in order to re-enter the U.S. without being recognized. Fortunately these scenes are intercut with Price's very amusing heroics, but...I really wish the movie had dialed the Mitchum-Burr scenes down a notch. The movie's 120 minutes could have stood to be a handful of minutes shorter, anyway.

The movie was directed by John Farrow and the uncredited Richard Fleischer. It was filmed in black and white by Harry J. Wild.

The supporting cast includes Leslye Banning (Russell's real-life sister-in-law), Philip Van Zandt, John Mylong, Stacy Harris, Anthony Caruso, Richard Bergren, and a few other familiar faces.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray print is from a 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. It looks and sounds absolutely spectacular. I felt particularly grateful for the print quality after viewing the unrestored trailer, which is included as an extra.

The disc's other extras are the eight-minute Bugs Bunny cartoon BUNNY HUGGED (1950) and a commentary track by Vivian Sobchack which was carried over from the original 2006 DVD release.

Despite my reservations about the violence, this is a top cast in a very enjoyable film, seen via a terrific print. Recommended.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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