Review: His Kind of Woman

Cross posted from my personal journal:

I watched His Kind of Woman starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, and Vincent Price the other night. Mitchum plays a gambler who gets invited to an isolated Mexican resort full of strange characters. He doesn't know why he's there, only that he's being paid a lot of money to go, so he has to figure out which of the resort's employees and guests are connected to his situation and which aren't. It's a great noir mystery, spoiled some by the fact that we know a little more about what's going on than Mitchum does. I like figuring this stuff out along with the main character.

Jane Russell demonstrates why she was such a sex symbol in the day. Growing up in the '70s, I only knew her as the aging woman in those advertisements for bras that fit "full-figured girls," but she had it going on in the '50s. Macao was just on, but I haven't watched it yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again in that. She's flawless in His Kind of Woman. I don't mean physically (though that may be true too), but her performance is perfect. She's completely convincing as a woman torn between her goals and her heart.

Vincent Price plays a movie star who takes a liking to Mitchum's character. He hams it up too much towards the end, but other than that he's the most interesting character in the movie.

Pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr isn't very convincing as a mob boss, but that may be because I kept thinking of him as Perry Mason.

Mitchum is Mitchum. And that's all I need to say about that.