His Kind Of Woman!

I don't know if I should include the exclamation point or not. It's in the title on the DVD cover, but not in the actual credits.  My dad loaned me this collection of noir classics, and I didn't have much to say about Border Incident, other than it has Ricardo Montalban in it, which was nice.

I can say a bit more about His Kind Of Woman, though. Robert Mitchum is Dan Milner, a gambler having a bad run of luck. Fortunately, the fellow he owes has an offer. $50,000 to fly to a lodge in Mexico and wait. There'll be a boat along, a man will get off the boat, Milner will get on, and have to stay out of the country for awhile. That's it, and Milner's hardly in a position to refuse, at least to start.

The middle part of the movie is Milner trying to figure out what he's being paid to do and by whom, while getting mixed up with all the other guests. He flew down with Lenore (Jane Russell), and while there are some sparks, she's there to see famous actor Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price, playing an Errol Flynn pastiche?). There's a sleazy investment banker no one likes, a young married couple in need of money, and a doctor who plays chess alone and always wears sunglasses. He seems to be waiting for someone as well. . .

Mitchum's always a good actor. Milner's quiet, realistic about his circumstances. He tries to take precautions, but isn't the type for futile heroics. He's a gambler, he plays the odds, decides when it is and isn't worth fighting. He and Russell have decent enough chemistry in their banter, though they didn't really convey the apparent attraction, maybe because Lenore does like Mark, at least some.

Vincent Price really was the show stealer. I remember watching The Last Man on Earth and being completely unconvinced during the flashbacks when he had to interact lovingly with his family. In this case, he sells me on Mark Cardigan. Even though Mark is fooling around with Lenore behind his wife's back (though he seems certain she was going to get their marriage annulled), I still like the guy. He's a ham, and a bit of a dork, but Price also gives him a decent core, a man who doesn't hesitate to risk his life to help Milner, who he hardly knows. Mark strikes me as someone lonely, eager to feel a connection to someone. He was so eager to have Milner go hunting with him, he's like a kid desperate to make just one friend.

That being said, the movie shoots itself in the foot in the third act. Milner goes to the boat for a showdown, gets captured, and there's an extended stretch where the bad guys can't decide whether to kill him or continue with their plan. Then when they decide to kill him, they can't decide how. But it has to be drawn out like that, otherwise, Mark can't fend off some of the goons back on the beach, then rally forces at the lodge to attempt a rescue (with numerous mishaps). The stumbling blocks are funny, but the tone undercuts the seriousness of Milner's predicament for one thing, and for another, it gets ridiculous that the bad guys dither about just long enough for things to turn around. If the sequence had been shorter, say by half, I think they could have maintained the tension and still let Price have some fun with his character.

So I guess I'd recommend the movie, but tell you to watch the last third at double speed.