When a fall guy who's been set up to have his identity stolen by a gangster, spends time at an isolated resort, it gradually becomes clear that some of the other residents also have issues concerning their identities. A wealthy young woman who's operating under a false name is not what she appears to be, a chess-playing writer turns out to be an ex-Nazi plastic surgeon and a seemingly drunken pilot is actually a very sober Federal Immigration Officer who's working on an investigation. In "His Kind Of Woman", however, the identity changes don't stop there as this is a movie that starts out as a routine crime thriller but then suddenly turns into a comedy send-up in the third act. Whilst the confused identities of the characters add a great deal of intrigue to the plot, the movie's overall change of identity is a much more qualified success.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) is a professional gambler with more debts than he can handle so when he's mysteriously offered $50,000 to leave the United States for a year, he doesn't feel in any position to refuse. Following instructions, his first stop is Nogales, Mexico where he meets a beautiful singer called Lenore (Jane Russell) and shares a chartered flight with her to Morro's Lodge in Baja, California. Milner is strongly attracted to Lenore but soon discovers that she's having an affair with a famous Hollywood star, Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price), who's also staying at the resort. Milner has no idea what he's expected to do for the money he's been promised and so has to wait patiently until someone contacts him with further instructions.
When he overhears part of a hushed conversation involving two other guests, Milner starts to become suspicious of what they might be planning and his concerns seem to be confirmed when an apparently reckless pilot called Bill Lusk (Tim Holt) lands his plane nearby in the middle of a storm. Lusk, who works for the Immigration Service, tells Milner that Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr), a deported gangster, is desperate to return to the United States and plans to kill Milner, undergo plastic surgery and use his identity to achieve his objective. Shortly after, Milner and Lenore discover Lusk's dead body and three men forcibly take Milner by boat to Ferraro's yacht nearby.
Lenore Brent exhorts Mark Cardigan to help Milner who's obviously in great danger and this provides the movie star with the opportunity he's longed for to indulge in some real-life adventure of the type that he normally acts out on the silver screen.
"His Kind Of Woman" mixes murder, beatings and violence with comedy, romance and songs and unsurprisingly, there are moments when some of these elements don't combine successfully. The impact and suspense that would normally be generated by some of the more brutal scenes involving Milner and Ferraro are dissipated by other moments in which Cardigan is seen clowning around hilariously and similarly, the whole tone of the scenes in which Milner is being tortured and threatened is incongruous with those in which Cardigan indulges in some very broad comedy.
Despite the aforementioned problems, there is still much to enjoy in this movie. Its shady characters and interesting story are particularly enjoyable and Vincent Price is extremely funny as the self-absorbed, Shakespeare-quoting film star who thinks that his experience of acting in adventure movies makes him qualified to be a real-life hero. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell are also very well cast in their roles and work brilliantly together particularly when they're indulging in their witty repartee.
Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) is a professional gambler with more debts than he can handle so when he's mysteriously offered $50,000 to leave the United States for a year, he doesn't feel in any position to refuse. Following instructions, his first stop is Nogales, Mexico where he meets a beautiful singer called Lenore (Jane Russell) and shares a chartered flight with her to Morro's Lodge in Baja, California. Milner is strongly attracted to Lenore but soon discovers that she's having an affair with a famous Hollywood star, Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price), who's also staying at the resort. Milner has no idea what he's expected to do for the money he's been promised and so has to wait patiently until someone contacts him with further instructions.
When he overhears part of a hushed conversation involving two other guests, Milner starts to become suspicious of what they might be planning and his concerns seem to be confirmed when an apparently reckless pilot called Bill Lusk (Tim Holt) lands his plane nearby in the middle of a storm. Lusk, who works for the Immigration Service, tells Milner that Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr), a deported gangster, is desperate to return to the United States and plans to kill Milner, undergo plastic surgery and use his identity to achieve his objective. Shortly after, Milner and Lenore discover Lusk's dead body and three men forcibly take Milner by boat to Ferraro's yacht nearby.
Lenore Brent exhorts Mark Cardigan to help Milner who's obviously in great danger and this provides the movie star with the opportunity he's longed for to indulge in some real-life adventure of the type that he normally acts out on the silver screen.
"His Kind Of Woman" mixes murder, beatings and violence with comedy, romance and songs and unsurprisingly, there are moments when some of these elements don't combine successfully. The impact and suspense that would normally be generated by some of the more brutal scenes involving Milner and Ferraro are dissipated by other moments in which Cardigan is seen clowning around hilariously and similarly, the whole tone of the scenes in which Milner is being tortured and threatened is incongruous with those in which Cardigan indulges in some very broad comedy.
Despite the aforementioned problems, there is still much to enjoy in this movie. Its shady characters and interesting story are particularly enjoyable and Vincent Price is extremely funny as the self-absorbed, Shakespeare-quoting film star who thinks that his experience of acting in adventure movies makes him qualified to be a real-life hero. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell are also very well cast in their roles and work brilliantly together particularly when they're indulging in their witty repartee.