By David in TN
Fri, Jan 4, 2019 12:28 a.m.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week for Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET (and 10 a.m. ET Sunday Morning) is His Kind of Woman (1951), starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, directed by John Farrow. Charles McGraw, Raymond Burr, and Jim Backus also appear.
Film Noir Guide: "Just when you're ready to give up on this as too slow-moving, the snappy dialogue and camp humor draw you back in. It may take a while, but once you're hooked you'll stay hooked. Mitchum, sleepy-eyed and disinterested as usual, is a gambler who's offered fifty Gs by hoods to go to Mexico and await further instructions. Broke and in debt to an angry bookie, he accepts the offer.
"At a Mexican resort, Mitchum meets singer Russell and easily convinces her she's 'his kind of woman.' ...
"Eventually, he discovers that he's there to participate in a plan that will allow a deported mobster (Burr) to reenter the U.S.
"His Kind of Woman certainly deserves its status as a camp classic, thanks to terrific performances, especially by Burr, who's just sensational as the wild-eyed, sadistic gangster, and Price in a hilarious self-parody. (If you're tempted to give up before Price arrives on the scene, give it a little more time. He's worth the wait)."
This film is another example of Raymond Burr being the best "heavy" in film noir.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week for Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET (and 10 am ET Sunday Morning) is Lured (1947), starring Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, and Boris Karloff.
ReplyDeleteDouglas Sirk directed. Sirk is best known for his series of Fifties soap operas, which critics now claim are attacks on American society.
Film Noir Guide: "Ball is an American taxi dancer in London who agrees to act as a decoy for Scotland Yard after her friend falls victim to a serial killer. She meets a number of oddballs through her police-sponsored personal column ads, and her zany misadventures will have you half expecting Desi to pop up at any moment to scold her. Coburn is the police inspector trying to find out what happened to all the missing girls, and Karloff, in a too-small role, is a crackpot, has-been designer. Sanders plays a rich playboy attracted to the beautiful redhead, and Hardwicke is his stiff, humorless secretary. Who's the killer? Who cares? Sit back and enjoy the acting."