Holiday in Baja by Christina Harlin, Your Fearless Young Orphan
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Holiday in Baja By Christina Harlin, your Fearless Young Orphan His Kind of Woman (1951) Directed by John Farrow This vehicle produced by Howard Hughes (and starring his well-endowed beneficiary Jane Russell) is a bit too good- looking, slick and humorous to be a really powerful film noir, though the elements are there to at least make a passable one. We could call this “noir comedy,” a perfectly enjoyable film experience that seems to have a winking sense of its own existence, including a rather fun performance by Vincent Price as a Hollywood actor who is very little like the brave heroes he portrays. Our hero is Dan Milner (Robert MItchum), a professional gambler who becomes the target of a notorious criminal without even knowing it. Here Dan is just minding his own business, living the life of a lovable, marginally criminal poker expert, when suddenly all his friends have become enemies and he’s wanted for crimes and debts he knows very well he didn’t incur on his own. He is strong- armed into accepting a job for a mysterious entity. This so-called job is too good to be true. It pays extremely well ($50,000, a small fortune at the time) and all Dan has to do is take a vacation at a swanky resort in Baja. Once he gets there, he’ll get more “details” on the job. We all get the impression that, as the old saying goes, the devil will be in the details. Of course that’s not fair, because we all know something that Dan doesn’t. Notorious gangster Nick Ferraro (noir baddie Raymond Burr) needs to get back into the United States from Mexico but he’s a wanted man, and cannot enter under his own identity without being immediately arrested. Seems as if he’s looking for another identity to steal, and Dan Milner fits the bill. Dan may not yet realize it, but his nice vacation is likely a one-way trip. At the Baja resort, there is mischief aplenty. Dan Milner has met, and very much liked the look of, Lenore Brent (Jane Russell) but as much as these two may be attracted to each other, Lenore is in Baja to land a particular man. She claims to be a millionaire heiress just getting her kicks by seducing romantic film star Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price) but she’s actually a penniless night club singer trying to get a rich husband. What she has failed to ascertain is that Mark Cardigan is already married to a publicity-approved woman who is also on her way to Baja, leaving Lenore feeling mighty low. I wonder into whose comforting arms she can fall? This kind of romantic-comedy plot is fun and handled with sufficient wit to keep it from upending the more tense parts of the movie. Dan is a good guy underneath it all and we want him to find happiness. I mean, look at how he helps out the poor young married couple who have been bamboozled by a professional gambler. And look at how friendly he is to the concierge (the man who knows everything that is going on – a good person to befriend). And see how quickly Dan decides to fight for the side of justice when U.S. investigators come in search of Nick Ferraro and end up dead! When Nick Ferraro finally shows up, off the coast and waiting like a spider on his boat for Dan Milner to be transported to him, the film enters a rather overlong climactic chase that is played for equal parts suspense and comic relief (with Vincent Price’s Mark Cardigan providing some amusing heroics). This is a fun watch altogether, even though its Noir Scoire is probably going to be a bit low. Let’s see, shall we? Our anti-hero: Dan Milner, a professional poker player who is offered a mysterious job that leads to romance, adventure, and great danger. Dan is a very cool guy, and seems to have no faults at all. He at no time makes any bad decisions or has to come to terms with a mistake, and with every move he makes, there is less and less “anti” on that “anti- hero” billing. I guess that he’s not precisely law- abiding, but people in glasses houses, etc. etc. 6/10 “I was going to make a hot double entendre about the iron, there, but I can’t think of nothin’.” As Played by: Robert Mitchum, a film noir regular and a much better actor than I’d ever expect. He plays the charming, tongue-in- cheek hero with considerable flair. He is easy-going, seductive, winsome, cool, self-deprecating, strong and capable – basically everything you’d want in an action hero. BUT we’re not rating for action-movies here, are we? Well, I can’t fault his performance. He plays the hell out of the character. 9/10 The femme fatale: Lenore Brent, a lounge singer pretending to be a millionaire heiress, who is in Baja to snag herself a movie-star husband. She’s a slippery little devil, for sure, but not a bad girl. Her part does not figure overmuch into the main plot of the movie; she’s a sexy diversion for our hero and a reason for him to want to make it to the end. Still, she’s there, and she’s naughty, so we’ll give her some credit. 7/10 As played by: Jane Russell, an actress perfectly capable of being wry and funny. She’s got some great lines in the movie, keeping up really well with Mitchum’s charming hero. Again, it’s not her fault that her role is no great femme fatale and she does a terrific job. 9/10 The villain: Nick Ferraro, FBI’s most wanted! This creep wants to get back into the United States to get access to his vast riches, but he can’t do it unless he gets a new identity. We get some feeling about what a sicko this guy is when he finally has Dan Milner in his clutches, and doesn’t just want to kill the guy, but wants to enjoy killing the guy. 9/10 As played by: Raymond Burr. Man, I don’t know what it is about this guy, but he’s a great film noir villain. There is something lizardlike and cold about him, the way he can look at people as if they are mere objects. Some of his character’s behavior gets corny and over-the-top, yet I always felt as if Burr was completely invested in his serious villainy. 9/10 The crime: The intended murder of Dan Milner, with some collateral damage thrown in. They want to kill Dan and steal his identity for Nick Ferraro! 8/10 The location: Baja California, for the most part, at a beautiful resort hotel that looks more like the set of a Hope/Crosby comedy than a film noir. There are some nice, creepy moments aboard the villain’s ship toward the end of the film, and a few visits to card games and a few moonlight interludes add a darker feel to the sunlit fun. 5/10 The mood: Despite the plot to murder a man to steal his identity, the mood of His Kind of Woman overall is too jovial to be true film noir, for this is as much comic adventure as it is thriller. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it makes a fun movie, but the Noir Scoire can’t handle it. There is no sense of hopelessness or of being “backed into a corner.” 4/10 The sex factor: The sparks are high between Mitchum and Russell, for true to the title, she is his kind of woman, and he’s her kind of man. They have a great chemistry and exchange fun dialog. The only problem is that their relationship is aside from the plot, not integral to it. 8/10. Overall Noir Scoire: 74% .