BEHIND THE SCENES OF
"HIS KIND OF WOMEN" - 1951
Mitchum played Dan Milner. Jane Russell was his leading dame.
Directed by John Farrow
Filming began in early 1950 and finished in mid May. Director Robert Stevenson decided to shoot some pick up shots and retakes in the last week of October. When this was done the cast and crew assumed that the film was in the can and they could move on to more important things, like heading to the bar for a dozen or more. I mean when the director said it's a rap, doesn't that mean that the film is complete? That would be yes, if you were working for any normal studio boss. But at RKO the head cheese was Howard Hughes and he was anything but normal.
On January 10, 1951 the cast and crew were once again brought back to reshoot a few more scenes and the ending, which Hughes had rewritten. To direct Hughes brought in Richard Fleischer. What should have taken a few days turned into three months of hell.
The scenes in which an ex nazi plastic surgeon offers to kill Mitchum's charactor with an intestion of an expermental drug into his body was written into the film by Hughes. In the end the climatic scene ran one hour and twenty minutes. Hughes didn't like the actor playing "Ferraro", so he had him replaced with actor Robert Wilke and you know what that meant. That they had reshot the scenes they had just reshot.
When they were nearly finished shooting Wilkes scenes another actor walked on the set and told the director that Hughes had hired him for the role of "Ferraro", which meant that Wilke was OUT OF THERE and, well, you know...... it all had to be reshot. Oh, by the way, the new actor's name was Raymond Burr.
When they were close to finally near the end of filming Mitchum got drunk and tore the set apart.
Five months of retakes, added scenes and cast changes cost Hughes close to one million dollars, which was chicken feed to a billionaire like Howard Hughes.
TRIVIA
The working title "Smiler With A Gun".
Among the lesser known cast members was an actress named Joan Olander. She would soon become famous as Mamie Van Doren.
This was the first of two movies he would make with Jane Russell.
The set of the Morro's Lodge was so big it took up three sound stages. The functioning tropical rustic modern resort even had its on man made beach.
Jane Russell's stunt double, Carmen Cabeen was married to Mitchum's stunt double and friend, Boyd
Cabeen
Howard Hughes lived at the Beverly Hills Hilton in Bungalow 19
SOUNDTRACK:
"FIVE LITTLE MILES TO SAN BERDOO"
Written by Sam Coslow
Sung by Jane Russell
"YOU'LL KNOW"
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Lyrics by Harold Adamson
Sung by Jane Russell
"RAMBLIN' WRECK FROM GEORGIA TECH"
Sung by Tim Holt
-contributed by Bob Siler
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