The Revolt of Mamie Stover

Rather like her one-time co-star Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, it seemed to me, was often put to work in racy movies requiring her to be sexy and regularly disrobe. So it is here in Raoul Walsh's lurid melodrama set in Honolulu right at the time of the Pearl Harbour attack by the Japanese.

How her title character got there is via San Francisco where her thinly-disguised call-girl activities attract a police ban and set her on a boat trip to Hawaii, on board which she encounters fellow-passenger Richard Egan, a successful writer. They have a fling and Egan's Jim Blair lends her some money until she gets started. Soon afterwards he learns she's effectively a prostitute and she that he's engaged raptor another woman,

As their relationship ebbs and flows, the bombing takes place unsurprisingly causing a major panic and the film ends up with one of those cop-out endings which looks suspiciously like it was dreamed up in response to exit-cards handed out to preview audiences.

Russell has to pretty much carry the whole film by herself and is rarely off screen. Indeed director Walsh sets the up the whole movie in the first shot when he sets her up walking away from the camera before abruptly turning around and facing down the viewer. She gets strong support from a blonde Agnes Moorhead as the brothel's tough-minded madam and Michael Pate as Moorhead's sadistic enforcer, just as happy bullying women as knocking out non-paying clients. I also thought that Egan did well in a tricky part as the principled writer-turned-soldier torn between his attraction for his clean-living society girl-friend and Russell's more carnal charms.

For me the story took a lot of believing and I had an especially hard time accepting the depicted durability of Russell and Egan's affair, but filmed in rich Deluxe colour and making good use of location shooting, this almost proto-feminist movie on adult subject matter, for all its compromises within its storyline and characters, was another of those contemporary Hollywood films pushing the envelope right under the censor's nose.

If The Revolt Of Mamie Stover had been done at Columbia Pictures Harry Cohn would have made this the big budget film of the year and had Rita Hayworth doing it. As it was 20th Century Fox had Susan Hayward under contract and I'll bet this was offered to her first.

With her tresses a flaming Arlene Dahl red, Jane Russell plays the title role in this film. She's a working girl who's been kicked out of San Francisco for her notoriety. But Jane's heard of job opportunities in Honolulu working in another den of iniquity run by Agnes Moorehead with Michael Pate as her enforcer. She also meets on the tramp freighter she's traveling on Richard Egan with whom it's on and off for the next few years from before World War II and after.

Jane's smart about money though and she saved her's and invested it in picking up cheap real estate from people leaving Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. She's rich post war, but hardly respectable.

It's what she craves most, respectability as she tells Egan about her white trash background from Mississippi. Funny that Russell doesn't have the slightest trace of southern accent or even attempts one.

Russell is good in the title role, but the plot really doesn't go anywhere. I can't begin to fathom what Richard Egan's character is all about the script is unintelligible where he's concerned. And the story has a sudden death ending that leaves you hanging.

Not her best film, but it does have some nice Hawaiian numbers one of which Bing Crosby recorded for a Hawaiian album he did, Keep Your Eyes On The Hands.

Good Hawaiian locations, a strong performance by the gorgeous Jane Russell and a very sexy Agnes Moorehead - how could you want more? But there is also glorious colour and cinemascope, a pretty good recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbour, and Michael Pate as the baddie.

Sadly Richard Egan is dull as Russell's love interest and the whole film is ruined by a rushed and meaningless ending. I guess no-one really believed the film's feminist ideas.

Jane Russell may be famous for singing in musical comedies, but she did get her start in a drama, and with The Revolt of Mamie Stover, she reminds the audience she's able to hold her own in that genre. She starts the movie literally getting escorted out of town by the police, forced to leave San Francisco because "her kind" is causing too much trouble. With the censorship board still in full force in 1956, it's amazing such a blatant show of prostitution made it into the movie.

Jane hops a boat to Honolulu, and it isn't long before she gets a job as a "hostess" in a dance club, run by the tough Agnes Moorehead. Part of what I really liked about this movie was the lack of the "hooker with a heart of gold" theme in Jane's character, or in any of the other girls in the club. Jane's primary motivation is money so she can return to her hometown and show everyone she made good, and she doesn't care how she earns it. Even when Richard Egan falls for her and asks her to give up her job, she can't do it. Jane has caught too many bad breaks to trust one man to make everything alright. She may make shrewd decisions, but you understand why she makes them.

If you liked From Here to Eternity, you'll love The Revolt of Mamie Stover. It's got nice music from Hugo Friedhofer, a solid performance from the beautiful Jane Russell, and plenty of scenes that show off her legs. The romance isn't exactly traditional, but it's sweet in its own way and just might cause a lump in your throat. Give it a watch!

I'm not revolting when it comes to enjoying Mamie Stover. The GIs in 1940s Hawaii enjoyed her and so do I. OK, it's not even close to a cinematic masterpiece, but it's worth a gander on a rainy Sunday afternoon when the hubby has on his football. It has stunning Hawaiian locations, a fun if melodramatic script and 20th Century Fox gave it gorgeous Technicolor. It must have had studio head Buddy Adler's blessing because he took producer's credit. If you're a Jane Russell fan, forget "The Outlaw" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "Underwater." The Russell you see here is smoldering...! She plays a down-on-her luck woman run out of San Francisco who lands on Oahu where she becomes a... a... a... dancehall hostess. (If they redid Mamie Stover today, it'd have a whole different look.) She makes lots of money and thumbs her pretty nose at her detractors. Maybe because she's called Flaming Mamie, Russell dyed her dark tresses to a shimmering red and natural redhead Agnes Moorehead, owner of the gin joint where Mamie works, has become a blonde. Aggie never made a film that she didn't elevate to a higher level. Michael Pate is wonderfully menacing as the gin joint bouncer/thug. Love interest Richard Egan is too bland and lovely Joan Leslie is wasted in a nothing supporting role. Tough-guy director Raoul Walsh, who had just finished directing tough-girl Russell in "The Tall Men," knew how to best display her acting chops and sultry good looks. Mmmmmm, whatever Mamie wants...