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...
23 Reviews
Hooker w/o Heart of Gold
ilprofessore-114 January 2009
Shot partially on location in Hawaii and at the Twentieth Century Fox studios in Los Angeles in 1956, this film recreates the atmosphere of the islands before and during the Second World War. Because of her Amazonian good looks and the notorious publicity associated with "The Outlaw" few critics have given Jane Russell her due as a dramatic actress. In this film, directed expertly by the old-hand Raoul Walsh, she plays a no-nonsense out-on-her-luck prostitute -here disguised in the usual Hollywood manner as a dance hall hostesswho falls for the rich guy on the hill. Unlike the other sex-goddesses of her time, foremost of all Marilyn Monroe who had been offered the part and turned it down, Jane shows none of that little-girl innocence and vulnerability of her sexy competitors; here she is as tough as nails, a big tomboy with a great body who knows exactly what she has and what it's worth. All business. Particularly memorable is a heated scene with Richard Egan in which she explains why she is obsessed with making money. It is probably one of the most convincing portrayals of a hooker without a heart of gold in film.
Great dramatic romance
HotToastyRag14 September 2018
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!
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!
Typical mid-Fifties 20th-Century Fox product.
gregcouture18 April 2003
This one came out when my cinema-going was pretty well supervised by my parents who, had they known the subject matter, would not have approved of my going to see it. So it wasn't until years later that I caught it on a TV broadcast. I'd missed the credit titles but it wasn't long before I recognized the distinctive style of the musical scorer, the incredibly prolific Hugo Friedhofer. Check out his credits on the IMDb site dedicated to him and you'll be amazed at the number of projects on which he worked, both credited and uncredited. This movie focussed on a love story with a fairly heavy emphasis on its sexual aspect, discreetly cleaned up for the presumably conservative audiences of the mid-Fifties. But Hugo's music leaves no doubt as to what's going on but isn't being graphically depicted. Twentieth produced and released a lot of product around that time that took full advantage of CinemaScope and color, as well as their own system of multi-track stereophonic sound. With the locations used for this one, it would be a treat to see a theatrical presentation of this film, despite its flaws. It's a genuine artifact of what the movie moguls foisted on the adult audiences of the day. And besides Jane Russell in a role especially tailored to her, ahem!, talents, it's got Agnes Moorehead, who always added a special frisson to every role she played.
***
edwagreen17 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The picture ended too soon. It was if the ending had been rushed up. I expected that Atkins would come back later to reek revenge.
A perfect film for Jane Russell, not only to show off her body but her dramatic talent as well.
Thrown out of San Francisco for prostitution and probably a lot of other cities as well, it's off to Hawaii for her to meet up with a friend who works in one of these shady, seedy dance halls led by a fabulous Agnes Moorehead. As the head of the brothel, Moorehead is as tough as nails and has Atkins, a solid Michael Pate working for her to keep the girls in line.
Mamie falls for Richard Egan, a fiction writer, she meets on board and the two continue to cavort on the mainland.
As it is Hawaii in 1941, you know what is coming and Egan enters the army with a promise by Mamie that she will wait for him. Her downfall comes due to her over zealous thoughts when it comes to money. She gets into real estate and Moorehead cuts in her in on the place. Telling Egan that she had left the joint comes back to haunt her at film's end.
No wonder this was Joan Leslie's last film. As Egan's girlfriend, she is given little to do. She doesn't even carry on when she is replaced by the Russell character Mamie and quietly bows out, as does the picture. 90 minutes was not enough time for this could have been very good film.
A perfect film for Jane Russell, not only to show off her body but her dramatic talent as well.
Thrown out of San Francisco for prostitution and probably a lot of other cities as well, it's off to Hawaii for her to meet up with a friend who works in one of these shady, seedy dance halls led by a fabulous Agnes Moorehead. As the head of the brothel, Moorehead is as tough as nails and has Atkins, a solid Michael Pate working for her to keep the girls in line.
Mamie falls for Richard Egan, a fiction writer, she meets on board and the two continue to cavort on the mainland.
As it is Hawaii in 1941, you know what is coming and Egan enters the army with a promise by Mamie that she will wait for him. Her downfall comes due to her over zealous thoughts when it comes to money. She gets into real estate and Moorehead cuts in her in on the place. Telling Egan that she had left the joint comes back to haunt her at film's end.
No wonder this was Joan Leslie's last film. As Egan's girlfriend, she is given little to do. She doesn't even carry on when she is replaced by the Russell character Mamie and quietly bows out, as does the picture. 90 minutes was not enough time for this could have been very good film.
It skirts the edges of a bolder, more passionate product, and may have benefited from the new permissiveness just four years later...
moonspinner5510 November 2008
Raoul Walsh directs Jane Russell in an adaptation of William Bradford Huie's sexy novel about a brunette bombshell of ill-repute who leaves San Francisco for Honolulu in 1941 and falls into successful career as a dance-hall hostess. The heroine, mercenary and not above some cunning ruthlessness, is an interesting creation, and Russell does her justice. While her wisecracks and general air of condescension are unlikely ingredients for a woman who makes her fortune as a quasi-prostitute, Russell has the hard, salty armor for a role like this. Playing star-crossed lovers with wealthy novelist Richard Egan, Jane is nearly all business, and her witticisms are a hoot. Unfortunately, 1956 was too early for Hollywood to begin revealing the layers of the wanton female mind, and the picture seems too timid, too clean and luxurious as a result. Strictly as a big studio soaper, it has its pleasures. **1/2 from ****
No Taming Mamie
Lejink30 May 2021
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.
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.
Russell is fine but the film goes nowhere.
David-2402 July 1999
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.
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.
A clever framework for Jane Russell's spectacular physique!
Nazi_Fighter_David26 November 2000
The fifties provided its share of World War II films... The super classics being David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity." Although Raoul Walsh's "The Revolt of Mamie Stover," a closely related minor film, also bears some consideration...
The story, set in 1941, has Jane being escorted by the San Francisco Police to the entrance galley of a ship leaving town... She is advised not to return--ever!
Aboard the Hawaii-bound vessel, she meets science fiction novelist Richard Egan who proves to be the first man in her versatile lifetime who respects her as a person... Naturally she is, at the proper time, impressed...
Once they dock, she lands a job at the Bungalow Club, presided over by a domineering madam Agnes Moorehead...
According to the movie, servicemen were lining up just for the opportunity to dance and talk (but definitely nothing more) with Moorehead's "hostesses," specially the ever popular Jane who makes a memorable impression as a cynical sleazy dance-hall hostess...
Jane is seen avoided by the better element in town, who do not appreciate her patriotic contribution... Her conscience forces her to tell Egan: "No, Jimmy, I can't let you ruin your life... You can't lick the whole island-I've got a number on my back and they all know it."
Egan was positive that some compromise can be worked out, but in the meantime he goes off to war... The aerial Pearl Harbor Attack, on December 7, 1941, by the Japanese is also seen...
While he is away Jane is determined to make all the social abuse worth enduring and becomes the queen of the town's nightlife... Jane sees this as her only way to acquire wealth...
When Egan returns on leave to Honolulu, he was filled with consternation to discover that Jane is the star attraction of the Bungalow Club... The shock of it all pushes him back into the refined arms of his society fiancée, Joan Leslie, who has that nice home high on the hill... And Jane? Well, definitely you have to see the picture to know what she does...
Jane Russell wears a bright-red dress as the self-satisfied, eye-catching woman of "The Revolt of Mamie Stover," but she is definitely no screen substitute of Sadie Thompson as had been intended...
In the middle of the ludicrous plot Jane sang "Keep Your Eyes on the Hands" and "If You Wanna See Mamie Tonight." The latter tune apt to call up memories of Rita Hayworth's "Put the Blame on Mame" from Charles Vidor's "Gilda."
The CinemaScope format provides a clever framework for Jane Russell's spectacular physique...
The story, set in 1941, has Jane being escorted by the San Francisco Police to the entrance galley of a ship leaving town... She is advised not to return--ever!
Aboard the Hawaii-bound vessel, she meets science fiction novelist Richard Egan who proves to be the first man in her versatile lifetime who respects her as a person... Naturally she is, at the proper time, impressed...
Once they dock, she lands a job at the Bungalow Club, presided over by a domineering madam Agnes Moorehead...
According to the movie, servicemen were lining up just for the opportunity to dance and talk (but definitely nothing more) with Moorehead's "hostesses," specially the ever popular Jane who makes a memorable impression as a cynical sleazy dance-hall hostess...
Jane is seen avoided by the better element in town, who do not appreciate her patriotic contribution... Her conscience forces her to tell Egan: "No, Jimmy, I can't let you ruin your life... You can't lick the whole island-I've got a number on my back and they all know it."
Egan was positive that some compromise can be worked out, but in the meantime he goes off to war... The aerial Pearl Harbor Attack, on December 7, 1941, by the Japanese is also seen...
While he is away Jane is determined to make all the social abuse worth enduring and becomes the queen of the town's nightlife... Jane sees this as her only way to acquire wealth...
When Egan returns on leave to Honolulu, he was filled with consternation to discover that Jane is the star attraction of the Bungalow Club... The shock of it all pushes him back into the refined arms of his society fiancée, Joan Leslie, who has that nice home high on the hill... And Jane? Well, definitely you have to see the picture to know what she does...
Jane Russell wears a bright-red dress as the self-satisfied, eye-catching woman of "The Revolt of Mamie Stover," but she is definitely no screen substitute of Sadie Thompson as had been intended...
In the middle of the ludicrous plot Jane sang "Keep Your Eyes on the Hands" and "If You Wanna See Mamie Tonight." The latter tune apt to call up memories of Rita Hayworth's "Put the Blame on Mame" from Charles Vidor's "Gilda."
The CinemaScope format provides a clever framework for Jane Russell's spectacular physique...
Jane Russell lights up the screen
PimpinAinttEasy21 November 2021
The life of a materialistic prostitute during world war 2.
The amazonian JANE RUSSELL owns the role and fills up the screen with her fleshy body. She is such a regal woman with a beguiling smile that promises many intimacies, but also masks an innate cruelty. She could drive a man insane.
She is courted by a writer-soldier who is a moral melting pot i.e he cheats on his wife with the prostitute and waxes eloquent about it.
The hawaian locales are stunning.
The film starts off on a ship on which the main couple meets.
(7/10)
The amazonian JANE RUSSELL owns the role and fills up the screen with her fleshy body. She is such a regal woman with a beguiling smile that promises many intimacies, but also masks an innate cruelty. She could drive a man insane.
She is courted by a writer-soldier who is a moral melting pot i.e he cheats on his wife with the prostitute and waxes eloquent about it.
The hawaian locales are stunning.
The film starts off on a ship on which the main couple meets.
(7/10)
No sadder but wiser girl for him.
mark.waltz14 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
It's World War II Honolulu and good time girl Jane Russell has just arrived there after being kicked out by the vice squad from San Francisco. So you know she's not there to learn how to do the hula unless it means getting a large bank account to go with it. Russell fills out the screen once again in glorious Technicolor and cinemascope, playing a character who find true love with an army officer (Richard Egan) what can't resist the profits that come with an increased revenue at Agnes Moorehead's not quite so clean canteen. Egan even gives up good girl Joan Leslie for him and when he leaves for military duty it is with the promise that she will be faithful while waiting for him. but as Morehead realizes how invaluable Russell is, she increases Russell's profits to basically where Morehead isn't getting any profit from Russell's presence.
This had the potential to knock em' all out of the park with its innuendos that could not pass the censorship. Of course the book on which this was based was a lot more racy, and Russell really isn't shown doing anything outside of the ordinary flirtation and performing a seductive musical number.
Russell of course is the majority of the whole show, but Egan is a handsome and graceful leading man. Leslie is wasted in a superficial role and other than a few good scenes, Moorehead doesn't really have anything juicy to do outside of her firing strict assistant Michael Pate who attempts to dominate all of the girls, especially Russell who cannot be controlled. An uncomfortable moment for Morehead occurs when she stops page from telling her how ugly she is, rich in the. Of just a moment says a lot more about Moorehead's character than the script allows her to show. She is of course commanding in the scene where she reveals her past story to Russell as a way of keeping her working for her, and unlike what the nasty Pate says, Moorehead is far from ugly even if it is obvious that her character is a very unhappy female.
The ending is rather Bittersweet, reminding me of the beginning and the end of the movie version of "Pal Joey", released just the following year. Russell does get some moments to show who this character is underneath all her hardness and in her one musical number, shows exactly why Mamie Stover could have indeed been the most popular pin-up girl in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. That scene alone is very tense as the people in the surrounding area can hear the bombing occur and think at first it's some type of drill until the news tells them otherwise. this is a film that has a lot going for it but ultimately is nothing more than glorified, glamorous trash, tied up in a pretty ribbon, but when it is opened, revealing something that's no sensible member of the audience probably didn't realize anyway.
This had the potential to knock em' all out of the park with its innuendos that could not pass the censorship. Of course the book on which this was based was a lot more racy, and Russell really isn't shown doing anything outside of the ordinary flirtation and performing a seductive musical number.
Russell of course is the majority of the whole show, but Egan is a handsome and graceful leading man. Leslie is wasted in a superficial role and other than a few good scenes, Moorehead doesn't really have anything juicy to do outside of her firing strict assistant Michael Pate who attempts to dominate all of the girls, especially Russell who cannot be controlled. An uncomfortable moment for Morehead occurs when she stops page from telling her how ugly she is, rich in the. Of just a moment says a lot more about Moorehead's character than the script allows her to show. She is of course commanding in the scene where she reveals her past story to Russell as a way of keeping her working for her, and unlike what the nasty Pate says, Moorehead is far from ugly even if it is obvious that her character is a very unhappy female.
The ending is rather Bittersweet, reminding me of the beginning and the end of the movie version of "Pal Joey", released just the following year. Russell does get some moments to show who this character is underneath all her hardness and in her one musical number, shows exactly why Mamie Stover could have indeed been the most popular pin-up girl in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. That scene alone is very tense as the people in the surrounding area can hear the bombing occur and think at first it's some type of drill until the news tells them otherwise. this is a film that has a lot going for it but ultimately is nothing more than glorified, glamorous trash, tied up in a pretty ribbon, but when it is opened, revealing something that's no sensible member of the audience probably didn't realize anyway.
Best B Movie I ever watched. A reverse (female) version of The Great Gatsby
LSTHNSTMAN10 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Today, I finally saw the entire movie. I am now able to adequately write as well as defend my critique of the film. The plot seems straight forward, poor bad girl gets kicked out of many cities, goes to Hawaii to start fresh, but on the way meets a nice guy on board a ship where they are the only civilians. He accepts her as a poor girl with bad luck who wants to start anew. They both have physical and emotional "hots" for each other ala a shipboard romance. He actually verbally cut her up when they first met but he as a gentleman apologizes and she accepts. While he is not "joe average and has some money he lends her $100 to get her off on the right foot in Hawaii. She wants to make a million, and tells him how she will do it. She (after a few months) returns the 100 and the rekindle the "hots" again physical and emotional for each other. Even his current girl friend (Sweet Polly Purebred) understands and sort of makes way for the Tramp with a heart of gold. He wants her to quit after war breaks out and he is sent to the front. But her boss basically tells her actually convinces her not to as he is just like all men and will not come back and marry her. Of course her boss is the villain in this piece, and as the viewer you are begging Russell not to listen to her anti-man only pro money comments. she gets financially lucky because of the war plus her inner drive and makes a fortune. It is sad she misleads and still works at a 40's version of a strip/lap dance establishment as she really has the "hots for him" and other than her working (pin up photos) she remains faithful to him. I saw the scene where she got slapped by an officer who wants to bed her but she keeps her faithfulness Then Egan as Joe Average comes back to Hawaii confronts her and really wants to lace into her, but his being a nice guy who is sensitive to her both as a person and business woman only believes that money will clean her rep. Yes he does believe her that sexually she has been faithful. He tells her while he loves her but because of her love of money it would not work out. She cries her eyes out and gives away her money and goes back to the "sticks" (ie Mississippi)
She walks away and greets her next guest but you know she would chuck it all for him. So she goes back to the mainland gets escorted politely out of town by the "bulls" and tells the "bulls" she gave up a fortune in Hawaii . Of course the "coppers" laugh but we know better and cry as she heads back to her little home town in MIssissippi. Jane Russel was the most attractive woman to ever grace the silver screen. Saw her as a kid on daytime television promoting Playtex Living Bra's and then I looked her up in the Readers Guide and Encyclopedias at the Public Library. Guess she ruined me from getting married as I only wanted a woman of her beauty
She walks away and greets her next guest but you know she would chuck it all for him. So she goes back to the mainland gets escorted politely out of town by the "bulls" and tells the "bulls" she gave up a fortune in Hawaii . Of course the "coppers" laugh but we know better and cry as she heads back to her little home town in MIssissippi. Jane Russel was the most attractive woman to ever grace the silver screen. Saw her as a kid on daytime television promoting Playtex Living Bra's and then I looked her up in the Readers Guide and Encyclopedias at the Public Library. Guess she ruined me from getting married as I only wanted a woman of her beauty
not bad, for the time..although
MarieGabrielle15 September 2009
The double standard is still rampant, the character of Mamie Stover makes an attempt to achieve material success in a man's world.
Richard Egan is believable as the writer with a house on a hilltop, and all the accoutrement Mamie Stover will beg borrow or steal to get. She does make a point when she says when he discusses money he ..."is only slumming, while I'm just plain scared"...
The problem in these days is women were not encouraged to use their minds, and her pronounced figure is blatantly used in many scenes to underline this point.
Some good scenes with Agnes Moorehead as brothel owner, and lush sets on the beaches and mountains of Oahu. Worth a viewing as a commentary on women's issues at the time, a curiosity in that one wonders how close the Stover character was to Russel's own life, and what she had to do to get ahead in Hollywood of the 1940's-1950's.
Richard Egan is believable as the writer with a house on a hilltop, and all the accoutrement Mamie Stover will beg borrow or steal to get. She does make a point when she says when he discusses money he ..."is only slumming, while I'm just plain scared"...
The problem in these days is women were not encouraged to use their minds, and her pronounced figure is blatantly used in many scenes to underline this point.
Some good scenes with Agnes Moorehead as brothel owner, and lush sets on the beaches and mountains of Oahu. Worth a viewing as a commentary on women's issues at the time, a curiosity in that one wonders how close the Stover character was to Russel's own life, and what she had to do to get ahead in Hollywood of the 1940's-1950's.
If the part called for a redhead
bkoganbing27 April 2018
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.
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.
Put the blame on Mamie.
dbdumonteil19 January 2012
At the time,the master of melodrama was Douglas Sirk;a film noir master,Walsh is not as talented as far as melodrama is concerned ;his movie looks sometimes like a poor man's "from here to eternity" .
The permanent features and the name of the game of melodrama are respected:Russell portrays the bad gal who got a raw deal when she was a child,rejected by the right-thinking ;and this is familiar ,she becomes a formidable ruthless (who said "war profiteer"?) businesswoman !from "only yesterday" in the early thirties to "imitation and life" or "writtn on the wind" ,the girl who is through with love makes a lot of money or becomes a big star.
Richard Egan is a curious choice for the lead,being too cerebral,too earnest for such an empty part but Mrs Moorehead steals every scene she is in ;it is one of her rare parts where she shows herself coquette. Melodrama buffs can have a look.
The permanent features and the name of the game of melodrama are respected:Russell portrays the bad gal who got a raw deal when she was a child,rejected by the right-thinking ;and this is familiar ,she becomes a formidable ruthless (who said "war profiteer"?) businesswoman !from "only yesterday" in the early thirties to "imitation and life" or "writtn on the wind" ,the girl who is through with love makes a lot of money or becomes a big star.
Richard Egan is a curious choice for the lead,being too cerebral,too earnest for such an empty part but Mrs Moorehead steals every scene she is in ;it is one of her rare parts where she shows herself coquette. Melodrama buffs can have a look.
interesting as an exotic ww II flick
ksf-27 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Jane Russell... a couple years after Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Fun, exotic film made in the later years of the film code, so things were a bit more blatant, but not completely, so they still couldn't show Mamie's true profession. We start in san francisco, as Mamie is getting run out of town during WW II. She meets up with Jim (Richard Egan) on the boat bound for hawaii. He wants to help her, but already has a girlfriend. Agnes Moorehead (best known as "Endora" on Bewitched!) is in here as a (BLONDE !) lead Madam, or hostess of the Bungalow Club... at age 56 ! A funny sight gag when Mamie talks to the bartender, as he waters down the bottles of booze on the bar. Alan Reed is in here as the Captain; he was the voice of Fred Flintstone, and Sally Tomato in Breakfast at Tiffanys. "Mamie Stover" moves right along, at a very fast pace... we jump ahead at each stage of the time-line to get the story to move along. Mamie buys up tons of properties, now that hawaii has been bombed. She is determined to be a land baron and win over Jim when he gets home from the war. Directed by Raoul Walsh, who was already in his 60's by this time. Walsh had started in the EARLY days of silent films, as actor, writer, director around 1912 ! Written by William Huie, who had ALSO written The Americanization of Emily. "Emily" was nominated for two Oscars, but sadly, "Mamie" was nominated for none. It's entertaining, but nothing too special. A love story, with some great scenery of Hawaii in the 1950s. and of course, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, with what appears to be some of the actual footage.
CAREER GIRL'S DREAMS DASHED
mmthos9 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Story of fallen woman's redemption gone wrong. Typical '50's "women's movie' moral: Housewives GOOD, Career Girls BAD
Run out of San Francisco for a casino hustle, lil' ole Mamie Stover (Jane Russell), originally from a dirt-poor small town in Mississippi, sets out to make good (which to her means make good money) in Honolulu, joining the corps at 10 cents a dance in a gentlemen's nightclub, and ends up the most celebrated taxi dancer, not only in Hawaii, but also Alaska and all (at the time) 48 states.
She falls for a handsome, successful, seemingly sensitive Jim Blair (Richard Egan), practically perfect except for one thing: he comes from the RIGHT side of the tracks. His comfortable money vs her lust for it is the only thing that comes between them, but it does, a LOT. Every meeting is a fight and reconciliation. till Pearl Harbor happens and he's sent off to war with the promise that she'll stay home and pine for his return
But by now she's gotten a taste of the Big Time and can't stay away. She's become such a star that she forces Me. Tinkertoy, uh, Bertha Parchman (the incomparable Agnes Moorehead, who can do no wrong, even in a throwaway project like this), the dancehall's proprietress, to give her bigger and bigger percentages of the business profits, with which she steals property from poor unfortunate locals who feel they have to get out of Dodge, their most likely other option being learn Japanese, and ends up becoming the biggest female real estate mogul in Hawaii, all the while lying to her Odysseus, giving him to believe she's just sitting around knitting sweaters till he gets back.
He learns of her perfidy when the guys in his barracks overseas pass around her current pin-up, and breaks the engagement the first opportunity he gets for leave, In the past he's insisted that he understands her, but obviously not, If he can't come down from his snooty high-horse and accept a self-made accomplished woman, then good riddance, and she ends up giving it all up and returning home to Mississippi, like she swore she never would.
In addition to her usual masterful delivery of passive-aggressive smart-ass jabs, here Jane's softer side is glimpsed from time to time, and at such times her vulnerability is palpable. Richard Egan seems sincere,
#metooers won't like this
Run out of San Francisco for a casino hustle, lil' ole Mamie Stover (Jane Russell), originally from a dirt-poor small town in Mississippi, sets out to make good (which to her means make good money) in Honolulu, joining the corps at 10 cents a dance in a gentlemen's nightclub, and ends up the most celebrated taxi dancer, not only in Hawaii, but also Alaska and all (at the time) 48 states.
She falls for a handsome, successful, seemingly sensitive Jim Blair (Richard Egan), practically perfect except for one thing: he comes from the RIGHT side of the tracks. His comfortable money vs her lust for it is the only thing that comes between them, but it does, a LOT. Every meeting is a fight and reconciliation. till Pearl Harbor happens and he's sent off to war with the promise that she'll stay home and pine for his return
But by now she's gotten a taste of the Big Time and can't stay away. She's become such a star that she forces Me. Tinkertoy, uh, Bertha Parchman (the incomparable Agnes Moorehead, who can do no wrong, even in a throwaway project like this), the dancehall's proprietress, to give her bigger and bigger percentages of the business profits, with which she steals property from poor unfortunate locals who feel they have to get out of Dodge, their most likely other option being learn Japanese, and ends up becoming the biggest female real estate mogul in Hawaii, all the while lying to her Odysseus, giving him to believe she's just sitting around knitting sweaters till he gets back.
He learns of her perfidy when the guys in his barracks overseas pass around her current pin-up, and breaks the engagement the first opportunity he gets for leave, In the past he's insisted that he understands her, but obviously not, If he can't come down from his snooty high-horse and accept a self-made accomplished woman, then good riddance, and she ends up giving it all up and returning home to Mississippi, like she swore she never would.
In addition to her usual masterful delivery of passive-aggressive smart-ass jabs, here Jane's softer side is glimpsed from time to time, and at such times her vulnerability is palpable. Richard Egan seems sincere,
#metooers won't like this
Jane is great
lawrencew-847298 March 2018
Although this movie was changed before it's initial release, the intent remains. Jane give a subtle performance full of nuance as Mamie. Although, the movie is often shown on the FXM channel, it's in a standard, non-widescreen version. As of this writing, (March 2018), plans are to release this gem of a movie on blu-ray sometime later this year!.
Because of censorship, the the original story point of Mamie being a prostitute servicing the military men who visit the brothel she works at has been changed to Mamie chatting with customers in the "champagne room" at a "dance hall." Modern audience will figure it out. But the real story line is Mamie trying to find a place in high-society by obtaining her own wealth without the help a man, is the focus. This ambition costs her respectability among the self-righteous society in Honolulu and it may even cost her the love of her life.
Jane is great and their is real heat between her and Richard Egan. Agnes Moorehead appears as the Madame of the brothel Jane works at, is wonderful plus to this movie as she is to any movie she appeared in. Check it out!
Because of censorship, the the original story point of Mamie being a prostitute servicing the military men who visit the brothel she works at has been changed to Mamie chatting with customers in the "champagne room" at a "dance hall." Modern audience will figure it out. But the real story line is Mamie trying to find a place in high-society by obtaining her own wealth without the help a man, is the focus. This ambition costs her respectability among the self-righteous society in Honolulu and it may even cost her the love of her life.
Jane is great and their is real heat between her and Richard Egan. Agnes Moorehead appears as the Madame of the brothel Jane works at, is wonderful plus to this movie as she is to any movie she appeared in. Check it out!
Very disappointing!
JohnHowardReid19 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Producer: Buddy Adler. Copyright 1956 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 11 May 1956. U.S. release: April 1956. U.K. release: 17 September 1956. Australian release: 12 July 1956. Sydney opening at the Regent. 92½ minutes. (Cut to 86 minutes in the UK).
SYNOPSIS: The distilled screenplay, set in 1941, has Jane being escorted by the San Francisco police to the entrance galley of a ship leaving town. She is advised not to return — ever! Aboard the Hawaii-bound vessel, she chances upon a clean-cut science fiction writer.
NOTES: Thanks to the popularity of both Jane Russell and CinemaScope (and also the fact that the novel was banned in some areas), "Mamie Stover" took reasonable money.
COMMENT: Dreary. Miss Russell is rather garishly photographed. And Mr. Egan, as usual, is a dead loss. It's hard to believe that this bland piece of stodge was directed by Raoul Walsh whose once great artistic talents seem to have not survived at this point in his career. What is also hard to credit is that the tedious bore of a script was written by Sydney Boehm.
I was going to sum up right here by saying that, aside from Agnes Moorehead's caustic study of the brothel madam, "The Revolt of Mamie Stover" had absolutely nothing to recommend it; but I now find that the ever-reliable "Monthly Film Bulletin" has anticipated me.
OTHER VIEWS: There is little to recommend in this piece of unabashed hokum. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
SYNOPSIS: The distilled screenplay, set in 1941, has Jane being escorted by the San Francisco police to the entrance galley of a ship leaving town. She is advised not to return — ever! Aboard the Hawaii-bound vessel, she chances upon a clean-cut science fiction writer.
NOTES: Thanks to the popularity of both Jane Russell and CinemaScope (and also the fact that the novel was banned in some areas), "Mamie Stover" took reasonable money.
COMMENT: Dreary. Miss Russell is rather garishly photographed. And Mr. Egan, as usual, is a dead loss. It's hard to believe that this bland piece of stodge was directed by Raoul Walsh whose once great artistic talents seem to have not survived at this point in his career. What is also hard to credit is that the tedious bore of a script was written by Sydney Boehm.
I was going to sum up right here by saying that, aside from Agnes Moorehead's caustic study of the brothel madam, "The Revolt of Mamie Stover" had absolutely nothing to recommend it; but I now find that the ever-reliable "Monthly Film Bulletin" has anticipated me.
OTHER VIEWS: There is little to recommend in this piece of unabashed hokum. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
The irresistible Jane Russell in the thick of things at Pearl Harbour 1941.
clanciai26 December 2019
Jane Russell is blindingly magnificent as always, but the one who actually steals the show is Agnes Moorehead as her employer in a Hawaiian night club in Honolulu, an establishment for lovely girls to entertain American soldiers but very strict on rules and morals. Jane Russell gradually advances into a leading position, as the incident of 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbour breaks out.
Jane Russell makes a very interesting character here, being thrown out of San Francisco as an undesirable prostitute (probably being too successful) and settling for a new life in Honolulu just in time for Pearl Harbour. A soldier finds her, and there is a passionate relationship - this is a very romantic film. However, his condition is that she leaves the establishment, while Agnes Moorehead persuades her to stay on and not let the soldier know. Of course he gets to know about it, and the obligatory crisis follows. Nevertheless, the conclusion is rather satisfactory.
It's a colourful fireworks etertainment with romance and war and Jane Russell as the irresistible scandal beauty making the world go around. The music by Hugo Friedhofer is terrific, maybe his best, and adds a consistent enjoyable flavour and perfume to the film, which gets more and more fascinating as the plot with its complications rolls on. Jane Russell's beauty is something that just has to be irresistible to anyone - maybe especially if she plays a tramp.
Ruined by the Production Code
gbill-7487727 March 2024
Red-headed Jane Russell, blonde Agnes Moorehead, beautiful Hawaii in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope ... what could go wrong? Well, plenty.
It's not surprising that the novel by William Bradford Huie would be sanitized by the Hollywood of 1956, still under the grip of the Production Code, but the degree to which it was makes this film not only less interesting, but less intelligible. Huie's book is about a prostitute who moves to Honolulu after being bounced out of San Francisco, and who gradually amasses a fortune by optimizing the efficiency with which she can service men via an assembly line technique she dubbed a "bullring." She also profits on the war by buying up real estate at cheap prices. Her "revolt" begins when she takes advantage of her increased power to violate the various articles of prohibition for prostitutes, e.g. From sunbathing on public beaches, buying a car, marrying a serviceman, and buying a house. It's an empathetic story of a woman rising in class despite the deck being stacked against her. (Huie believed in these shifts and equal opportunity, later getting involved in the Civil Rights movement and the case of Emmett Till, though it's important to note that he also believed only certain people could truly take advantage of it, and that Anglo-Saxons with their "superior intelligence" had an inherent edge.) But I digress.
Of course, Hollywood couldn't make a film about a sex worker who actually succeeded in life. Hell, it couldn't even admit to its viewers that the beautiful Jane Russell was a prostitute. Here she's simply a nightclub hostess who along with others is paid 30% of the take for entertaining men. Her life is for the most part quite glamorized, enjoying the fraternity of friends, a loving relationship (Richard Egan), and increasing bargaining power with her boss (Agnes Moorehead). There is a single scene in which she is beaten up behind closed doors for violating her boss's rules (the "revolt" in this version), but shows no physical or emotional sign of it having taken place afterwards, essentially neutering the event. We see her kissing her lover on a beach with Diamond Head in the background, and performing "Keep Your Eyes on the Hands" in the nightclub, with four Hawaiian women of color swaying their hips in the background (where they are for the whole film).
Hollywood also wanted no part about making points about class, except to lay the foundation for Mamie Stover's character motivation and concern about money, having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks with very little of it. Mamie Stover is intelligent in buying up property in the film, but the film then has no idea what to do with this subplot afterwards. She's in a position to easily walk away from her life as a prostitute, having made a small fortune, and gotten an affluent, good man to leave his girlfriend (Joan Leslie) for her. Despite the attempt of the film to tie her obsession with money to her returning to her life as a hostess, it doesn't ring true at all.
And this, of course, where the axe of the Production Code had to fall, wreaking moral judgment on her character. It seems to me that the real reason Mamie Stover behaved the way she did was because she needed to be punished for her sins per the Code. The resulting discovery by her lover and moral condemnation were frankly nauseating. She returns to San Francisco to get a little more repudiation from a police officer, on the way to returning to her home town, tail in between her legs, the fortune from her savvy real estate investments completely forgotten.
Jane Russell is as charming as ever, it's just too bad the film let her character down. Agnes Moorehead is also fabulous in every respect here, and reminded me a little of the role Barbara Stanwyck took in Walk on the Wild Side (1962). Joan Leslie was in her final film at age 31, a real shame, especially as the role was such a thankless one. Her character oddly disappears from the script without a scene of confrontation with her boyfriend when he's moved on from her. With the film's melodrama and its reenactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, lives suddenly being interrupted by the war, it played a little bit like a poor man's From Here to Eternity (1953).
It was interesting to read about the root of Huie's original story, which was the real life of Jean O'Hara, who after bouncing around the continental U. S. as a prostitute, was recruited to go to Hawaii to practice her trade there shortly before the war, sometimes using the alias Mamie Stover. A better use of your time might be reading O'Hara's story in her own words; her short memoir My Life as a Honolulu Prostitute is available online, and contains a damning portrayal of police beatings, official corruption, the "white slave racket," control of prostitutes with drugs, sixteen hour work days, and STD's. Quite a contrast to the film.
It's not surprising that the novel by William Bradford Huie would be sanitized by the Hollywood of 1956, still under the grip of the Production Code, but the degree to which it was makes this film not only less interesting, but less intelligible. Huie's book is about a prostitute who moves to Honolulu after being bounced out of San Francisco, and who gradually amasses a fortune by optimizing the efficiency with which she can service men via an assembly line technique she dubbed a "bullring." She also profits on the war by buying up real estate at cheap prices. Her "revolt" begins when she takes advantage of her increased power to violate the various articles of prohibition for prostitutes, e.g. From sunbathing on public beaches, buying a car, marrying a serviceman, and buying a house. It's an empathetic story of a woman rising in class despite the deck being stacked against her. (Huie believed in these shifts and equal opportunity, later getting involved in the Civil Rights movement and the case of Emmett Till, though it's important to note that he also believed only certain people could truly take advantage of it, and that Anglo-Saxons with their "superior intelligence" had an inherent edge.) But I digress.
Of course, Hollywood couldn't make a film about a sex worker who actually succeeded in life. Hell, it couldn't even admit to its viewers that the beautiful Jane Russell was a prostitute. Here she's simply a nightclub hostess who along with others is paid 30% of the take for entertaining men. Her life is for the most part quite glamorized, enjoying the fraternity of friends, a loving relationship (Richard Egan), and increasing bargaining power with her boss (Agnes Moorehead). There is a single scene in which she is beaten up behind closed doors for violating her boss's rules (the "revolt" in this version), but shows no physical or emotional sign of it having taken place afterwards, essentially neutering the event. We see her kissing her lover on a beach with Diamond Head in the background, and performing "Keep Your Eyes on the Hands" in the nightclub, with four Hawaiian women of color swaying their hips in the background (where they are for the whole film).
Hollywood also wanted no part about making points about class, except to lay the foundation for Mamie Stover's character motivation and concern about money, having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks with very little of it. Mamie Stover is intelligent in buying up property in the film, but the film then has no idea what to do with this subplot afterwards. She's in a position to easily walk away from her life as a prostitute, having made a small fortune, and gotten an affluent, good man to leave his girlfriend (Joan Leslie) for her. Despite the attempt of the film to tie her obsession with money to her returning to her life as a hostess, it doesn't ring true at all.
And this, of course, where the axe of the Production Code had to fall, wreaking moral judgment on her character. It seems to me that the real reason Mamie Stover behaved the way she did was because she needed to be punished for her sins per the Code. The resulting discovery by her lover and moral condemnation were frankly nauseating. She returns to San Francisco to get a little more repudiation from a police officer, on the way to returning to her home town, tail in between her legs, the fortune from her savvy real estate investments completely forgotten.
Jane Russell is as charming as ever, it's just too bad the film let her character down. Agnes Moorehead is also fabulous in every respect here, and reminded me a little of the role Barbara Stanwyck took in Walk on the Wild Side (1962). Joan Leslie was in her final film at age 31, a real shame, especially as the role was such a thankless one. Her character oddly disappears from the script without a scene of confrontation with her boyfriend when he's moved on from her. With the film's melodrama and its reenactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, lives suddenly being interrupted by the war, it played a little bit like a poor man's From Here to Eternity (1953).
It was interesting to read about the root of Huie's original story, which was the real life of Jean O'Hara, who after bouncing around the continental U. S. as a prostitute, was recruited to go to Hawaii to practice her trade there shortly before the war, sometimes using the alias Mamie Stover. A better use of your time might be reading O'Hara's story in her own words; her short memoir My Life as a Honolulu Prostitute is available online, and contains a damning portrayal of police beatings, official corruption, the "white slave racket," control of prostitutes with drugs, sixteen hour work days, and STD's. Quite a contrast to the film.
Not much of a movie but see Hawaii in it's golden age
rodan_g5 March 2001
Pretty much a throw away movie that has no real pace, a contrived plot and some wooden acting. That said, I found myself glued to the overall look and feel of the film. It depicts Hawaii in the mid-50's in all it's charm. The clothes, locations, dialogue and style give a highly romantic view of Hawaii and America in it's golden age.
Fun if you want to see Hawaii as many dreamed it was actually like in the 50's (or wish it still was), but not much of a movie.
Fun if you want to see Hawaii as many dreamed it was actually like in the 50's (or wish it still was), but not much of a movie.
So-So
ThomasColquith19 February 2022
"The Revolt of Mamie Stover" is a sort of jazzy noir piece set in Hawaii during World War 2. It provides a somewhat bleak but perhaps not unfounded look at the world. The men all crave female attention and companionship and are more than willing to pay for it, or at least for a facsimile of it. And the woman all seek money and success and are willing to degrade themselves in order to get it. In this milieu when true love is possibly found it is squashed and squandered due to irreconcilable differences, ingrained prejudices and lack of trust. A sad story really, but colorfully told, though not too explicitly. I rate this film a 4/10, not a must see, really just for Jane Russell fans.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
