The Revolt of Mamie Stover

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...

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 ****

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.

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!

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.