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Hollywood’s quintessential skank, Jane Russell (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), stars as a San Francisco prostitute fleeing to Honolulu during the dawn of World War II to make a new life of fortune. On the ship to the islands, she falls in love with a writer (A Summer Place‘s Richard Egan) who tries to persuade her from the lucrative flesh trade, but Mamie won’t hear of it. She gets hired at a high-class whore house — I mean, nightclub — and starts raking in the dough. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Mamie starts buying real estate on the cheap and gets even wealthier. Egan’s character chooses Mamie over a well-respected girlfriend (Joan Leslie), but starts to become disillusioned with her when he realizes she may love money more than him.
The Revolt of Mamie Stover wants to be an unabashed soap opera like Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind, and while it plays that way at times, it’s afraid to fully commit — perhaps due to nervousness on the studio’s part. The romance with Egan is more tepid than it ought to be, and the film also waters down the prostitution angle. The word ‘prostitute’ is never mentioned, and the film dances around Mamie’s profession well enough that some naïve viewers might think sailors line up to see her merely to have drinks and listen to records. The ending feels rushed and compromised, too.
But the film, directed by stalwart director Raoul Walsh (Klondike Annie, High Sierra), is still a fun time with Russell giving one of her better performances. She even has a surprise third-act song number, “Keep Your Eyes on the Hands”. Agnes Moorehead gets a meaty supporting role as the nightclub’s no-nonsense owner and manager. One of the best scenes is one in which Moorehead haggles with Mamie, trying to keep her headlining gal on the payroll when Mamie’s contemplating turning over a new leaf for Egan. The film also makes terrific use of the Hawaiian setting with its cinemascope framing.
With Jorja Curtright, Michael Pate, and Richard Coogan.