Programmed June 2021

Three Starring Jane Russell

Born one hundred years ago this June, Jane Russell rose to fame under the Svengali-like influence of Howard Hughes, who exploited her sex appeal to turn his production of The Outlaw into a cultural sensation. More than just the provocative pinup of Hughes’s fantasies, however, Russell soon proved to be an intelligent, sharp-witted performer who projected a brassy toughness and down-to-earth likability that made her one of the most popular stars of the 1940s and ’50s. This trio of highlights from Russell’s heyday brings together the fascinatingly offbeat noirs His Kind of Woman and Macao , both costarring Robert Mitchum, alongside Raoul Walsh’s punchy melodrama The Revolt of Mamie Stover , with Russell at her best as an ambitious sex worker determined to make her fortune in Hawaii.

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