Reviews

For those who think that Jayne Mansfield's career was nothing more than an overblown publicity stunt I boldly state they should at least see this before making any final judgments. I too started watching this with a fair amount of skepticism, and yet I was blown right out of the water by both Jayne and the movie. Both are a lot better than I was anticipating. This is the best Mansfield performance I've ever seen. She is perfectly cast in the role of Midnight Franklin. She makes the character all too human, and all too believable. The movie itself is fast-paced, packing a lot into its 93 minutes. It's also well-acted by everyone involved, and very well-directed. It's intriguing and holds your interest. It has the air of a good Warner Brothers gangster film, as well as a definite film-noir feel to it. I don't know what happened to the color prints of this, but, in my opinion it's the sort of movie that actually plays better in black-and-white. And Jayne's musical numbers are always worth seeing. I definitely recommend this one.

It's films like this that give repulsive, self-centered yuppies a bad name! Pretentious, unfocused and boring it's beyond me how this film managed to get made in the first place. The fact that it managed to win all kinds of awards and even develop some kind of a cult following is even more baffling. For starters the plot(for lack of a better word) is totally incomprehensible, so I won't even go there. The characters are even worse. Not one of them is even half-way close to being sympathetic. A good psychiatrist wouldn't touch any of this crew with a 10-foot couch. Bluntly put they deserve each other. Nuff said. It was more than a decade after sitting through this before I would willingly watch an Andie McDowell movie. As for the rest of the cast well... I left the theater feeling that the filmmakers were having a big laugh at the audience's expense. Avoid this one like the plague! Unless you're having a bad case of insomnia.

The answer is yes. The question: Could Jayne act? She did in this one, and was surprisingly good at it too. I saw this movie more out of morbid curiosity than anything else, not really expecting much. I'd read lots of reviews of it, most of them on the negative side. I admit to being a big Mansfield fan so I did have a bit of a bias. And surprise, surprise I did enjoy it. For the most part! I liked her a lot more than the movie tho. I can understand why this wouldn't have been a box-office hit. It's a bit slow at times, and strays off course. The secondary plot involving Charley and Flo confused me. While the actors did a fine job, after a few minutes I felt like I was watching another movie altogether. Their first scene together was WAY too long, and I began to wonder who they were and why were they there in the first place. But after reading that Jayne died before the film completed it made sense. The producers didn't have enough completed film at that point, so it made sense to beef up the secondary roles the characters play, and pad the length of the film to a reasonable length. Not that the actors were bad, they weren't, but I felt that they were out of place here, and that they should have had a whole film of their own. Jayne does a good job here, though admittedly she's no Bette Davis. She was compelling enough to carry the movie. For a while I actually forgot I was watching Jayne Mansfield, and got caught up in the characters she was playing. She was talented. She could act. And while this isn't a great movie it does show a really good actress in the making. It's tempting to speculate where her career might have led if she'd lived. All in all, this is a good if not great movie. You be the judge.

I'm a huge fan of both country music and Jayne Mansfield, so I really looked forward to seeing this one. And yet I really wasn't all that impressed with it. The main criticism is that there was WAY too much of the music, and way too little of Jayne, if that's possible. For the most part the music was decent enough, with a couple of clunkers thrown in for good measure. After a few songs this starts playing like a kind of American Idol of the mid-60s country music scene. I got the feeling they were trying to pad the length of the film, because if you cut the music sequences it would run about 17 minutes. The whole thing looks improvised because there probably wasn't much of a script. The pie fight sequence at the end is just plain lame. The performers do an 0k job, and can't really be faulted. All are well-cast. I'm neither hot nor cold on Mamie VanDoren but I liked her in this. The biggest let-down is Jayne, who for all her star billing doesn't really do a lot here. She only has a handful of scenes and could easily have phoned her part in. If she were edited out completely it would have changed nothing of the overall story. Not her fault tho, it's not like she had much help from the script. Her performance in the Big Bopper spoof is a hoot and easily the movie's bright spot. Too bad she couldn't have had a couple more numbers, or maybe even been in a couple more scenes. I don't dislike this movie, but I'd only recommend it for country music fanatics, and fans of Jayne and Mamie. 0therwise beware!

So what were you expecting with Jayne Mansfield and Phyllis Diller heading up the cast? Schindler's List? Granted this is one stupid movie (and I"m a fan of both ladies!) but it's a good, fun stupid. Along the lines of Plan 9 from 0uter Space, and almost as fun. The plot is confusing, and not really worth mentioning. If you can make sense of it you're one up on me. Like any other movie it has its pros and cons. 0n the minus side Jayne really isn't looking her best, but it's probably worth mentioning that she was six months pregnant when this was filmed, so she can be excused for that. Phyllis Diller looks like Glenn Close with a hangover. And don't get me started on the music. If there are movies with worse soundtracks floating around I sincerely hope I never see, or hear them. 0ne number "Do the Turtle" is excruciating, and probably would play better if you were on magic mushrooms. It's not even terrible. It aspires to be terrible, and if you could call it terrible you'd be paying it an undue compliment. Enough said. You've got to see it to believe it. The script, for lack of a better word could have been(and probably was) written by a third-grader. 0n the positive side there are some genuinely funny moments. Johnny Tillotson catching a mermaid being a prime example. Jayne and Phyllis are always fun. And this movie was to me just that. Fun. And with a truly once-in-a-lifetime cast as well. I enjoyed this movie immensely. See it for yourself and be your own critic. Just don't expect Masterpiece Theater.