'Promises! Promises!' was the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature nudity by a mainstream star (*), that star was Jayne Mansfield. A stunt move for the 30 year old Mansfield, whose box office glory days of the mid 50's were behind her. Made well into the long slow death of the production code and five years before the birth of the MPAA ratings system, it is perhaps needless to say that the uncut version of this film was NOT available in all markets.
Based on the play 'The Plant' by Edna Sheklow, the plot concerns two couples, Jayne Mansfield & Tommy Noonan and Marie McDonald & Mickey Hargitay (Mansfield's real life husband at the time), who may have spouse swapped during a drunken night on a cruse. The film has a couple moments but really isn't very good.
Interestingly all of Mansfield's nude scenes are front loaded (double entendra) into the first 10 minutes of the movie, though we see those same scenes again multiple times in flashback. This movie marks the final film appernce of Marie McDonald, the 7 times married actress would die of a drug overdose in 1965 at the age of 42. The film is also the big screen debut of T.C. Jones, probably the eras most famous drag performer, though he does not appear in drag here he does play a clearly gay coded hairdresser named Babbette. Character actor Fritz Field appears as the ships doctor.
Again this film is not very a good, a cash grab with an odd cross section of performers. American Export Lines, whose ship the S.S. Independence was used in the production, seemed to see this movie as a kind of commercial and is heavily referenced in the opening credits. *1/2
(*) Annette Kellerman holds the distinction of being the first mainstream star to appear nude in a Hollywood film of the silent era, specifically 1916's 'A Daughter of the Gods', a movie which helped inspire greater calls for censorship in that era.
No comments:
Post a Comment