Jayne Mansfieldleft behind an interesting legacy as an actress, including a taut filmography that features clear winners and losers. A sex symbol of theGolden Age of Hollywood, Jayne Mansfield was an actress and model known just as well for her tumultuous personal life in the public eye and tragic accidental death as she was for her actual films.
Following her success and notoriety as aPlayboyplaymate, Mansfield indulged in a modest film career that primarily saw her star as the female lead ofnoir films, dramas, and romantic comedies. Her most famous appearance might inPromises! Promises!, where she starred in one of the first nude scenes in a major film since the silent era, but many of her other roles were far superior.
Not to be confused with the 2011 thriller of the same name, 1964’sPanic Buttonrepresents a bit of a low point in Jayne Mansfield’s career. After her contract with 20th Century Fox was dropped in 1962, Mansfield had to subsist on low-budget foreign films like Italy’sPanic Button, which starred her as an up-and-coming actress, as if to rub salt in the wound.
Panic Buttonsees Jayne Mansfield try her hardest in a film that may as well have been made as a tax write-off, just like the movie-within-a-movie the plot revolves around. Despite being billed as a comedy, the jokes are too flat and far between to be worth mentioning, leaving only a dreadfully boring production story that simply leaves nothing to latch on to.
The last film before her tragic demise in a car collision at the age of 34,Single Room Furnishedwas a standout place for Jayne Mansfield’s career to end. Here, the blonde bombshell played not one, not two, but three separate characters, something she had longed to do for some time prior to flex her acting skills as more than just a pretty face.
The film is certainly a proving one for Mansfield, demonstrating some genuine drama chops with an impressive ability toplay multiple roles in a single film. However, she doesn’t actually have all that much screentime, leaving little to distract from the dull, depressing plot that slowly plods across the film’s runtime.
Few romantic comedies are made out of as dire subject matter asKiss Them for Me, which takes place in the later years of World War 2. When three Navy pilots are granted shore leave in San Francisco for a few days, they manage to evade their Navy PR officer long enough for a wild party with several beautiful women, though the horrors of war are never far behind.
Kiss Them for Mehas an odd mix of lighthearted romantic comedy and heavy drama revolving around PTSD and the lingering effect of World War 2 on the psyche of those who fought in it. Though her performance is a bit of a re-hash of her role inThe Girl Can’t Help It,Jayne Mansfield steals every scene she’s in as the vivacious Alice.
One of Jayne Mansfield’s earliest roles,Illegalis a classicexample of a film noirthat succeeds in what it sets out to do just fine. Adapting the playThe Mouthpiecefor film, the story centers on a successful District Attorney who goes into his own private practice, only to become a guilt-ridden alcoholic when he realizes he sent an innocent man to the electric chair.
Edward G. Robinson is amazing as the lead role, bringing profound excitement to what could have otherwise been dull courtroom scenes in a lesser-experienced actor’s hands. Mansfield only has a brief role as mob groupie Angel O’Hara, but knocks it out of the park so early in her career, hilariously obviously dubbed singing voice notwithstanding.
Bottle movies that take place in a single, contained environment weren’t as common in the ’50s, butThe Wayward Busis a lovely slice-of-life drama that makes the most of its limited setting. As the title implies, the entire film takes place on a bus driving through treacherous California mountains, made even more dangerous by powerful storms and treacherous bridges.
Though most of the drama centers on the bus driver protagonist and his home drama with enough turbulence to match the dangerous journey,Jayne Mansfield is great as pin-up girl Camille Oakes, who stirs up some sexual tension in the bus’s tight confines. The limiting concept ofThe Wayward Busallows for some unique creativity, even if the premise had room for more.
Part film noir and partheist movie,The Burglaris an exciting and underrated element of Jayne Mansfield’s filmography that deserves more recognition. When a wealthy Philadelphia man’s estate, including a prized jeweled necklace worth a fortune, is left in the hands of a spiritual leader, a gang of four criminals plan a heist to steal the priceless bequest.
The femme fatale of a trio of thieves, Mansfield is excellent as Gladden, who effortlessly slips into a variety of roles to help aid in the master plan. The on-location shooting in both Philadelphia and Atlantic City adds an air of authenticity few other noir films can equal, and Mansfield’s quirky charm here is outmatched by only two of her other films.
If anyone knows Jayne Mansfield’s name for only one movie, it’s most likelyThe Girl Can’t Help It, a fun musical comedy that proves her enduring appeal. Mansfield stars as the girlfriend of a mob boss desperate to make her become a singer, despite her own goals being far more modest. Things are complicated when she falls in love with her new press agent.
The Girl Can’t Help Itis Mansfield’s most iconic role for good reason, spreading the influence of nascent American rock and roll across the world. With a subversive ending that plays with tropes and expectations, the film’s comedic aspirations hold up remarkably well so many decades later, earning its title as a classic in Mansfield’s repertoire.
For the most part, thebest satire filmsare thought to be relatively modern, starting around the Gene Wilder hits of the ’70s likeYoung FrankensteinandBlazing Saddles.However,Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?is still one of the best of them, if viewers can appreciate the topical references of its time.
Mansfield stars as a Hollywood sex symbol who endorses an ad executive’s lipstick brand in exchange for him pretending to be her lover to make her actor boyfriend jealous.The resulting mishaps and comedic mayhem is still a masterfully conducted orchestra of laughs, and while the context ofWill Success Spoil Rock Hunter?has eroded,Jayne Mansfield’s performance has not.
