Jayne Mansfield had the first nude scene by a famous movie star in a legitimate release since the advent of The Hays Code in Promises….. Promises! They don’t make you wait long to see it either, which is certainly appreciated. She briefly shows off her birthday suit in a bubble bath before bouncing around topless in her room until she lays down in bed and rolls around bare for all to see. (These scenes are also repeated throughout the movie in the form of dream sequences to help up the skin quotient.) Then, the plot begins.
Jayne plays a married woman with a bad case of baby fever. Her husband (Tommy Noonan, who also co-wrote) can’t seem to seal the deal, and his dumb doctor (Fritz Feld), thinking it’s all in his head, keeps him supplied with a heavy dose of placebo. While on a cruise ship, Tommy and Jayne have a dinner party with their friends (Marie McDonald and Mickey Hargitay, Mansfield’s real-life husband), and the couples get drunk, get fresh, and wind up swapping partners… or so they think.
Mansfield’s womanly charms are pretty much the whole show. Aside from the nude scenes, the movie itself is only mildly risquĂ© for its time. It’s basically a lame bedroom farce with a plot that hinges on couple swapping, a few conversations about “reproductive urges”, and jokes revolving around Spanish Fly. To put it frankly, the jokes aren’t funny, the dream scenes are dumb, and Noonan’s shtick is tiresome.
The movie coasts on Mansfield’s bubbly personality. She also sings (not too badly), although it kind of seems like that was part of the deal. It’s as if she told her agent, “I’m not taking my puppies out of their chute unless I get to sing a number or two!” She also posed nude in Playboy to help promote the movie, which would eventually become standard in the industry
Ultimately, the movie feels like a more polished version of a nudie-cutie. As a comedy, it’s not successful at all. As a landmark of celebrity skin, Promises….. Promises! is an important film. It gives you just about what it promises and nothing much else.
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