Monday, February 07, 2022

Movie review - "Promises, Promises" (1963) **

Jayne Mansfield goes topless in a film starring, co written by and produced by Tom Noonan, the four eyed love interest of Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.It's based on a play performed in Palm Springs - apparently they wanted Noonan to star in it which is how he knew about it.

The plot is quite racy involving two couples on a cruise ship: Mansfield and Noonan and Mickey Hargitay and Marie McDonald. They get drunk and there may have been cheating which becomes extra complicated when both women fall pregnant.

The cast is colourful to say the least. Three of them would be dead within a few years - McDonald from an overdose of pills, Mansfield in her car accident, and Noonan of a brain tumour. 

McDonald played a Mansfield type in The Geisha Boy and Noonan went on to make another racy comedy with a blonde, Three on a Nut.

Noonan is fine - he has a very long unfunny drunk scene with the other three watching awkwardly. Hagarity is awkward.  McDonald seems old. Mansfield is sweet. The nudity sparks things up. The comedy is hard to get through though there's some cuteness with split screem for the two couples.

 

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