Customer Reviews

The George Raft Story

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ray Danton was one of the most gorgeous guys I've ever seen. The Gilles Marini
of his generation. Too bad he wasn't better known.

Jayne Mansfield is not the key character in this movie, it's Ray Danton! Danton Plays George Raft and how he aspired to be a romantic lead in films but was typecast in the gangster type role. Along With Jayne Mansfield who plays Raft's love interest Betty Grable, are Julie London, Barrie Chase and Barbara Nichols. Julie London Graces us with a couple of sultry songs, Barbara Nichols shakes her fanny as Texas Guinan. Nichols wears the black low back Orry Kelly Designed gown made for Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. This is a soaper, overly dramatic, but lots of fun! Jayne Camps it up big time, playing a first class Bitch to Raft, and can barely breathe in her too tight dresses. This film is fun, enjoy it, it's a rarity!You even get to see a young Frank Gorshin pre Bat-Man tv series the riddler!

This is a cheap Allied Artists film with no budget, no stars, no sets, no relation to the facts of George Raft's life, and absolutely nothing to recommend it. Ray Danton is wooden in the title role (he's much better in Budd Boetticher's THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND, which has yet to be released to DVD), and Joseph Newman's direction is absolutely routine. Skip this, and get a real Raft movie.

Pretty good story of the life of screen legend George Raft(Ray Danton)From his days as a dancer in a gangster run nightclub during Prohibition,to the Hollywood years and his affair with Betty Grable(Jayne Mansfield)Bettys name is not,of course used,His slow 1950s decline,his involment with gangster Bugsy Siegal(Brad Dexter),his years in Cuba till the takeover by Castro,and his comeback in Some Like It Hot.
Its got its share of mistakes,George didnt leave Betty because of his mothers death,George being a devote Catholic couldnt marry her because he had been married years before.
Still,it isnt a real bad movie.

I just recieved this as a gift and I'm a hugh Jayne Mansfield fan and it was aweful. Not only did the DVD not play properly but the movie is so bad I had to return it. It's was so painful to watch. Even a Jayne Mansfield fan has to admit her acting is beyond terrible in the movie.