Customer Reviews

Promises! Promises! [VHS]

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

 

 

One of Jayne Mansfield last films and certainly the most unrestrained was this outrageous sex romp on an ocean liner.The plot,involving bed-hopping and mistaken identities,served as an excuse for her patented infamous nude scenes.This Provocative,sexy,sensuos delight was quite controversial back in the early 60's which the original version was banned in many cities and replaced by a much edited version.When Playboy published a group of still shots from the movie including one described as Jayne"writhing seductively in bed" that issue of Playboy was banned by many cities across the country.Overall,this movie is a Provocatve,Sexy,Sensuous delight that's very well worth watching especially in it's original,unedited movie version!!

Promises! Promises! is the ultimate Jayne Mansfiled movie. It is a must for any Jayne Mansfield fan. The movie is very low budget. There is a scene where Marie MacDonald and Tommy Noonan are walking and you can see the microphone in front of them. Jayne Mansfield makes up for all that. I have seen it many times and from the opening credits which thank Jayne Mansfields parents for providing her body to the end it is a Jayne Manfields fan dream come true.

It is quite understandable that this film was seen as 'shocking' when it was released.After all,Jayne was the first 'major-star' to appear naked in a movie.Actually those naked scenes are quite strange,and seem out-of-context in the movie plot(if you call that a movie plot!).When,at one point she is in bed naked,she actually looks like she is mastur...Jayne was 30 years old,looked absolutely sensational,mostly as she sings'Promise Her Anything' in that floor-lenght gown.Wow !
This movie is a must-see for any Mansfield fan.We see her with Mickey Hargitay the year before they finally got their divorce;also on a sad note,we get to see Marie 'The Body' McDonald in her last film role(died in 1965).Also another bonus is to watch T.C. Jones,the female impersonator,being himself (Gay as a picnic basket,as Sophia in The Golden Girls,would say !)
In no way is this film a Classic,but it is good-fluff,and it sure beats the other poor choices Ms. Mansfield made in her career.

This is a sexy romp from the 60's and it is a really a lot of fun. The movie has a number of nude scenes of Jayne at her most voluptuous. I'm also looking forward to seeing the photos that were not used in the original Playboy spread. They are supposed to be in with the bonus features.

When I was a little boy I found my dad's Playboy issue where Jayne Mansfield appeared nude in a pictorial about a movie she was filming. The title was "Promises, Promises" and it never played here, in Mexico, due to censorship. The memory stayed within me and now, quite older, I could get the film and notice that it's a low budget comedy that exploited Mansfield's sex appeal and her magnificent body. Nothing much to it, except that it brings back memories about an era where we were naïve. It's fun and one gets to see a female legend of the fifties.

Jayne Mansfield's most revealing movie. Need I say more? Though the movie is in Black & White it was the subject of a Color layout in PLAYBOY....one of their best selling editions. If you're a Marilyn, Mamie and Jayne fan this is a must for your collection.Promises! Promises! (Amazon.com Exclusive)

I remember seeing this film advertised as "For Adults Only" in the 1960s and it was shown in so-called "art houses," a moniker given to theaters that specialized in nudie films at the time. Fifty years later, I saw for myself what the hype was all about.

For the time, it was quite shocking to see a mainstream actress like Jayne Mansfield in the nude (it was mostly her bare backside and her infamous breasts). The subject matter at the time (infidelity, pregnancy, seduction) which was considered risque was also a reason why it was shown at these theaters. At any rate, this film gives the Jayne Mansfield fan an eyeful of what they've fantasized about. Considering that it was cheaply made, the quality of the film is quite good.

I have always been a fan of Tommy Noonan (he was responsible for producing the film and directed all of the publicity shots of a nude Jayne for Playboy and the press from what I read in Jayne's biography) and he does a pretty good job of playing the bewildered husband who is frantically trying to make his wife (Jayne) pregnant. They are on a cruise ship and the ship's doctor (Fritz Feld) gives him what may be the early version of Viagra in a little pill. Marie (The Body) McDonald also appears as a frustrated wife who ironically, is going through the same dilemma with her husband (the ever-so-not-talented Mickey Hargitay, Jayne's real-life husband with whom she never had a problem becoming pregnant). Between the two couples, no one is sure who slept with whom and then the fun begins. There are other characters that add to the mayhem (the flamboyantly gay and really funny T.C. Jones as a cross-dressing hairdresser, Eddie Quillan as an equally confused bartender who manages to keep Tommy Noonan plastered, and a cameo by Imogene Coca, who was married to the film's director, King Donovan. The theme song is dance quality, a bit of a calypso with strings.

I thought this film was really funny and the storyline very original. Once again, if you're a Jayne fan, then don't miss it!

In 1959 a man named Russ Meyer released a film called "The Immoral Mr. Teas" and created a genre of his own called Nudie Cuties. Many immitations soon followed by other exploitation filmmakers like David Friedman, Harry Novak and Doris Wishman. But the most famous of these other cuties was the one that featured the world famous Hollywood legend, Jayne Mansfield in all her naked glory called "Promises! Promises!".

The film has been often credited as the first time a major actress has appeared nude onscreen. This is not necessarily true, Heddy Lamarr exposed her assets in "Ecstasy" in 1933, and Annette Kellerman did the same in "A Daughter of the Gods" even earlier in 1916. However, being this is mainstream Hollywood here, this certainly can be considered very bold for it's time.

In 1963, Jayne's career was on the decline. Blonde bombshells were being tossed aside in favor of more sophisticated brunettes like Audrey Hepburn, Mary Tyler Moore among others due to what I call the "Jackie Kennedy cultural phase". So Jayne needed a gimmick to boost her career and this is what she chose, something totally outragous as always.

Is this film worth watching? Yes, for Jayne's eyepopping figure only! The rest of the film is pretty bad involving a silly plot taking place on cruise liner co-starring her then-husband Micky Hargitay and comedian Tommy Noonan. It has a few humorous moments scattered about here and there, but all just silly cornball stuff. The nude scenes are basically random clips edited in with not much relevance to the "plot" and are more or less dream sequences. We see Jayne coming out of the bathroom topless, then readying a bath with her beautiful bubbly boohind exposed (I still say her rear is every bit as eyecatching as her chest!), and her lounging naked in bed. It's been said that Jayne would get a little tipsy on champagne to get her nerve up for these scenes. Something of note, Jayne had by this time 4 kids! FOUR KIDS! And was still able to miraculously maintain a very flat tummy. But despite this with the high resolution DVD picture, you can see the stretch marks. But so what? She's still beautiful!

When released, the film was critically panned but that didn't stop filmgoers from paying the admission. It ended up making a good bit of money despite being banned in Cleveland. Why just there and not along with the Bible-Belt cities, I'll never know! Further publicity came about when Playboy released stills from the film in their July 1963 issue. Old Hef found himself being arrested and facing obscenity charges due to one photograph showing a fully clothed Tommy Noonan in bed with a naked Jayne. Hef was aquitted with a hung 7-5 jury.

The film laid dorment for many years until the Playboy Channel presented it uncut in 1984. A VHS release soon followed and went out of print and stayed that way for a long time with the exception of a cheap EP tape that surfaced briefly.

So now we can see Jayne naked on DVD courtesy of VCI Video. The picture quality is about as good as it gets for an old almost forgotten film. Very clear and well transfered. However, I despute the 1.85 aspect ratio on this and think it's just plane cropping. I've seen the full screen versions and you can see Jayne's panties in her topless scene where here you can't. I think the real ratio was more of a 1.33 to 1. The sound is in mono which is fine, I don't think too many people are going to complain over the lack of a 5.1 DTS surround mix!

The extras are ok, nothing elaborate. We get the original theatrical trailers and a gallery of the same stills from the Playboy issue awashed in some very annoying animated bubbles! There includes some never released lobby cards that are quite interesting.

All in all this is a great addition for Jayne completists. While as a film in general, it doesn't measure up to her classics like "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" but it certainly made a mark like Jayne usually does.

Both the picture and sound is great. So are the 'extras'. Unfortunately, it is not 'close-captioned'. Definitely if you are a 'Jayne Mansfield' fan. Thank so much.

This a quaint 60s film with Jayne fully visible. I remember going to the college Friday night event and it was the R-rated one. This is the full deal. It is certainly old-fashioned but interesting and fun.