Jayne Mansfield was arguably
the most exhibitionistic of all the movie glamour girls. In her publicity photographs
Jayne revealed more of her body than any other star and
gave the impression that she really wanted to show her breasts completely. Shortly after Jayne's horrific death Diana Dors, a frequently mischievous and occasionally malicious raconteur
who knew Jayne quite well, said that
she thought eventually Jayne would have become a stripper as her career declined.
More charitable judgements came from other actresses. In "Second Act"
Joan Collins tells
how startled she was by Jayne's lack of inhibition
while Anita Ekberg, describing Jayne as a friend, said she was far more intelligent
than anyone realised and was in fact quite small. Jayne was certainly not
small in every way. Her figure was spectacular although variable, ranging
from 36.19.35 to 40.22.37, and brought her enormous media attention.
Jayne made no secret of loving that attention. During
her period at 20th Century Fox, when it seemed she might become
a big star, she surprised hardened show business professionals by being always
available for interviews, always willing to make personal appearances, always
ready to participate in publicity stunts. No journalist, even from small
local papers, was ever denied access to Jayne, and she was never too busy
to attend even the most obscure and humble event. All was grist to Jayne's
publicity mill. No tactic was too impudent for her, no neckline too low, no
stunt too embarrassing. Whether losing her bikini top at a Jane Russell movie
premier or gatecrashing Sophia Loren's Hollywood welcoming party at Romanoff's,
Jayne grabbed headlines unashamedly.
Because Jayne emerged at
a time when the cultural establishment set a high value on staid respectability
and sexual modesty, her innocent vulgarity and gleeful displays of cleavage
quickly aroused the hostility of several journalists. Donald Zec, for example,
was consistently venomous about Jayne.
Jayne was born in Vera Jane
Palmer April 1933. While in her teens she married Paul Mansfield, gave birth
to a baby and began winning small beauty contests. When the Mansfields moved
to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, Jayne studied acting at UCLA and tried
to break into show business. There are conflicting accounts of how she began
but in the mid 1950s Jayne managed to secure small parts in movies.
She started in "The Female
Jungle", a cheap programmer shot in only two weeks and rarely
screened since. Most who have seen the movie claim Jayne gave a good performance.
Warner Brothers then took an interest and gave her a tiny part in "Hell
On Frisco Bay" based on the novel "The Darkest Hour". As a
brunette with
an enormous beauty mark and two lines of dialogue Jayne played a
speak-easy cigarette girl in "Pete Kelly's Blues", a gangster film with Dixieland
jazz and a self-consciously down-beat attitude. ("If you're looking for
a new way to grow old, this is the place to come".) Jayne followed this
with her third role for Warners opposite Edward G. Robinson in "Illegal"
where she played the girl of a crime czar.
In these movies Jayne was
presented as a good looking young woman who spoke and moved normally
and had conventional ambitions. She was not presented as any kind of freak,
nor as an imitation Marilyn Monroe. "Playboy" magazine was now interested
in Jayne and featured her as their star attraction in February 1955. She also
secured a leading role in "The Burglar", a small movie made from
a tense novel by David Goodis.
On Broadway Jayne then won the
female lead in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" which
had a formidable cast: Orson Bean, Martin Gabel, Walter Matthau and, way down
the cast list, Tina Louise. Playwright George Axelrod used a premise similar
to that in "The Seven Year Itch": a fabulously sexy and rather unintelligent
girl has an enormous impact on an impressionable man. Jayne
deployed her voluptuousness to great effect in scenes where she wore only
a towel, and at last she became a genuine show business celebrity.
20th Century Fox were having
trouble with their No 1 star, Marilyn Monroe. Fox's response was
to intimidate Monroe by letting her know that she was replaceable. To emphasise
the point they sometimes had young blonde actresses sitting conspicuously
on the sets of Monroe movies. Fox groomed Sheree North as a substitute Marilyn
Monroe (and ruined Sheree North's prospects in the process.) 20th Century
Fox also noticed that Jayne Mansfield had a phenomenal figure and was playing
a character rather like Marilyn Monroe in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter".
20th Century Fox offered Jayne a contract. Her arm did not need twisting.
Fox entrusted Jayne to Frank
Tashlin, a comedy writer and director with an irreverent outlook, a propensity
for satire and a dislike
of the American consumer culture. Jayne was ideal for Tashlin.
She typified exactly the packaged, bosomy, imitation sexuality so popular
in the mid-1950s. She was eager to parody both Marilyn Monroe and herself.
She was willing to allow herself
to look ridiculous. In "The Girl Can't Help It" Jayne wears a black
dress
so tight that she cannot walk properly and a red dress so tight that she has difficulty going round corners.
The breast fetish is mocked by Jayne
saying "No-one thinks I'm equipped for motherhood." Jayne
played a sympathetic character in "The Girl Can't Help It", a modest
young woman whose bullying boy-friend is determined to make something special
out of her whether she likes it or not. (Shades of "Born Yesterday"!)
Jayne spoke naturally throughout the movie, but there are moments when her
character gives those squeals which later became part of her public persona.
(These squeals
sound as if they were not
recorded with the dialogue but were added to the soundtrack as an afterthought.) Jayne's
figure in the movie is infinitely variable,
and ranges from well-upholstered to grotesquely over-sized. When she seems
a normal woman Jayne is far more attractive than when she looks like
a mammary freak.
Jayne's next film was "The
Wayward Bus", a piece of Americana from a novel by John Steinbeck which
Fox decided should be helmed by a novice French director! Jayne's co-star
was Joan Collins. The film was neither a critical nor a box-office success
and has today been excluded by Fox Home Entertainment from both Jayne Mansfield
and Joan Collins DVD box-sets.
The movie "Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter?" was quite different from the stage play but still
has admirers today, although when first released the film did Jayne more harm
than good. Rita Marlowe was an obvious parody of Marilyn Monroe who had been
adopted by the critical establishment which chose to depict Jayne as a mindless
vulgarisation of their heroine.
Jayne's problems continued
with her next movie. "Kiss Them For Me" was a painfully unfunny
comedy comprising various incompatible elements. It was also that great rarity:
a Cary Grant film that failed at the box-office. The film could not make up
its mind how to present Jayne. Her character seems to be a man-hungry bimbo
without a serious thought in her head who is made still more vapid by the fact
that the Ray Walston character does not even take advantage of her availability.
(He talks about his wife a great deal!) For much of the movie, Jayne speaks
quite normally but at times she squeaks and squeals and seems grotesque.
Then, as now, when a film
flopped commercially, the executives who sanctioned the movie looked for a
scapegoat, and Jayne was chosen. It was suggested that audiences stayed away
because of hostility towards Jayne. There was talk about a lack of screen
rapport with Cary Grant, even though Suzy Parker, not Jayne, shared scenes
with him. That "Kiss Them For Me" was seriously misconceived and
should not have been made was not mentioned. The failure was blamed on Jayne.
20th Century Fox lost their
nerve and placed Jayne in European-based movies. The first was "The Sheriff
Of Fractured Jaw" directed by Raoul Walsh, but then the downhill slide
began. Jayne appeared in "Too Hot To Handle" directed by Terence
Young whose movies indicate a relish for large women with ample cleavages.
(The most notable examples of this enthusiasm can be found with Luciana Paluzzi
in both "Thunderball" and "The Clansman".) Jayne revealed
much of her body in "Too Hot To Handle" and this was taken by the
critical establishment as conclusive evidence that she was vulgar and stupid.
When Jayne's contract with
Fox came to an end, her career descent was rapid and undignified. She had
no difficulty finding work, but much of it was beneath the dignity of an established
star. Jayne worked in two shoddy pseudo-epics in Italy, made personal appearances
on Broadway and guested on television shows. She made a tour of working-men's
clubs in England, and told Diana Dors that she did not know what she was doing
there. (Diana Dors later claimed that she explained to Jayne that it was a
good way of earning money quickly.) A little later, with her looks now in
decline, Jayne made "Promises, Promises", in which she appeared
naked. She garnered enormous publicity by being the first major star to display
her body in a movie, and "Promises, Promises" was banned in certain
districts.
Jayne's death in a car crash
was obscene, but enabled Jayne to end her life as she had lived it: in the
front page headlines. Various tributes were paid to Jayne, some of them hypocritical.
(Donald Zec's contortions in "The Daily Mirror" were particularly
contemptible.)
Today Jayne Mansfield remains
an icon. It is a truism that a person is made interesting by the contradictions
within them, and Jayne Mansfield is still interesting because at the centre
of her life and career are two unexplained contradictions.
Every-one who came into contact
with Jayne agrees that she was obsessed with being successful in her career,
yet Jayne consistently chased publicity of all kinds even when it was evident
that much of that publicity was damaging her career. Why was she so hungry
for publicity? Was Jayne primarily interested in being famous rather than
being successful?
Many who knew Jayne insist
that she was intelligent and that the dumb blonde public persona was completely
artificial. Why then did Jayne not realise that playing dumb blondes who squeal
and squeak instead of talking normally was damaging her credibility as an
actress and was closing the door on better roles? Why did Jayne not insist
on playing a variety of parts?
Jayne is still popular today
and her movies are now, gradually, being released on DVD. Her glamour photographs
are much sought after and are constantly on offer from the usual vendors as
well as on Internet auction sites.
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