Promises, Promises (1963/VCI)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Jayne Mansfield became the first major start to ever appear nude in a feature film when she showed up in the independently produced comedy Promises, Promises in 1963.  Writer/producer/star Tommy Noonan had already shared the screen with Marilyn Monroe is Gentleman Prefer Blondes and hoped to have another hit with another legendary blonde sex symbol.

 

The story involves two women who gets pregnant (and cannot say the word!) and do not know who the father is because of some mixed-up relationships.  This was certainly trashing the dying production code and with Mansfield’s amazing body on display, the film generated some serious buzz.  Unfortunately, director King Donovan cannot overcome a silly script and the film is dated otherwise to boot.  Fritz Feld also stars, plus look for Richard Dawson (Hogan’s Heroes, Match Game, Family Feud) in a brief appearance.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 black and white image is the best part of this disc, with decent reproduction of the monochrome stock of the time.  The great cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc is one of the reasons this looks as good as it does.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound is smaller and more compressed than expected, not weathering time as well as the footage did.  Note that though Mansfield sings Promise Her Anything, there is no title song.  Neither the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic (known best as a Dionne Warwick hit) nor the Naked Eyes hits from the 1980s are here that share the film’s title; neither had even been written yet.  Extras include a stills gallery, “hot” & “cold” trailers for this film + three other VCI DVD titles, text bios on the leads and director.  This title was issued at the same time as Three Nuts In Search Of A Bolt, another Noonan independent production reviewed on this site from VCI.  This time, the lead is Mamie Van Doran.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo