Traum in Pink

Ralph Meeker looks great. He tended toward puffiness in the all too few movies he made after the great "Kiss Me Deadly." Here he is trim and does a good job (with little to work with.) Keenan Wynn is all right. He played sidekicks -- sort of the Tony Randall of the 1950s.

Jane Russell wears the title outfit. She got a bad rap as an actress. She was hilarious in "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" and very convincing in her adventure/thrillers with Robert Mitchum.

Here she is OK. Her acting is OK, that is. But she's supposed to be a movie star at her peak and this is a little hard to buy. I remember her TV ads in which she spoke of "us full-figured gals." These came a couple decades after "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown." But the nightgown, and everything she wears, looks like a maternity frock. She looks big here. In the beginning of the film she wears a long blonde wig. It is monumentally unbecoming. She looks better when she takes it off.

Still, the movie is a disappointment. It's always a treat to see Meeker. And the supporting cast comprises familiar faces and is amusing. But the movie is a misfire. Russell and Meeker have no particular chemistry. It isn't touching. And it isn't really very funny, director Taurog notwithstanding.

In late 1956, actress Marie (The Body) McDonald faked a kidnapping that got a ton of press but did little to help her sagging career. Fuzzy Pink is clearly capitalizing on that unfortunate episode. Also looks like the movie was rushed into production, released in Dec., 1957, by a first-time production company headed by Russell's husband, football great Bob Waterfield. I mention this background since it likely accounts for the film's uneven results.

The biggest stretch is having Laurel (Russell) fall for her kidnapper Mike (Meeker). It may have worked on paper, but it fails on screen. Too bad Meeker couldn't muster up some romantic emotion; instead he basically walks through the role in indifferent fashion. Then too, Russell's nightgown is hardly revealing, let alone titillating. Moreover, we have only the b&w movie's word that it's actually pink. Nonetheless she and Wynn do inject some needed spark.

Arguably, the movie's best part is its cynical take on the movie industry, from greedy studio honcho Martin (Menjou) to conniving agent Baylies (Harris) to waspish gossip columnist Parker (Venuta). Had the script played up this aspect, the results would have been more compelling. But, of course, that would have cut down on Russell's celebrity screen time. Anyway, there're some good shots of a Malibu beach house, a chic 50's parlor room, and a studio lot.

Despite Russell's spirited performance, the movie remains a jumbled disappointment.

Jane Russell plays a blonde bombshell movie star in the cute comedy The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown. When she plays a kidnapped character in her latest movie, small-time thugs, Kennan Wynn and Ralph Meeker, think it would be a good idea to kidnap her in real life!

Of course, since this is a comedy, things don't go as planned. While the kidnappers are hoping for lots of publicity and ransom money, Jane's manager, Adolph Menjou, tries to keep the scandal quiet. Meanwhile, there just might be a healthy dose of Stockholm Syndrome setting in for Jane. If you don't have an issue with making dramatic situations into funny ones, this '50s movie is pretty cute. Jane picks up on her funny blonde impersonation at the end of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and gets to channel her inner blonde for the entire duration of this movie. And as they say, blondes have more fun!

Laurel Stevens (Jane Russell) is a demanding movie star. Her new movie is The Kidnapped Bride and she's demanding to have her sexy bathtub scene back in before the premier tonight. She gets kidnapped by petty criminals, Mike and Dandy. At first, she thinks that it's a publicity stunt and then she keeps trying to use her feminine wilds. The studio thinks that she's being a diva. With public doubts, the kidnapping settles into a long running affair.

I really like the first half and how Jane Russell is playing up her character. I don't like as much the second half. It is not quite the fun that I expected. Maybe if the kidnapping didn't last as long as it does. The fun start fades in the second half.

The general consensus seems to be that the movie is watchable, but not wonderful. I would have to agree.

It plays like an extended episode of a smart 1950's sit-com, something like "Love that Bob" (Robert Cummings).

Jane Russell is fine as a tough but vulnerable sexy Hollywood star (is there any other kind?). It is terribly sad that at age 36, this was her last real starring vehicle.

She's surrounded by a lot of fine actors, including Adolf Menjou, Ralph Meeker, Keenan Wynne, Una Merkel, and Fred Clarke. Unfortunately, they all just walk through their roles without much enthusiasm. It seems just another day at the office for all of them. Menjou and Meeker starred in Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" that same year, both giving extraordinary performances.

Norman Taurog started off directing silent films, made some excellent movies in the 1930's ("Boys Town", "Big Broadcast of 1936"), did good work with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1950's, and ended his career in the 1960's by directing nine (good to mediocre) Elvis Presley movies. He knows how to keep things moving and get some laughs, but he doesn't involve the audience enough in his stories or characters to make himself a great director.

One problem in script is that the good guys are lovable kidnappers. It is hard to accept Meeker or Wynn as lovable kidnappers, lovable, yes, but kidnappers, no. The script intimates that Meeker has turned kidnapper to get revenge for an unjust manslaughter conviction for which he spent four years in jail. Yet, this seems just a plot device as Meeker does not seem vengeful, but only taciturn over his four lost years.

In one scene Russell mention the fact that Meeker smokes a pipe instead of a cigar and attributes it to him not knowing his part (a kidnapper) very well). It is really the script that doesn't know how to bring the romance in, after the kidnapping. It really is a problem that the acting and direction doesn't solve. Giving Meeker's character a real and specific need for the kidnapping - raising money to save his dying child, for example - could have explained the action better.

The movie could also have been better if Jane had acted more sexy in more scenes. She does in a few scenes in the first half only and they are the funniest in the movie.

There's a lot of talk in the opening scenes about the cutting of a bathtub scene in the movie that Laurel Stevens (Jane Russell) is starring in. She demands that the censored too sexy scene be put back in or she's quitting. "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown" needed that bathtub scene. If I ever get a chance to remake this movie, I will put it in.