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For those who think that Jayne Mansfield's career was nothing more than an overblown publicity stunt I boldly state they should at least see this before making any final judgments. I too started watching this with a fair amount of skepticism, and yet I was blown right out of the water by both Jayne and the movie. Both are a lot better than I was anticipating. This is the best Mansfield performance I've ever seen. She is perfectly cast in the role of Midnight Franklin. She makes the character all too human, and all too believable. The movie itself is fast-paced, packing a lot into its 93 minutes. It's also well-acted by everyone involved, and very well-directed. It's intriguing and holds your interest. It has the air of a good Warner Brothers gangster film, as well as a definite film-noir feel to it. I don't know what happened to the color prints of this, but, in my opinion it's the sort of movie that actually plays better in black-and-white. And Jayne's musical numbers are always worth seeing. I definitely recommend this one.

The plot concerns the owner of the "Pink Flamingo" club and his battles with rival club owners and the police. Christopher Lee has a small role, but the main attraction for most viewers would probably be Jayne Mansfield, who surprisingly, is very good in her role as the club owners girlfriend. She has a big musical number and you'll wonder how they squeezed her into some of the tightest costumes you'll ever see.

My first film with Jayne Mansfield, a copy of Marilyn Monroe but not so charming as the original. In this one, Jayne is not bad, she moves well, she sings well enough, with the acting there is a small problem. Marilyn was a much better actress and much more beautiful. And what great body had Marilyn, Jayne is a lot too big, too much in all: thighs, bust, ass, lips, etc. Unfortunately, both of them with a similar destiny and a very sad final. Leo Genn is very good as Johnny Solo. Good role by Christopher Lee. Karlheinz Böhm is from another film, totally inappropriate and insipid. There is also a very young Barbara Windsor in it and a guy called Ian Fleming, but it's not the famous father of James Bond. But, Mr.Terence Young, the director, after this film, he had to screen three novels from the famous Ian Fleming: "Dr. No", "From Russia with Love", "Thunderball", the first three of the series and, in my opinion, the best.

The dance numbers with Jane Mansfield were the main draw of this show, and we don't get to see the bareness of her outfits in black and white. It's too bad foreign films where this was in color are still made without any English dialog on DVD. The subplots that made the backdrop of this story are interesting, but Mansfield's part wears out while she acts out as a mother figure to Johnny, the nightclub owner, warning him not to use his gun against a rival club across the street that's blackmailing him. Then she's mom to an underage girl, attempting to keep her from going to a fatal date with a villainous club investor. The supporting characters like Christopher Lee as the host and the various strippers help break up the monotony of her "don't do this" speeches. Koch Vision had a color version but I don't know why no one has it now.

A perfect example of a film whose sum is far less than its parts, "Too Hot to Handle" (1960) proved to be a real letdown for me. On paper, the film would seem to have a lot going for it: Jayne Mansfield playing a stripper in a seedy London club; a moustachioed Christopher Lee as the club's manager, who is plotting against the owner/boss (Leo Genn) with the rival strip club owner across the street; Carl Boehm (so memorable in that same year's "Peeping Tom") as a French reporter doing a story on the club; AND direction by Terence Young, who in the next five years would go on to helm three out of the first four Bond films. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, although the multiple plot threads (rival strip joints, Jayne's infatuation with her boss, an underage dancer) keep things spinning along. Jayne does get to perform two sexy and amusing musical numbers, and acts decently enough, but even her assets aren't enough to float this picture. (In truth, she looks pretty matronly during most of the film.) Part of the problem, for me, is the level of tawdry sleaziness on display, with repeated shots of Brit businessmen ogling at the dancers, who have only stripped down to their skivvies. (No nudity at this club, it seems.) Worse for me was the quality of the DVD itself that I just watched. It would seem that the source for this DVD was a crummy 16mm print, and with lousy sound. Heavy British accents PLUS lousy sound make for an exasperating and difficult cinematic experience. (Potential viewers should also be aware that, despite the Maltin book's claim that this is a color film, it is in truth black & white.) Perhaps if the DVD had looked and sounded a bit better, I might have enjoyed the film more, sleazy and cheesy as it is. But I still wouldn't have thought it was, um, too hot.