Single Room Furnished

Matt Cimber's "Single Room Furnished" is a dark, atmospheric film about destroyed lives and desperation. It is a wonder that this 60's gem is not a cult classic, as it features an outrageous jazz score, along with the legendary cult icon Jayne Mansfield, in three different roles. The story is amazingly lurid, following Jayne's character 'Eileen' on her downward spiral, through failed relationships, unwanted pregnancies, abandonment, leading her to a sad life of prostitution. The film possesses a hypnotic quality. The cheap, tawdry sets and tacky costumes, along with watching Mansfield move dreamily about her surroundings makes for a surreal viewing experience. I was moved by the operatically sad stories of these people. Because Mansfield died before films completion, an extra storyline was added in to bring the film up to feature length running time. Unlike some other viewers, I found the side story with Charlie and Flo thoroughly enjoyable, and those two had some hilarious lines. The scene where the middle aged Flo gets herself all "gussied up" to meet the beer drinking slob Charlie, in what has to be the most tacky bar/restaurant ever captured on film, only to pull a rotten fish out of her purse, and later snatch off her hairpiece; classic stuff. When watching this, one gets the feeling that they are seeing something very rare indeed. As mentioned earlier, the rousing 60's jazz soundtrack is memorable, and fetches over $100 whenever an old LP soundtrack of the movie pops up on ebay. The production carries a distinct feeling of "nostalgia", a shadowy look into a time now gone. And Jayne Mansfield has undeniable screen presence, and for those wondering, she actually could act, and "Single Room Furnished" is proof. The film is exploitation to be sure, capitalizing on Jaynes name, and her tragic life. But it is not degrading to the star for a moment. There is no nudity, and she is given the chance that she most likely always wanted, to play parts other than "sex kitten". The final scenes of 'Eileen' and her sailor, as she confesses her sordid life to him, and to the audience, are among the most beautiful and haunting images to grace the silver screen. For fans of cult or weird 60's films, and definitely for fans of Jayne Mansfield, this is required viewing. Surprisingly there is a great DVD edition of this obscure title, featuring a beautiful widescreen print. It would make a nice double feature with "Who Killed Teddy Bear," starring Sal Mineo. Also recommended is "The Wayward Bus," another obscure one featuring Jayne in a serious role.

I thoroughly enjoyed `Single Room Furnished,' a beautiful film about quiet desperation. The cinematic equivalent to a Graham Greene novel, this darkly daring film centers on Maria, an irrepressible girl in her teens played by the very catching Terri Messina (who looks a bit like Marlo Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore, only hotter) and the desolate trifecta character of Johnnie / Mae / Eilene, played by Jayne Mansfield.

Pop (Billy M. Greene) tells Maria the story of Johnnie's lowly life, as if it were one of Hilaire Belloc's `Cautionary Tales for Children,' against a backdrop of real, unadorned people in their real, drab existence. Director Matt Cimber, in his debut feature film, illustrates the ruthlessness and dreariness of life and how it gleefully pulverizes people who never had a chance. It's not a satirical film, just a bleak soul-shriveler of the cruelest kind. Throughout, Mansfield conceals a depth of softness and vulnerability, hinting that there's always a hopefulness hidden under her sobs and disappointment. The feel-good film of the year this isn't (Mansfield even died before the movie was completed)! But, if you're looking for a quiet tale about human nature and want to see how the majority of American people feel, definitely watch this one!

Jayne Mansfield dons three different guises to play one slow-talking, slightly zonked woman (her idea of being sultry is to dawdle over every other word--or maybe she thinks she's being dramatic?). It's a tacky, flashback-framed fiasco that is filled with two-person scenes, and in every sequence the characters keep saying each other's names: "Hey, Flo?" "Yes, Charlie?" "You know what, Flo?" "What, Charlie?" A tired and amateurish farewell to Mansfield, who, contrary to popular belief, was not beheaded before its release. After perishing in an auto crash, a newswire photo flashed across the globe featuring Jayne's blonde wig next to the crushed car's right-front tire. Rumor quickly spread that it was her head, but rest assured Mansfield's head was attached to her body when she died. *1/2 from ****

At the height of her fame, Jayne Mansfield marketed hot water bottles shaped like her notorious 41-18-26 superstructure; sold her used bath water for $10 a shot; reportedly had 1,000,000 lines of copy devoted to her during a six month period in New York alone; and was considered a serious threat to Marilyn Monroe as the world's #1 blonde bombshell. Unfortunately, a relentless drive toward increasingly tacky publicity stunts quickly labeled Mansfield more an event than an actress. By the mid 1960's, her celebrity was renowned, but the star 20th Century Fox once valued at a reported $20 million was adrift without a major studio, appearing in tawdry European film productions and touring in a campy nightclub act. 1966 saw Mansfield hit near-bottom: overweight, alcoholic and dependent on pills, the fading sex goddess was at the nadir of her film career, appearing in worthless dreck like "Las Vegas Hillbillies.": Her current husband, Matt Cimber, however, still fed into her belief that, with the right project, she could become a serious actress. To that end, he directed her first "serious" drama since 1957's "Wayward Bus," a gritty little script called "Single Room, Furnished." In keeping with the film's seedy urban setting, the sets are tacky and threadbare, with a blaring jazz soundtrack. Jayne plays three roles: a teenage bride, a pregnant cocktail waitress, and a call girl. (As one columnist sniffed about the then-unmade film, "Should get into real ART when Jayne plays the teenager!") To Cimber's credit, he elicted a performance from Mansfield which, if not exactly good, is hypnotic and eminently watchable. In most of her films, Mansfield is over-upholstered window dressing; here, she is not given much room to be attractive, and even as the call girl, she's a far cry from her halcyon days at Fox. Therefore, it's to her credit that, without the benefit of silver lame, wriggling undulations or bare-breasted antics, she maintains our interest. It's a hauntingly poetic performance, completely guileless and technically lacking, but somehow very honest. At this point in her life, perhaps Mansfield knew something of her character's sadness and loneliness. On June 29, 1967, Mansfield was killed in a car accident; "Single Room, Furnished" was still incomplete, so additional scenes were shot with the supporting cast. Surprisingly, these scenes are remarkably touching, focusing on the romance between "Flo" and "Charlie." This isn't a good film, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is rather moving, and a sad, quiet postscript to the otherwise gaudy phenomenon of Jayne Mansfield.

Also three stories united in one, originally. "Miss Negligee"(Jayne Mansfield) could really play and even very good, this film proves it fully. She plays here 3 different roles and she plays them with a lot of talent, she is credible, convincing. And those are roles of depth, not the dumb blonde as she had been advised to play in all her other films. The other actors are also very good, especially Dorothy Keller, in a role in the spirit of Giulietta Masina in "The Nights of Cabiria".