Single Room Furnished

Simple minded persons such as moonspinner55 do not try to distinguish the 3 different accents from 3 different cultures that Jayne Mansfield uses in Single Room Furnished. In my helping Jayne Mansfield master the 3 different accents it took the two of us 2 hours on how her saying the word "monkey" alone. Each of her 3 accents of Single Room Furnished were very different from her normal way of speaking. Add on that she used a different way of speaking in every movie and stage play that she was in shows, to at least me, that she had an brightness in her mind to even attempt Single Room Furnished. Another friend of mind said of Jayne Mansfield "genius"- John F Kennedy, President Of The United States.

"Single Room Furnished" was the last film of the once-celebrated Jayne Mansfield. Not surprisingly, given the unfortunate state of her career, she was cast as a bitter, used-up prostitute. The film is ostensibly a dramatization of her sad life and times. Because she died before it was completed,it ended up on the shelf, until the director (and Mansfield's ex-hubby) Matt Cimber, made the decision to finish the film. In order to release it to capitalize on the lurid headlines generated by her untimely death, he added an additional story involving a singularly unappealing middle-aged couple that stops the film cold, and totally negates any interest it might otherwise have had. Mansfield, looking blowzy and tired, may be the main interest here, but she's done in by the pathetic script and the surrounding cast of no name, no talent performers, all of who seem to want to get off-camera as soon as possible. All except Charley and Flo, the characters played by the actors hired to complete the picture, who sigh, grunt, moan and whimper about the sad state of their lives. Not nearly as much as the critics who were forced to endure this film, however, or the audiences who were subjected to it during it's mercifully short release. Jayne gave a valid performance in "A Guide for the Married Man" shortly before her death, and that would have been a more fitting end to her (modest) career. Anyone who makes it all the way through this film (like I did) deserves what they get.

NYC apartment super Pop tells rebellious girl Maria about the dangers the city presents to young women. Johnie (Jayne Mansfield) and her husband Frankie used to live in the apartment but they grow apart. She gets pregnant and he leaves her. She has a miscarriage and changes her name to Mae. There is another couple Flo and Charley. Charley took pity on Mae who's pregnant again and proposed to her. He changes his mind and married Flo instead. Mae puts the baby for adoption, changes her name to Eileen and becomes a prostitute.

Jayne Mansfield tries to do some dramatic acting. This is notable for her death before she finished filming. Her acting is functional. She won't get any awards but she's not the problem with this movie. The directions are horrendous. Director Matt Cimber does little more than point the camera at a stage play. The settings are amateurish. His eye for visuals is lacking. The editing style is boring. Much of the problem is the disjointed nature of the movie. Some of that disconnected feel may be due to Mansfield's death. However it's not covered well at all. The dialog is clunky. It is slow. This is a bad movie.

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.

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 ****