Jayne Mansfield Story

Someone, somewhere finally realized in the Seventies that too much attention was being focused on Marilyn Monroe and decided that it was time to finally do a movie-biography on Hollywood's other lost goddess. As I hear it, numerous actresses wanted the title role, but it finally fell to an up and coming tv star named Loni Anderson. Possibly the only one to fill out Jayne's 40-18-36 figure, Loni throws herself into the role becoming kittenishly Monroe-like one minute, and campily Jayne the next. Too much of Jayne's life was condensed to make this movie, and too often it drags on its direction as Jayne jumps moods. The real Jayne was a renaissance woman - a Madonna of the Sixties with a gifted I.Q., but we're not allowed to see the woman who turned down the role of Ginger on "Gilligan's Island." Instead we are forced to see Jayne in her rise to fame and her hard tabloid crash into anonymity. Another former unknown, Arnold Scwarzeneggar, portrays muscle man Mickey Hargitay, the future father of present-day tv star actress Mariska Hargitay . Earnestly but rather ineptly in the role, he provides the male counterpart as well as the common sense to Loni's Jayne. As biography's go, this film is halfway honorable to Jayne's memory and legacy, but if you want the straight story, you'll have to turn into it on A/E's Biography.

Though not entirely accurate ( they don't even get her age right at the time of her death), the film does give the ESSENCE of Jayne. This is the film that helped introduce me to the Goddess that is Jayne. Loni only captures one particular image of Jayne ( she had many) but she IS good in that image. I wish they would have focused a little bit more on the personal aspects of Jayne's life. And they also speed from her days at 20th Century Fox to the downward spiral in her career within in a 5 minute time frame. Loni's portrayal of Jayne at hearing about Marilyn Monroe's death is brilliant though. The costumes and evening gowns are very good and really reminiscent of the real Jayne's style. There is something intriguing about the film....particularly if you are new to the world of the great Mansfield. A little trivia: the pink palace used in the film is not the REAL pink palace Jayne had lived in! Only a few exterior shots are the actual mansion property. The house in 1980 was a beige colour and the owner would not allow it to be re-painted.

Jayne Mansfield created herself as a star with an undeniable sex appeal. She became part of a cultural style during a certain time period in a certain geographical region. The transformation from a human being to an icon and a public property was effectuated with a cheerful formal consistency that seems unique. This makes Jayne Mansfield interesting to me.

The movie is a success as far as the making of the public figure and its decline is concerned. The viewers meet a young, determined and optimistic woman who will do anything to get on the screen. The creation of herself as a platinum blonde bombshell, it seems to be of her own making, is presented in an interesting and convincing way. The movie shows how she gets there and how she realises that the air is very thin up there (despite a reported I.Q. of 136 she apparently didn't see that coming). How that bombshell persona sticks to her like the blonde wig that looks more and more seedy as time passes. How good parts elude her, how she becomes aware that the radius of action is small and pitiful (Another Playboy centerfold? Another run of Rock Hunter?). As cynical as it may sound, the tragic but fast and probably almost painless death comes as a relief. Furthermore, it cements the reputation of the icon. Loni Anderson would have deserved an award for her performance. She must have studied the original very carefully and gives a convincing and touching performance.

The idea to put the relation between Mansfield and her second husband Mickey Hargitay at the center of the narrative, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hargitay telling and commenting different events in Mansfield's life from Hargitay's viewpoint in a voice-over, was not a good one (except you can accept Arnie's really heavy accent as a comic relief). At the best times of their relationship Hargitay seems to have been a loving, loyal, reliable (and patient) backup to his wife, but he apparently never had any influence on Mansfield's activities. He appears to be a „kept husband" (and that is another story). Some questions that came up while watching this movie (Why this insane fixation on Marilyn Monroe who was an entirely different person? Why this inability to see the contradiction between playing a star, accepting and exploiting Hollywood's studio system and the urge to be taken as a serious, versatile actress?) are left unanswered. In this aspect I think a chance was missed.

The locations, the set design and the wardrobe are just fine. There is a romantic scene between Jayne and Mickey in front of a big, gloomy palace hotel with a gorgeous park (looks like Northern Italy), apparently in the Catskills. Interesting place.

I saw this movie years ago in high school in my drama class. Thats when I came to know Jayne Mansfield. Like a lot of people I only was familar with the Marilyn legacy. If Loni ever became a character in a movie this was the one. The effect of this movie made me a huge Jayne Mansfield fan. If this movie ever repeats on tv its a must see! I wish I could buy it. I would give it a 10 but it has Arnold you know who in it! It could have done without him. 1-10 (9) Z.

Cconsidering that this is a 1980 TV movie, it's not all that bad. And since this is the ONLY movie about the life of Jayne Mansfield that was ever made, I had to rate this a "10".

Sure, a lot of Jayne's life is compressed into a short movie, and many details are either blurred or overlooked in favor of moving the plot line along. But Loni Anderson tears down the scenery in some scenes, and in other scenes Loni IS the scenery. My favorite line in the movie is "Carol Sue where's the vodka?" It's sounds like a line that might have escaped from another great movie, "Valley of the Dolls".

The costumes here are fabulous (the white gown, the pink gown, the red gown...) and the hairdo's are very accurate, right down to the over-lacquered crispness to Jayne's deep-fried and highly over-bleached tresses.

The only positive thing that can be said about Arnold Schwarzenegger portraying Mickey Hargitay is that Arnold was probably the only bodybuilder with an accent in Hollywood when they cast this movie, so who else could they get to play the part? Actually, he's not bad, if you like your actors as wooden as Popsicle sticks. (Inside joke: Jayne once had a pair of chihuahuas named Popsicle and Momsicle!)

This movie may not be Jayne Mansfield's epitaph, but it's definitely Loni Anderson's shining moment.