Promises... Promises! (1963)

Director:

King Donovan

Writers:

Tommy Noonan (screenplay)
Edna Sheklow (play)
(more)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

You Read About Her In Playboy Magazine...Now See All Of Jayne Mansfield!

Plot:

After a drunken spree on a cruise ship, two women discover that they're pregnant, and set out to find who the fathers are. |

Plot Keywords:

Cruise | Script Writer | Parentage | Man With Glasses | Nudity

Cast

Jayne Mansfield	...	Sandy Brooks
Marie McDonald	...	Claire Banner
Tommy Noonan	...	Jeff Brooks
Mickey Hargitay	...	King Banner
Fritz Feld	...	Ship's Doctor
Eileen Barton	...	Girl in Doctor's office
Claude Stroud	...	Steward
Eddie Quillan	...	Bartender
Marjorie Bennett	...	Mrs. Snavely
Victor Lundin	...	Mrs. Snavely's Gigolo (as Vic Lundin)
T.C. Jones	...	Babbette, ship's hairdresser / Female impersonator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Imogene Coca	...	Woman under hair dryer (uncredited)
Richard Dawson	...	(uncredited)
Patrick O'Moore	...	Ship's Captain (uncredited)

Directed by
King Donovan

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Tommy Noonan		screenplay
Edna Sheklow		play "The Plant"
William Welch		screenplay

Produced by
Tommy Noonan	....	producer
Donald F. Taylor	....	producer

Original Music by
Hal Borne

Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc		(as Joseph Biroc)

Art Direction by
Serge Krizman

Set Decoration by
Victor A. Gangelin		(as Victor Gangelin)

Costume Design by
Patrick Cummings
Vou Lee Giokaris

Makeup Department
Mark Britton	....	coiffure: Miss Mansfield
Fredric	....	coiffure: Marie McDonald
Fritzy Merrick	....	hair stylist
Sidney Perell	....	makeup artist

Production Management
William Magginetti	....	production manager (as William J. Magginetti)

Art Department
Irving W. Sindler	....	property master (as Irving Sindler)

Sound Department
Harry M. Leonard	....	sound mixer
Frank McWhorter	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Vaughn Ashen	....	chief electrician (as Vaughn M. Ashen)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ceil Chapman	....	wardrobe: Marie McDonald
Richard Selzer	....	wardrobe: Miss Mansfield (as Mr. Blackwell)

Editorial Department
Eddie Dutko	....	supervising editor

Other crew
Jet Fore	....	publicist
Dixie McCoy	....	script supervisor

Thanks
John M. Will	....	grateful acknowledgment (as Admiral John M. Will U.S.N. Ret.)

Production Companies

• Noonan-Taylor Production

Distributors

• NTD (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• VCI Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Kit Parker Films (2004) (worldwide) (all media)
• Odeon Entertainment (2012) (UK) (DVD)
• Weiss Global Enterprises (????) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• American Export Lines  grateful acknowledgment
• Continental Sound  sound

Also Known As:

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

SS Independence

Company:

Noonan-Taylor Production

Trivia:

Jayne Mansfield's nude spread for Playboy to promote the film led to Hugh M. Hefner getting arrested by Chicago vice squad.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Roseanne: Promises, Promises (#5.22)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

Jeff's Orgy

"Jayne Mansfield? Oh, I do her, too!"

Jayne Mansfield generated some of the most heated publicity of her career (and that's saying a lot!) when she agreed to film nude scenes for the 1963 comedy, "Promises! Promises!" No American star of her magnitude had ever appeared undraped onscreen before, and the controversy led to the picture being banned, court hearings on obscenity, and Mansfield stoically bearing the bad press (and no doubt saving all the headline clippings). Watching the film is a sad, strange experience; the nude scenes have nothing to do with the plot, and were clearly filmed solely for sensation's sake. What it shows is a star badly on the wane, appearing in an extremely low budget production, and selling her body cheap for the resultant publicity. Jayne's two nude scenes come fairly early in the film, which means there's plenty of time left for highly strained, largely unfunny, mostly sex-less antics. The crux of the plot involves two married couples, Jayne/Tommy Noonan and Marie McDonald/Mickey Hargitay, on a cruise together. In a rather lewd plot device, both women end up pregnant, and because of some drunken revelry between the couples (never seen), no one is sure who the father is for which baby. One surreal scene has Jayne attending a shipboard party where female impersonator T.C. Jones does celebrity imitations, one of whom is Jayne Mansfield! In character as "Sandy," Jayne squeals with delight and does HER "imitation" of Jayne Mansfield. Unfortunately, it's the funniest moment in the film. On the brighter side, Jayne looks especially lovely and voluptuous, and, playing it relatively straight for once, doesn't rely too much on high-pitched ooohs and aahhhs. Micky Hargitay (Jayne's real-life husband) looks much too young to be marruied to former 40's pinup girl Marie McDonald, but displays a rather sweet, doltish charm as a Hungarian actor striving to lose his pronounced accent (it must've been a real stretch for him). For the die-hard Jayne Mansfield fan, this is basically a harmless, actionless, sexless sex comedy, and a chance to see the star rather perfunctorily topless. For everyone else, it's a historic curiosity, and nothing more.