The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968)

Jayne takes us on a review of her last world tour. She takes us through Rome, shares a fantasy about Roman athletes, and then is off to Cannes. She takes a trip to the nudist colony on the ... See full summary »

Directors:

Charles W. Broun Jr., Joel Holt

Writer:

Charles Ross

Stars:

Jayne Mansfield, Robert Jason, Fernand Aubrey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jayne Mansfield	...	Herself
Robert Jason	...	Narrator
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fernand Aubrey
Monte Duro
Lino Enner
Brigitte Halberg
Bob Oliver
Rocky Roberts
Lila Solh

Storyline

Jayne takes us on a review of her last world tour. She takes us through Rome, shares a fantasy about Roman athletes, and then is off to Cannes. She takes a trip to the nudist colony on the Isle of Levant, where she almost kind of joins in. Then it's off to Paris, where she gets a beauty treatment from Fernand Aubrey, and attends some racy dance revues. In New York and Los Angeles, she visits some topless clubs and listens to a topless all-girl pop band. The film wraps up with some posthumous footage of her family in mourning.

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Plot Keywords:

rome italy | stripper | paris france | eiffel tower paris | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

Tour the World's Hottest Spots with the Sex Goddess Herself!!

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Genres:

Comedy | Documentary

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Details

Country:

France West Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1969 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Die wilde Welt der Jayne Mansfield

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jad Films, Parnass Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 90 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Under the working title "Jayne Mansfield Reports Europe", the actual footage following the famous sex symbol around Paris and Rome was shot in the spring and summer of 1964, with additional filming in New York City later the same year. Existing footage from two of Mansfield's previously shot films (The Loves of Hercules (1960) and Primitive Love (1964)) were later inserted into this mondo-doc.

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Connections

Edited from Promises..... Promises! (1963)

User Reviews

"Girl...boy...girl...Oh, it's just too confusing!"

Fading sex goddess Jayne Mansfield takes a Mondo Cane-type tour of Europe, meeting male hustlers, transvestites, strippers, nudists, topless girl bands, and other colorful types along the way.

Filmed mostly in 1964 but not released until after Jayne's horrific death (and padded with a lot of footage from such Mansfield epics as "The Loves of Hercules" and "Primitive Love"), this deliriously tasteless travelogue was optimistically heralded by Jayne in one of her fan club newsletters as a sequel of sorts to Elizabeth Taylor's famed television tour of London. However, one can hardly imagine the then-Mrs. Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton doing the twist to "The Bird's the Word," much less visiting underground drag nightclubs.

Adding to the weirdness is the fact that "Jayne"'s narration is supplied by a voice double, and in a few new scenes shot from behind, a body double is used as well (apparently, also to pad out the film's length). In fact, such lengthy scenes as the Drag Queen Beauty Contest seem to have been filmed after Jayne's death, with inserts of Jayne's "reactions" to the show edited in.

Never fear, though, because plenty of the real Mansfield form is on display. In Cannes, she prances around in a bikini, then doffs the top for a trip to a nudist colony ("Gee, I hope nobody's watching!" Jayne's voice over simpers). In Paris, Jayne visits a massage parlor/tanning salon and is generously oiled down. And for those who missed them the first time around, the bathtub scene from "Promises! Promises!" and the striptease from "Primitive Love" are spliced in for good measure. (Jayne having "daydreams" in Rome leads to a few choice snippets of "The Loves of Hercules," as well!)

The crazed one-liners attributed to "Jayne" throughout the film have to be more inane than anything that would've ever actually issued from Mansfield's mouth (on the Eiffel Tower: "Gee, I hope nobody tears it down and builds a parking lot!").

To top everything off, the film suddenly ends with screeching tire noises, a simulated car crash, and then gruesome police photos of Mansfield's fatal car accident (including her corpse and that of her chihauhau!). Then, a grotesquely tacky epilogue unfurls of ex-Mr. Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay, sadly touring the Pink Palace, playing the pink grand piano, and displaying the famed Wall of Magazine Covers. A supremely smarmy narrator intones, "A pair of shoes wait by the heart shaped bed...who will fill those shoes?", as the camera pans on a pair of Jayne's stilletos!

As horrifying as this film sounds, no doubt Jayne would have been delighted with her cinematic send-off. Her legacy of bad taste lives on to this day, and it is as jaw-dropping and mind-reeling as in 1967.