The Jayne Mansfield Story

This is one of the best campy biopic ever made. Most are pretty bad but this takes the cake,

Loni Anderson is Loni Anderson, but like, on acid, IF she took acid. In one scene during makeup whoopie, he clearly shoves his tongue into Loni's mouth. I've never seen that, not even on reality TV.

Bonus is Ahhnuld playing Hargitay.

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.

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.

The main characters were annoying that is because of their acting not because of who there were as it is based on true story. Arnold was actually the worst part of the movie. The mannerism were a bit contrived but since I never met Jayne in person I cannot say if she was squealing the same way. The movie shows a woman who is determined well-mannered rooted but not ruthless. Very different then Marylin and It was quite tragic loss just like Marylin's. The movie also shows the ruthlessness of the business and the senseless adoration on a level of a worship of the hollywood money-making machines. They all have the perfect relationship, one offers money, one loves the money, and a lots of it.

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.