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Female Jungle (1955)
Mansfield a subtle surprise in film debut!
Like countless young actors today, in 1954 a 21-year old named Jayne Mansfield made her professional motion picture debut in an ultra low-budget indie. To be sure, Mansfield remains the primary reason for taking a serious look at FEMALE JUNGLE today -- as it showcases a yet-unformed actress with obvious beauty and a naturalistic quality and simple commitment that -- in the bulk of her film work post-the Marilyn Monroe-caricature she gleefully played in 1957's WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? -- the lady, sadly, never truly regained.
Shot in 10 days under the working title HANGOVER, this 70-minute B&W movie was a labor of love (and ego?) for its writer/producer/star Burt Kaiser. Plotted as a noir-ish little caper involving the murder of a glamorous movie starlet -- mysteriously strangled in the street outside a dive bar in downtown LA -- keeps the lives of three men in an all-night turmoil. Under Bruno Ve Sota's macho direction, these include actor Lawrence Tierney being pensively murky as the blackout-drunken, off-duty cop; B-horror movie king John Carradine distinguishing the film with his usual picking-up-a-paycheck performance, while sprinkling in a flavor of sophisticated menace; and Kaiser as a brooding hard- luck street artist, looking like an un-shaven Johnny Depp doing an imitation of Marlon Brando. Playing Kaiser's anything-for-the-guy wife is Kathleen Crowley, whose coolly contained beauty reminded me a another '50s brunette, Jean Peters. Add to the mix a call-girl named "Candy Price," and you've got a movie "Introducing Jayne Mansfield."
With its clunky dialogue and choppy narrative, nowadays, FEMALE JUNGLE plays like of a second-rate episode of TV's HOMICIDE. Still, it's an energetic effort from all involved, and the acting is pretty damn good. Production values, especially the film's lighting and editing, are haphazard, though the jazzy soundtrack keeps the melodrama churning in a fun mid-50s way.
As for Mansfield, like I said, it's an impressive debut. Honestly. She's only got three substantial scenes. In keeping with these kinds of noir-yarns, the guys take most of the screen time. Still, Mansfield makes the most of hers, including a serious smooch session with the sexy Kaiser. In fact, their longest scene has a back & forth that goes something like this: line of dialogue. KISS. line. KISS. line. KISS. KISS. little line. KISS, etc. Long, wet & sloppy, Jayne & Burt go for it! And with the guy's dark, edgy handsomeness, well... it probably makes for the most erotic scene in all of Mansfield's movies. Oddly, for an actress who made her name as a "Sex Symbol," Mansfield has surprisingly few love-making scenes on her resume. FEMALE JUNGLE is one of the few. And it's a hot one.
Finally, although she would come to typify the bouncy dumb blonde persona onward from '56's THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT and the aforementioned ROCK HUNTER, I find Mansfield's earlier work here (not to mention her subtle performance in Paul Wendkos's under-rated '55 noir THE BURGLAR) has an organic honesty that would get squashed in the bulk of her later work. Don't get me wrong, I dig the daffy yet mannered high-pitched squeals, goo-goo popping eyes and bosom-thrusting exhibitionism that Jayne Mansfield would become famous for, but... did they mask her true abilities? FEMALE JUNGLE makes it apparent: The actress had more to offer than met the eye.
Mondo Hollywood (1967)
NO Mansfield in "Mondo Hollywood"
For Jayne Mansfield fans like me -- who shelled out big bucks for a bootleg copy of this extremely rare 60s doc, "Mondo Hollywood" -- be warned: YOU WILL BE ROBBED. There is no interview with Mansfield, nor anything more of Big Jayne than a four-second-flash in a stock-footage / montage sequence along with dozens of other stars of the mid-60s out & about in Tinseltown. That's it. So don't be fooled into thinking she participates in this film. She doesn't.
Those who do appear, however, can occasionally be intriguing. Especially the Manson murder victim, Jay Sebring. Seeing him whirl about his Hollywood hair salon in his prime gives "Mondo Hollywood" is core quotient of Hollywood Babylonia, which is what I expected the rest of the doc to explore. Instead, its dippy, drifter subjects simply waft through the film on a blahs-ville high. In the end, the "underworld" hype that the film has accrued over the years was a big fat bust.