The Nudest Jayne Mansfield

No Capital in The World is more cunning at playing peekaboo with the human body (female) than our own film capital. Hollywood's history is studded with near, but not quite total, exposures, and the actress who has courageously bared all has been rare, indeed. The recent wave of "nudie" movies, however, has injected a breath of flesh air upon the scene. Their unpretentious nakedness and wide public acceptance have helped push bodices down and hemlines up (to where they virtually vanish) in otherwise "straight" productions.

It is therefore fitting and proper that the trail from "nudie" to "straight" films be blazed by none other than the undisputed champion of in-the-altogether brinkmanship, Miss Jayne Mansfield. Jayne now proudly heads the scant list of authentic Hollywood heroines whose feats of baring-do go beyond the call of duty.

How her rosebud smile has ripened to such a degree that it is all she wears is a story within a story. The title of the inner story is Promises, Promises!, a low-budget ($400,000) film scheduled for release this month by 20th Century-Fox. The setting is a round-the-world cruise ship, and the principal characters are Jayne and Tommy Noonan (four-years wed, childless and deeply concerned about their future together) and their married friends, Marie McDonald and Mickey Hargitay. (Noonan, incidentally, is best remembered for a similar shipboard-romance role with Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.) The plot revolves dizzyingly about Noonan's desire for an heir and the ship doctor's suggestion that Noonan spike his wife's and his own champagne with a miracle fertility pill. The kicker is that Noonan is a professional gag writer, more interested in tickling Jayne's risibilities than in titillating her sensibilities, and the fertility pill is nought but aspirin, a mind-over-matter gimmick concocted by the omniscient doctor. The pill, being a new kind of Mickey for Jayne, causes predictable complications. McDonald and Hargitay interrupt Noonan's staged tête-à-tête with Jayne and, after a mix-up of drinks, there is an unremembered mix-up of bodies. The denouement approaches vapidly as the ship's doctor announces blessings for both ladies -- just after McDonald has confided to Noonan that Hargitay is incurably sterile. This news concludes the essential action and leaves Noonan wondering, for the moment, whether he has hit a two-bagger, a singleton (if so, who's on first?), or struck out completely.

Intriguing? We were intrigued enough to visit Jayne backstage to see how she handled her transition from ingenious modesty to ingenuous nudesty. Jayne appeared on the set for the opening bubble-bath scene, almost on time and decorously attired in a chic terrycloth robe. In deference to her shyness, only a "skeleton" crew was allowed to remain -- two cameramen, two still photographers, two directors, a press agent, about 10 grips and prop men, Jayne's personal hairdresser and her secretary (both male). After several coy looks at the peering assemblage, Jayne ad-libbed her first line, a memorable one: "I'm so embarrassed." She then removed the robe, revealing only her and a brief pair of briefs...and promptly scampered offstage. Her secretary assured us it was only to reinforce herself with a glass of champagne. "Wow, what a trouper!" he needlessly added.

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Jayne, fortified by internal bubbly, soon reappeared and, trouper that she is, bared all and sank slowly into the bubble bath. "What acting!" shouted the director as he stood precariously atop a canvas chair.

Later, Jayne acted out a nude bedroom scene in which she strove valiantly to make her listless husband show some life. Once more she expressed extreme embarrassment at all this public nudity, and then confided to us, "I posed for these scenes for one reason only. They were necessary to the development of the story line."

Her explanation was superfluous, for any film buff would agree with Jayne that, "When a woman is trying to entice her husband into doing what is natural to marriage, she's not going to hide her charms behind artificial barriers -- like soapsuds or bed sheets." (Evidently, audiences in many American cities have much to learn about matrimony, for it appears unlikely that they will see Jayne au naturel -- except in Playboy. The film's producers, while just as concerned as Jayne about the story line, and while critical of the "double standard of the Production Code," are nonetheless eager to reap the box-office bonanza that goes with its approval.)

"One thing I want to stress," said Jayne, concluding our interview, "is that this is the first time I've ever posed completely nude. It was art for art's sake -- my theme for the future."

We like the theme.