Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is an early mainstream sex comedy that stands out because it was the first to feature an actress naked (Jayne Mansfield). Had the nudity been necessary for the plot and not just used as a gimmick, this might have been a better movie. Instead, nude shots (often the same one again and again) were placed rather randomly in the film and it made the film seem a bit sloppy and exploitative. In addition, the plot itself is pretty smutty as well--making this a rather adult film. Despite all this, the film isn't as bad as you might guess and I think a few of the reviews were a bit too harsh. While it certainly isn't a great film and the actors are 2nd rate (at best), the film is a decent time-passer provided, of course, you don't let the kids watch.The plot involves an unlikely married couple on a worldwide cruise, nerdy Tommy Noonan and Jayne Mansfield. Noonan has serious sexual performance anxiety and sees the ship's doctor for help. The doctor realizes that there probably isn't anything anatomically wrong with Tommy and gives him a placebo to give him confidence. I guess most man can empathize--most men would have been intimidated (at least to a degree) by sexy nymphet Mansfield. Later, through some tough to believe coincidences, Noonan believes that his now-pregnant wife was NOT impregnated by him. In addition, a female friend becomes pregnant and it looks like Noonan could be the father.As you can tell by the description, this is a very adult film--particularly for 1963. The acting is only fair, the plot tough to believe but somehow the total effort comes off....well....okay. Not a great film and not a must-see, but still a film of historical significance.

Producer/writer/star Tommy Noonan's painfully unfunny shipboard sex-farce stars real-life man and wife Jayne Mansfield & Mickey Hargitay, wed to different spouses on screen. Hargitay's the husband of a middle-aged Marie "The Body" McDonald while Jayne plays Noonan's wife. Both women are trying to get pregnant while on a cruise but both men are convinced they're sterile; erection pills, a female impersonator, a paternity mix-up, brief (topless) nudity and a song or two follow before the inevitable happy ending. As the first film to show a "major" Hollywood star cavorting "au naturel", PROMISES! PROMISES! was featured in a much publicized "Playboy" magazine photo-spread, ran into censorship problems and was banned in several states.It's also known as a "Triple Ess" movie (three suicides) with a rather dark behind-the-scenes history- five people associated with the production died, either violently or by their own hand, in relatively quick succession: Director King Donovan's wife, Ann, died from an overdose of barbiturates; Marie "The Body" McDonald, wife of co-producer Donald Taylor, died from a massive overdose of drugs and alcohol in 1965 and two months later, Taylor himself committed suicide in the same room in which he found Marie; Jayne Mansfield was near-decapitated in a 1967 car crash; Tommy Noonan died after a brain tumor operation in 1968."The Body" was also in another "S-S-S" film: Paramount's 1942 proto-noir, LUCKY JORDAN. Marie, star Alan Ladd, and bit player Dorothy Dandridge all killed themselves. "Satan's slave" Jayne Mansfield's sagging flesh aside, PROMISES! PROMISES!, possibly the very first viagra flick, is a darkly fascinating "Hollywood Babylon" trope with the on screen action like a train wreck: absolutely awful but just try to look away! This tasteless, tedious exercise in titillation gets a 10/10 on an enigmatic, indefinable level (just because) but it's reely not very good.Reviews: "The only excuse for this shabby, sex-propelled contrivance is that obviously there is an audience waiting to devour it... Several glimpses of a bare-breasted Jayne Mansfield and one of her derrière-in-the-buff figure to satisfy the peeping Toms, Dicks and Harrys who frequent those offbeat, anatomical "art" houses where this attraction is apt to be distributed. But beyond the occasional vicarious sensual thrill it affords the ogle-happy denizen of these cinematic flesh palaces, there is nothing in "Promises! Promises!"... Her tape-measure performance can be summed up in the phrase, "thanks for the mammary". -"Variety", 8/7/63"...its vastly overrated. Miss Mansfield does considerable talking, little acting, and even sings (???) the title tune." -"L.A. Herald Examiner", 8/3/63

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.

Terrible, terrible comedy. But if I were rating it, I'd give it 1 star for the script, photography, and performances, and 10 for the display of Ms. Mansfield's ample attributes. I think this is why they invented the fast-forward button