Jayne Mansfield. Christopher Lee. TOO HOT TO HANDLE! Uncut in color!
Jayne Mansfield's first British film was a film noir and her costumes were so hot Playboy did a photo spread on them!
In London's Soho, Johnny Solo (Leo Genn) runs the Pink Flamingo Club. He's tough to intimidate. So when he starts getting threats and demands for protection, he fights back. Behind the takeover plot is a competitor, Diamonds Dielli. Midnight Franklin (Jayne Mansfield), who's Johnny's girlfriend and one of the club's headliners, wants to get Johnny out of the business. In the background are a sadistic client, an underage chorus girl, a wisecracking siren who's not averse to rough trade, a visiting journalist, and a dancer who guards her past. Can Johnny win the struggle with Diamonds, and can Midnight get him out of harm's way?
1960 British cinema had tough censorship rules but who the hell was going to say no to Jayne Mansfield?
The British censors. They almost banned TOO HOT TO HANDLE just because of Jayne’s costumes:
But it wasn’t just the British censors. In America the film had 9 minutes removed, the title was changed to PLAYGIRL AFTER DARK and it was decided the film to avoid censorship problems would be released in black and white and not color. By now you know the Global Psychotronic Film Society is not playing that game, we have the original color version of the film at this underlined link:
Watch TOO HOT TO HANDLE in color by clicking here
Jayne was actually being punished by 20th Century Fox when she was sent abroad to do TOO HOT TO HANDLE. She was building herself as a brand when no one did, and as one critic wrote, “She would appear at the opening of a grocery store”. She ignored the studio publicists to create her own publicity machine and the publicists began to resent the constant press she was getting on her own.
Watch the uncut color version of TOO HOT TO HANDLE by clicking this underlined link
Coming Friday, DJ PsychoMike and the Rock 'N Psycho Special becomes the Summer replacement for Dave The Spazz with
BABYMETAL!
Behind the paywall: The BBC Arena documentary on Jayne Mansfield
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