“There are only two reasons why anyone should see this comedy and those reasons belong to Jayne Mansfield.” Phill Hall, Film Threat
“Mansfield did what no Hollywood actress ever does except in desperation: she made a nudie.” - Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com
Sunday, September 3 & Friday, September 8 | In what should have been an otherwise unremarkable comic romp about two pregnant wives and paternity confusion, PROMISES! PROMISES! made history as the first major Hollywood release to feature nudity by a mainstream star, Jayne Mansfield. Released in the dying days of the Hays Code and before the MPAA established their ratings system, Mansfield’s breasts shocked the nation. Behind-the-scenes photos were published in Playboy, prompting Hugh Hefner to be arrested in Chicago on obscenity charges. The film was banned in numerous cities, and—as we learned when sourcing it for this series—an original version of the film fit for big-screen exhibition is elusive. To that end, we will present the first titillating seven minutes of the film digitally, before switching to the edited 35mm print provided by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Scenes that dreamily flash back to Mansfield’s nudity have been cut from the print, and jarring edits indicate where censors have gotten their hands on the celluloid.
Contra/Banned Series: As a disturbing wave of bans—on books, on bodies, on identities—continues to sweep across the United States, the Film Center declares: get your censorship off our cinema. With Contra/Banned, we present 10 films that have experienced, in varying absurd degrees, their own bans and outcries, their own protests and regulations. The films of Contra/Banned are at times subversive, controversial, taboo, provocative, and shocking. Sounds like a good time at the movies to us. View full series.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu