The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield / The Labyrinth of Sex (1968)

Absolutely Fabulous DVD ! A must-have of any Mansfield Fan

I owned the VHS version of ''The Wild,Wild World'' but decided to get the DVD this winter.
WELL..That was a great purchase !
I understand people that could see the documentary of Jayne in Europe,as pretty cheaply made,BUT it is still Jayne,and if you love her (as I do),any film she was in (except The Girl can't help it,and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter) was done on the cheap,with ridiculously small budgets.
'The Wild,Wild World' gives you the chance to see a candid Jayne in all kinds of very campy situations,and the best scenes are when Jayne pretends to be offended by the goings-on...
It shows a Jayne Mansfield who was indeed a true-original,rather eccentric person in the anal-retentive American Fifties.I can't help comparing her to what Anna Nicole Smith has done with her 'career' as a media sensation,BUT Jayne was doing basically the same FIFTY years ago,which was understandbly much more shocking for the common-folks.
When Jayne talks about her film roles,you wonder if she is laughing with you or at herself.
I don't understand how she can be compared to Marilyn Monroe.MM was looking for privacy,more serious roles,spoke to journalists only if she absolutely had to,when Jayne was waking up her daughter in the middle of the night to prepare drinks for journalists who needed something to write about.Jayne was not too picky about her roles,and the kind of attention she was getting,and it was her undoing.Sad,but she needed the money to keep up that image,all those children,dogs,and...husbands.
NOW ,about ''The Labyrinth of Sex'': It is HYSTERICAL !! and a great choice to make the DVD a double-feature,just like the good-old days of the Drive-ins !
When you get over the awful dubbing,the documentary is rather well made,naive to today's standards of course,but well-intentionned.Some viewers will just see crass-exploitation,but if you are into Campy,Kitsch movies,and you see Ed Wood Jr. as a genius...well you will love IT !.The movie trailers are very funny as well,and make you wish you could find them.
So my conclusion is that DVD is an EXCELLENT purchase,a must-have for any serious Jayne Mansfield Fan !!! June 3, 2006

Did these people have no shame? At all?

Damn. There's nothing remarkable about the second item on this DVD; it's your standard European-made sexploitation film. "The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield," on the other hand, is reprehensible. It's a hodge-podge of vacation footage of Mansfield, clips from her movie project, and material entirely unrelated to Mansfield, linked only by the voiceover... and then, after an hour or so of light-hearted softcore buffoonery, the movie cuts to her death, spending the last twenty minutes obsessing on her husband and children and the large, mostly empty mansion she has left behind.

This movie has the feel of something slapped together for the sole purpose of trading off a famous name after Mansfield's death. This is exploitation in its worst form. I found the sudden change in tone, the large volume of non-Mansfield material, and the sheer obsessiveness of the last twenty minutes disgusting in the extreme. Those looking for cheesy bad movies to enjoy, or softcore porn to tittilate, go elsewhere; this one is not merely bad, but evil. July 23, 2005

Be Aware that Marilyn Monroe Does Not Appear In This Film

Although the actress in the short segment titled "Apples, Knockers & the Coke Bottle" is advertised as being Marilyn Monroe, it is in fact an actress/model named Arline Hunter. Marilyn Monroe does NOT appear in this film.

A Marilyn Fan February 14, 2004

A Strange Mix

This is an unusual disk in that the contents are not really of the same theme.

First we have the Wild World of Jayne Mansfield. Jayne was a very intelligent beauty who excelled at playing the dumb blond. This film shows Jayne touring Europe after her nude Playboy appearance. But just when you get used to seeing things through her eyes, the film switches scope as we reach the point of her death in a car crash. The film then becomes a retrospective showing her widower, children, and her mansion. The film really ends on a rather sad note.

The second film is The Labyrinth of Sex, a supposed documentary on sexual deviation. This is more a collection of vignettes with a doctor lecturing between them. There is an operating room scene that is not for the squeamish. All in all the film seemed like something that was done just because it could be.

Parisian Rendezvous is one of the short films included on the disk. Two lovers circle the glob in opposite directions rushing to be back in each other's arms. This film has some of the sadness of the Jayne Mansfield film.

Finally we have The Apple Knockers and the Coke. This is a silent striptease short staring Marilyn Monroe. A fake apple tree, a bottle of coke and Marilyn's attributes star in this multi-part short.

All in all an unusual assortment of films with each aiming at a different audience. January 5, 2004

A very interesting movie!

If you like Jayne Mansfield and her bizarre life and world this is your movie. Maybe she was not Marilyn or Taylor but after see this movie I can tell she is and always be ........... and nobody will be as Jayne Mansfield.........ibem if you are a normal person.......
I am looking for more movies of Jayne, thanks to Amazon. December 22, 2003

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