The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Waste of time

the audience applauded

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The general consensus seems to be that the movie is watchable, but not wonderful. I would have to agree.It plays like an extended episode of a smart 1950's sit-com, something like "Love that Bob" (Robert Cummings).Jane Russell is fine as a tough but vulnerable sexy Hollywood star (is there any other kind?). It is terribly sad that at age 36, this was her last real starring vehicle.She's surrounded by a lot of fine actors, including Adolf Menjou, Ralph Meeker, Keenan Wynne, Una Merkel, and Fred Clarke. Unfortunately, they all just walk through their roles without much enthusiasm. It seems just another day at the office for all of them. Menjou and Meeker starred in Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" that same year, both giving extraordinary performances.Norman Taurog started off directing silent films, made some excellent movies in the 1930's ("Boys Town", "Big Broadcast of 1936"), did good work with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1950's, and ended his career in the 1960's by directing nine (good to mediocre) Elvis Presley movies. He knows how to keep things moving and get some laughs, but he doesn't involve the audience enough in his stories or characters to make himself a great director.One problem in script is that the good guys are lovable kidnappers. It is hard to accept Meeker or Wynn as lovable kidnappers, lovable, yes, but kidnappers, no. The script intimates that Meeker has turned kidnapper to get revenge for an unjust manslaughter conviction for which he spent four years in jail. Yet, this seems just a plot device as Meeker does not seem vengeful, but only taciturn over his four lost years.In one scene Russell mention the fact that Meeker smokes a pipe instead of a cigar and attributes it to him not knowing his part (a kidnapper) very well). It is really the script that doesn't know how to bring the romance in, after the kidnapping. It really is a problem that the acting and direction doesn't solve. Giving Meeker's character a real and specific need for the kidnapping - raising money to save his dying child, for example - could have explained the action better.The movie could also have been better if Jane had acted more sexy in more scenes. She does in a few scenes in the first half only and they are the funniest in the movie.There's a lot of talk in the opening scenes about the cutting of a bathtub scene in the movie that Laurel Stevens (Jane Russell) is starring in. She demands that the censored too sexy scene be put back in or she's quitting. "The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown" needed that bathtub scene. If I ever get a chance to remake this movie, I will put it in.

Adequate....this is the best way to describe this rather lackluster film. It sure could have been a lot better but comes off as just an ordinary sort of thing--something you can easily skip.The film begins with Jane Russell playing a self-absorbed mega-star--the type who does what she wants and gets what she wants. In many ways, she comes off like a higher-powered Jane Mansfield--and this performance seemed a bit overdone. Anyway, her new film is about to debut--a film in which she is kidnapped. But when she is kidnapped for real, folks all think it's just a lame publicity stunt and no one takes much notice. And, when the kidnappers (Ralph Meeker and Keenan Wynn) only demand a small payment for her return, Russell becomes indignant and actually tries to get them to up the amount they are demanding. It's all kind of kooky and a bit reminiscent of the much better film "Ruthless People" (1986).Although the plot does sound promising, it never comes off well--mostly because the direction and Russell come off very flat. With a better script and direction it COULD have been a much more interesting. Worth a look but don't expect much.

JANE RUSSELL, wearing the worst looking blonde wig since Barbara Stanwyck went blonde for "Double Indemnity", does nothing to enhance the reputation she had after "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", wherein she sometimes stole scenes from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Coburn. Here she plays a ditsy actress supposedly a blonde bombshell whose latest film is about a kidnapped bride.Here she's not exactly a scene-stealer--in fact, her performance is rather strained and only improves after she takes off that horrendous wig. Then, it improves considerably.No help is the script, a tiresome thing that is silly from the start and wastes some talented people--like ADOLPHE MENJOU, RALPH MEEKER and KEENAN WYNN. Meeker seems so uninterested in his role that it shows. Badly.Meeker and Wynn are partners in a kidnapping scheme that fails to go smoothly because Russell is a regular spitfire who proves hard to handle, until she decides the kidnapping would be good publicity for her latest film. The script only gets worse as it goes along, with only FRED CLARK able to put some laughs into a brief supporting role.Summing up: A really clumsy script, it does nothing for the careers of Russell, Meeker or Wynn who have all done better elsewhere.

I recently saw this film for the first time, and thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm a big Ralph Meeker fan, so that's what motivated me to watch it, since I can't find many films in which he played leads. I liked how Jane Russell's movie star character who is in control of her career (who happens to be a smart business "girl") interacted with his angry man character! It's not the best movie ever made, but it is very entertaining...I can't believe it 'flopped' when it came out! Maybe it was ahead of its time, or maybe the idea of kidnapping isn't funny to moviegoers! Anyhoo, it's great fun, has a great score by Billy May (who worked with Frank Sinatra). One of my favorite scenes in the movie is towards the beginning, when "Laurel Stevens" (Jane Russell) is trying to charm/seduce the Ralph Meeker/"Mike" character: While they are talking to each other, he avoids looking at her the whole time, and he turns his body away from her every time she gets closer - through the entire scene! All the while, she is using every feminine wile she can on him to get her way! Very funny!