Too Hot to Handle (1960 film)
Too Hot to Handle (released in the United States as Playgirl After Dark) is a 1960 British neo-noir gangster thriller film directed by Terence Young and starring Jayne Mansfield and Leo Genn. Christopher Lee appears in a supporting role.
| Too Hot to Handle AKA: Playgirl After Dark (US) | |
|---|---|
 United States release poster | |
| Directed by | Terence Young |
| Produced by | Selim Cattan Phil C. Samuel |
| Written by | Herbert Kretzmer Harry Lee |
| Starring | Jayne Mansfield Leo Genn Karlheinz Böhm Christopher Lee Danik Patisson Patrick Holt |
| Music by | Eric Spear |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Lito Carruthers |
Production company | Wigmore Productions Associated British Picture Corporation |
| Distributed by | Warner-Pathé Distributors |
Release date | December 1960 (UK) 12 January 1961 (US) |
Running time | 90 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Plot
Johnny Solo (Leo Genn), the owner of the Pink Flamingo club in London's Soho area, battles with rival club owner Diamonds Dinelli (Sheldon Lawrence) and the police. When the tough entrepreneur starts getting threats and demands for protection, he fights back.
Johnny's girlfriend Midnight Franklin (Jayne Mansfield), one of the club's headliners, wants to get him 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.
The reporter gets involved in the strip scene while writing a story on the clubs, and in the end he has quite a lot to write about. The competition between the two clubs heats up. Johnny becomes an unknowing instrument in the death of the chorus girl. Midnight informs on him to save his life from the violent blackmailers after him. Both rival clubs head for a crash.
Cast
- Jayne Mansfield as Midnight Franklin
- Leo Genn as Johnny Solo
- Karlheinz Böhm as Robert Jouvel
- Christopher Lee as Novak
- Danik Patisson as Lilliane Decker
- Patrick Holt as Inspector West
- Kai Fischer as Cynthia
- Barbara Windsor as Ponytail
Background
Too Hot to Handle was Jayne Mansfield's first film away from 20th Century Fox after achieving stardom in the mid-1950s. By 1960, however, Mansfield's box office popularity had faded, and Fox loaned her (as they did others) to foreign studios while they awaited a good film for her. This British drama is usually marked as the beginning of her descent into low-budget productions.
The film was billed as "an exposé of 'sexy, sordid Soho, England's greatest shame'".[1] Notorious in its day because Mansfield's risqué see-through clothing and racy musical numbers caused some controversy, holding up the American release until January 1961, while the sexiest frames were fully displayed in Playboy magazine. For its American releases, Too Hot to Handle was retitled Playgirl After Dark and was mildly edited to meet America's censor requirements. Halliwell's Film and Video Guide describes the film as a "rotten, hilarious British gangster film set in a totally unreal underworld and very uncomfortably cast."[2]
The film was shot in England from 10 August to around October 1959.[3]
References
- Willetts, Paul (4 April 2013). The Look of Love: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond, Soho's King of Clubs. Profile Books. p. 185. ISBN 1-84765-994-2.
- John Walker (ed) Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2000, London: HarperCollins, 1999, p.848
- Weekly Variety Magazine; 2 September 1959 issue; Page 22