The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown ** (1957, Jane Russell, Keenan Wynn, Ralph Meeker, Fred Clark, Adolphe Menjou, Una Merkel) – Classic Movie Review 7928

Based on a novel by Sylvia Tate, director Norman Taurog’s 1957 crime comedy The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown is an interesting but tasteless comedy version of No Orchids for Miss Blandish, in which Jane Russell plays a movie star called Laurel Stevens, who is kidnapped by Mike Valla (Ralph Meeker) and Dandy (Keenan Wynn) for a $50,000 ransom, and falls for the former. She even pretends that it is all a publicity stunt when they are caught.

Gentlemen may prefer blondes but Russell does not look right blonde, and this mostly unfunny farcical comedy put paid to her movie star career. She did not film again for seven years – a much too early retirement at 36. But it is a classy cast, and Adolphe Menjou as film producer Arthur Martin, Fred Clark as investigating detective Los Angeles Police Sergeant McBride and Una Merkel as Bertha help to keep it watchably entertaining.

Also in the cast are Benay Venuta, Robert H Harris, Bob Kelley, Dick Haynes, John Truax and Milton Frome.

The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown is directed by Norman Taurog, runs 87 minutes, is made by Russ-Field Productions, is released by United Artists, is written by Richard Alan Simmons, based on a novel by Sylvia Tate, is shot in black and white by Joseph LaShelle, is produced by Robert Waterfield, and is scored by Billy May.

Russell formed the production company Russ-Field with her husband Bob Waterfield in 1954 with a six-picture deal with United Artists, including Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, Run for the Sun (1956) and The King and Four Queens (1957).

United Artists distributed The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown in a flop double bill with Outlaw’s Son (1957) starring Dane Clark and this failure marked the end of Russ-Field Productions. However, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown went into profit until the early Sixties through frequent TV screenings, and it has now become a popular minor cult classic on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

As producer, Russell vetoed Norman Taurog’s choice of Dean Martin as Mike Valla but she later regretted it: ‘That was one time the star should have had nothing to say, I guess, because Norman would have made a comedy in colour with Dean Martin in his first semi-serious role – which he’s done fabulously since – and the publicity alone would have pulled it off.’

Instead, Ray Danton (born in 1931) was cast but he was suddenly let go after two and a half days’ filming with a cover story of having laryngitis when Russell’s producer husband Robert [Bob] Waterfield decided he looked too young for Russell (born in 1921) in the rushes and Ralph Meeker (born in 1920) was cast.

Russell reflected: ‘Norman Taurog saw the picture as strictly a Technicolor romp, while I had the mystery and romance of it in mind, in black and white. It should have been one way or the other but, as it turned out, it was neither. Norman still got his slapstick ending, but it just seemed old fashioned without colour. The picture was neither fish nor fowl, but I still liked it.’

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7928

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