"Playgirl After Dark" (also known as "Too Hot to Handle") is a movie that sure hints at healthy helpings of skin. However, if that's what you really want, you could sure find better flicks than this one. Despite the titles and despite the movie being set in a strip club, the strippers really just dance around in very little...but show no more than ladies do today at the beach. So, while you get to see the sizzling Jayne Mansfield in this one, she's rather chaste and sings a few forgettable songs.In this den of iniquity(?) there are some minor stories. One involves a French reporter hanging about in order to get a story. But Karlheinz Böhm ("Peeping Tom" and the Sissi movies) is a German- Austrian....so why say he was French? He sounded about as French as Mantan Moreland! There's also a story involving some shakedown artist trying to extort money out of the guy who runs the place, Johnny (Leo Genn)...and Johnny's attempts to catch the guy. But mostly, it's just ladies gyrating and singing!So is it any good? Well, no especially. It does give you a chance to see Mansfield as her career is beginning to tank. Her good films were behind her and ahead would be crap like Italian strong man movies and sex comedies ("The Loves of Hercules" and "Promises Promises") as well as one of the worst films of the 1960s, "The Fat Spy". But considering that the film doesn't give her a lot to do but sing (NOT one of her strong points), it's actually a bit of a disappointment. Overall, a somewhat dull film which should have been spicier and more interesting than it was.

According to the IMDb, apart from the delightful Jack Conway-Clark Gable-Myrna Loy screwball comedy from 1938, there are 5 more movies that go by the name of TOO HOT TO HANDLE. The film under review (retitled PLAYGIRL AFTER DARK in the U.S.) is the would-be steamy noir-ish Jayne Mansfield vehicle made in Britain and co-starring actors who normally are above this sort of thing – Leo Genn, Carl Boehm and Christopher Lee – but which decidedly help in raising it above the rut of contemporaneous quota-quickie gangland thrillers; indeed, Patrick Holt – whom I recently watched in a film from that very ilk, SERENA (1962) – even plays the Police Inspector here! The American "Blonde Bombshell" plays Midnight Franklin, the star attraction of a Soho strip club called "The Pink Flamingo"; suave Genn is her boss whom he affectionately calls "12 O'Clock" and she has feelings for; Boehm (in his second British film) plays an inquisitive journalist reporting on the sordid London nightlife – typically he falls for one of the girls but, surprisingly, it is not the leading lady but gloomy Danik Patisson; and Lee is Novak, Genn's double-faced right-hand man/MC. Another well-known figure (pun intended) that is featured further down in the cast list but whose violent demise plays a pivotal role in the film's climax with respect to the major characters' fate is future "Carry On" star Barbara Windsor.Indeed, the film's unhappy ending – in which most characters show their true (and uglier) colours – is its real trump card…more so than the much-touted "hot" numbers of Miss Mansfield; speaking of which, unfortunately, not only is the print I watched shorn of colour (which is how it is widely available today – probably a disservice to the great Otto Heller's original lensing – and which, arguably, also enhances its ties with the aforementioned sub-genre)…but her two songs are bereft of sound, too!! Luckily enough, the sequences are intact – if still just as monochromatic and chaste – when looked up individually on "You Tube" (which is where I came across the film in the first place) and, apparently, TOO HOT TO HANDLE is available in colour on a German DVD. Incidentally, while the film may have been intended as a dramatic showcase for its shapely star, she had fared much better in Paul Wendkos' debut, the superior noir THE BURGLAR (1957), which I have caught up with just the other day; besides, while it may seem odd that a film originally shot in colour would "exist" solely in a black-and-white print, this is the 10th such instance I have come across in my film collection alone

TOO HOT TO HANDLE was Jayne Mansfield's first film away from 20th Century-Fox after achieving stardom in the mid 1950's. This British drama is usually marked as the beginning of her descent into low-budget productions but actually despite being set almost entirely in a nightclub, it's clearly no cheapie with a large cast and somewhat lavish production numbers with solid direction from Terence Young who later did many James Bond films.Jayne plays the lead in this ensemble picture as the headline attraction and longtime girlfriend of strip club owner Leo Genn who lately has been the recipient of several extortion attempts. Tough guy Genn is determined to fight back rather than give in much to Jayne's distress. Jayne sings two numbers including the title song performed in fairly transparent costume (reminscent of Marlene Dietrich's famous Las Vegas gown) that covers the basics but not much else. This number is badly shot with too many shots of the audience and not enough of Jayne although this may have been the work of the censors. The movie's American release was held up two years because of the racy numbers (finally released in 1962 as PLAYGIRL AFTER DARK) but today it could play on primetime TV and not raise an eyebrow although the numbers remain sexy. Jayne generally looks gorgeous for the most but in a couple of scenes is not photographed well and in some scenes appears to be unusually plump (she may have been pregnant or had not yet lost post-baby weight, she was cranking out kiddies almost as often as movies during this period). She is appealing as always as the warm-hearted star of the show whose good love may all be for naught. Give her credit too, for sharing the screen with a number of other lovelies among the showgirls and entertainers at the club. Beautiful brunette Danik Pattison gets almost as much screen time as Jayne as the loner, secretive showgirl and she has a sensational faux strip number set in a steamy train berth that still packs an erotic wallop. Barbara Windsor is cast as the "jailbait" showgirl, "Ponytail", who wants to grow up in the worst way. While Ms. Windsor is clearly not underage like her character, she effectively captures the simplistic foolishness of someone too young to understand the big picture. Ms. Pattison went on to have a career in the French film industry that lasted into the 1970's, Ms. Windsor later became quite well-known in England for her work in the "Carry on..." films and television programs and is still active today in the series "East Enders".British star Leo Genn is very effective as the James Cagney-tough club owner while Christopher Lee does well as his right-hand man. The movie was filmed and released in Eastman Color but video and DVD prints are regrettably black and white. It was fairly common for B&W prints to be struck of color films to be shown on television during the 1960's and 1970's for local stations. Surely color prints of this movie must exist somewhere, hopefully eventually one will find it's way to DVD. This movie is a low-key effort but it still interesting and actually has a lot to offer with a fine performance by Genn, the warmth and glamour of Mansfield, and a number of other beautiful young women on parade in various stages of dress.

Jayne is at her loveliest and most voluptuous and demonstrates great acting in this fast paced, suspenseful drama. Her costumes are great and she acts incredible. We are even given 2 great musical numbers. Don't believe those rumours that she couldn't act, she demonstrates great ability far surpassing Marilyn Monroe's in this thriller. My only complaint is that it is in black and white. I recently got a big screen TV and this was the first film I viewed on it and Jayne looks sensational! You can really appreciate all of her ASSETS in this pic! Highly recommended to NEW Jayne fans. Will also be of interest to those curiosity seekers of Jayne. Much more fun than THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT in my opinion.