Panic Button | |
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Directed by | George Sherman Giuliano Carnimeo |
Written by | Hal Biller Morton Friedman |
Starring | Maurice Chevalier Eleanor Parker Jayne Mansfield |
Release dates |
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Running time | 90 mins |
Country | Italy |
Languages | English Italian |
Panic Button is a 1964 low-budget Italian-produced comedy film starring, Maurice Chevalier, Eleanor Parker, Jayne Mansfield, and Mike Connors. Filmed in the summer of 1962, in Italy, and released nearly two years later, the film tells the story of how a washed-up actor (Chevalier) and a buxom unknown (Mansfield) are chosen to co-star in a television production of Romeo and Juliet. The picture is known for being one of several foreign films Mansfield was forced to make after her contract was dropped from 20th Century Fox in 1962.
The film was opened to a brief release in Italy in 1962, and was officially released in the United States in April 1964. At most theaters, Panic Button served as a secondary feature and not a success.
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French singer, actor, and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including "Livin' In The Sunlight", "Valentine", "Louise", "Mimi", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", and for his films, including The Love Parade, The Big Pond, The Smiling Lieutenant, One Hour with You, and Love Me Tonight. His trademark attire was a boater hat and tuxedo.
The year 1962 in film involved some very significant events, with Lawrence of Arabia winning seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
Eleanor Jean Parker was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951), and Interrupted Melody (1955), the first of which won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. She was also known for her roles in the films Of Human Bondage (1946), Scaramouche (1952), The Naked Jungle (1954), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), A Hole in the Head (1959), The Sound of Music (1965), and The Oscar (1966).
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and Playboy Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s, Mansfield was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. Although her film career was short-lived, she had several box-office successes, and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award, and soon gained the nickname of Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde."
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Promises! Promises! is a 1963 American sex comedy film directed by King Donovan and starring Tommy Noonan and Jayne Mansfield. Released at the end of the Production Code era and before the MPAA film rating system became effective in 1968, it was the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature nudity by a mainstream star (Mansfield).
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Jayne Mansfield was an actress, singer, playmate and stage show performer who had an enormous impact on popular culture of the late 1950s despite her limited success in Hollywood. She has remained a well-known subject in popular culture ever since. During a period between 1956 and 1957, there were about 122,000 lines of copy and 2,500 photographs that appeared in newspapers. In an article on her in the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (1999), Dennis Russel said that "Although many people have never seen her movies, Jayne Mansfield remains, long after her death, one of the most recognizable icons of 1950s celebrity culture." In the novel Child of My Heart (2004) by Alice McDermott, a National Book Award winning writer, the 1950s is referred to as "in those Marilyn Monroe/Jayne Mansfield days". R. L. Rutsky and Bill Osgerby has claimed that it was Mansfield along with Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot who made the bikini popular.
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A panic button is an electronic device designed to assist in alerting somebody in emergency situations.
Primitive Love is a 1964 Italian sex comedy film directed by Luigi Scattini and starring Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay. The film attempts to combine a typical Mansfield sex comedy with the mondo film genre by including footage of various native customs and rituals from around the world.
Jayne Mansfield's Car is a 2012 drama film directed by Billy Bob Thornton, marking his first fiction directing job since 2000's All the Pretty Horses. Thornton also stars alongside Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Ray Stevenson, Frances O'Connor, Ron White, and Robert Patrick. The film had its world premiere at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. The film was released in limited release on September 13, 2013.
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