Kiss Them for Me

Jayne Mansfield in Kiss Them For Me? Well, tee-hee. But such ribaldry is misplaced: this is a WWII movie, based on Frederic Wakeman's novel Shore Leave, about three combat veterans who wangle a few days in San Francisco, where the skyvers, profiteers and complacent home front types finally send them hastening back in disgust to their buddies on the battle line. This balancing of the cynical and the romantic was really a job for Billy Wilder, just as the part of the embittered, livewire hero cried out for Kirk Douglas. Casting mishaps among the women too, with Mansfield as unable to calm down as Parker is to liven up. Still, worth seeing for its mixture of provocation and Fox gloss, plus other anomalies, like Mansfield in a Rosie the Riveter outfit.