Panic Button (1964) User Reviews

There are some redeeming qualities here....

[Enrique-Sanchez-56 · 6/10 · 3 March 2001]

If one ignores the pathetic quality of the actual film stock used to bring this to the screen, If one ignores the sad overacting of Mr. Chevalier, If one ignores the convoluted plot, If one ignores the eccentric direction,

One will find some redeeming qualities in Panic Button:

The scenes of Europe, a more innocent Europe, a different mannered Europe were handled well. I really felt transported to the early 60's.

One is able to observe the way that our sensibilities have changed in such few years.

We observe that the sophistication of moviemaking has come a very long way from those days.

I watched this movie with not as much cringing as other reviewers. I tend to discern some of the good things that directors try to bring to movies.

And lastly, I did laugh and I did smile where I should have. So for that, I must at least give Panic Button a "6".

An interesting curiosity

[jadedalex · 5/10 · 9 March 2012]

This movie is an interesting curiosity after all these years, although at the time it must have seemed dated. One reviewer was quite harsh about this film, and I can't say I disagree with much of his sentiment.

But there is a kitschy charm to seeing Touch 'Mannix' Connors romancing the ill-fated Jayne Mansfield. And the movie is actually funny when it sticks to making fun of acting and movie making.

Why is it that after all these years, I find myself so interested in Jayne Mansfield? It's obvious that she was doomed to be forever the 'poor man's Monroe', yet as much as I admire the qualities of Monroe, there seemed to be something compelling about Jayne in a different sort of way.

Fans of the album cover to this soundtrack will be quite disappointed that Jayne wears nothing so revealing as the bikini she is almost wearing on the record sleeve. However, she looks quite lovely, beautiful in certain shots.

The plot is so much like 'The Producers' (minus the comic genius of Mel Brooks, of course), that one wonders if Mel ever had a look at this movie.

It is indeed sad to see an aged Chevalier, chewing the scenery in one of his last films. The sentimental subplot concerning Philippe's relationship with a child goes nowhere...I was hoping he wasn't going to go into 'Thank Heaven For Little Girls'. Fortunately, the viewer is saved from that spectacle.

What Eleanor Parker is doing in this is anybody's guess.

But Akim Tamiroff certainly had shades of Max Bialystock going on. And, in a scene with Touch Connors, Jayne sounds oddly much like Marilyn -- perhaps some strange osmosis was occurring.

Anyway, considering the movies that they make these days, this movie is...well, an interesting curiosity.

It could be worse

[stefanozucchelli · 5/10 · 17 July 2022]

A lot of strange characters in a movie which tries to be funny but fails many times even if the plot was not so terrible.

This comedy is part of the large circle of those comedies which, although not filthy, fail in their objectives.

Dreadful!

[suw · 2/10 · 26 February 2001]

Not even the label of "camp" can save this one. A precursor of The Producers, but without its sparkle or satiric bite. Chevalier does everything short of winking at the camera--a sad final chapter to his career. The project ends up resembling the intentionally bad TV pilot that the film is about.

PANIC BUTTON to escape from this film

[searchanddestroy-1 · 21 November 2022]

I would have never bet a dime to see one day a movie directed by George Sherman, and starring the most improbable cast: French great singer Maurice Chevalier, Mike - MANNIX - Connors and Jayne Mansfield. What a cast, I hardly believe it.... So only this can justify to watch this non sense, gentle, entertaining crap, watching to be sure that you don't dream....;But on the other hand, I fought very hard not to stop the viewing; also because of the f...pan and scan copy I saw. It can be considered as a kind of psychotronic comedy yarn. Yes: psychotronic, and directed by a great B movie Hollywood director; George Sherman, more or less the equivalent of Richard Thorpe, same kind of career and death year too. So, to at least speak bout this phony story, well, it's so silly, boring, brainless though entertaining.

Maurice Chevalier, Jayne Mansfield, some fake nuns and William Shakespeare

[JasparLamarCrabb · 3/10 · 21 March 2015]

A laugh-less low water mark in the very long career of Maurice Chevalier. He's a washed up actor hired to appear in a television version of ROMEO & JULIET (his co-star being none other than Jayne Mansfield) that is an almost certain disaster. The backers of the production are looking for a losing proposition as a tax shelter. Though the premise is pretty similar to the later Mel Brooks masterpiece THE PRODUCERS, this film lacks any of that classic's wit or subversiveness. Instead, it's a labored, lame brained mess that wastes Chevalier, Eleanor Parker and Akim Tamiroff and makes very ill-use of the great Mansfield. It's directed by George Sherman and Giuliano Carnimeo. Blech.

Jayne love

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 13 August 2020]

Directed by George Sherman and Giuliano Carnimeo - I've been diving deep into his films, including They Call Me Hallelujah, They Call Him Cemetery, his Sartana movies and The Case of the Bloody Iris - Panic Button is an example of the movies that Jayne Mansfield had to hunt down after her 20th Century Fox contract ended.

French entertainer Maurice Chevalier and Mansfield play actors who are picked to be in a new production of Romeo and Juliet. Eleanor "Woman of a Thousand Faces" Parker and Mike "Mannix" Connors also show up.

This tale of mobsters getting involved with Shakespeare was never really successful anywhere that it played. In the U.S., it was on double bills. And hey - it has one total review on Letterboxd other than this one.

ropey but fun!!

[armen-17 · 8/10 · 4 March 2005]

I watched this yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. How to write off a vast sum of money in a movie that's doomed to failure and thus evade the revenue investigation.........yes the plot is an earlier incarnation of The Producers' like mischief and invention. It's no where near that great masterpiece in achievement but is still a delightful excursion in to some good old fashioned boulevardier fun. Chevalier as the has-been matinée idol underplays with subtlety where he could have been gruesomely hammy.Oh the joy of seeing him play Romeo to Jayne Mansfield's Juliet!! However he does sing a couple of numbers which are entirely pointless to the plot and immediately forgettable. The true star of the piece however is the GREAT Akim Tamiroff as an acting guru par excellence.As ever he scene steals effortlessly and rewards us with an immensely funny characterisation of vanity and dodgy intellect succumbing to the power of a few dollars wafted under his nose. To see him direct an advancing close up on a potted plant is to witness his genius. See the movie for this moment alone.

One gripe to end on. The company responsible for releasing this video seems to have a contempt for both the movie and its potential viewing audience. The quality of the print is largely awful and no attempt to clean it up. It may not be a classic but it deserves better than this. Still it's the only way to see this movie at the moment so don't hesitate if you are thinking of getting a copy.