Watched: 06/28/2025
Format: Max
Viewing: First
Director: Mariska Hargitay
I don't watch Law & Order much, but for a while back in the 00's and 10's, SVU was the one I'd watch in re-runs. And Mariska Hargitay was hard to miss as the ultra-driven cop, Detective Olivia Benson. But it was probably in the 2010's that I figured out her parents were screen legend Jayne Mansfield and body builder Mickey Hargitay.
Mansfield is the stuff of Hollywood Babylon legend, following a career path that feels one-part Monroe, one-part Jane Russell. I've seen only two or three Mansfield movies, and she struck me as very good at what she did (I liked her a lot in The Burglar), but she and I don't cross paths much in my TCM viewing.
Once I knew about her parentage, I also never could quite sort out Mariska Hargitay's domestic situation, as I couldn't believe she'd even been born when Mansfield died in a car wreck in 1967. It seemed Mariska was a smidge older than I'd guessed (good genes, I guess) - but she was three at the time, and in the car when it happened. But, due to her age when Mansfield passed, Hargitay didn't have memories of her mother, and she wasn't raised by her.
The doc, My Mom Jayne: a Film by Mariska Hargitay (2025), is Hargitay coming to terms with who her mother was, learning who she really was away from the public, and embracing her relationship with the woman she never really knew.
It's a whirlwind through the life of Mansfield, pulling up the good, bad, and the ugly. Hargitay admits that for most of her life, she distanced herself from her mother's name and the public persona she wielded as the blonde bombshell (especially when Mansfield wasn't dumb at all, nor a natural blonde).
The movie uncovers who Mansfield was, where she came from, and her complicated life. Which would be worth watching, but as it's being made by Mansfield's own daughter, it's a deeply personal account.
Along for the ride are her two brothers - who very much look like they fell out of a Mickey Hargitay mold - and her sister by a different father. The interviews are not exploitative while being very raw and real. These aren't interview questions so much as family conversations caught on video. And we're clearly unearthing things the family may have otherwise left buried, from feelings to a storage unit no one has touched since the late 1960's.
Celebrity was a different thing thirty years ago when magazines were all we had, and an occasional talk-show appearance. During Mansfield's era, it was even stranger - and the misogyny was breathtaking. Which, inevitably, meant that Mansfield was forced into a corner - asked to never be more than a piece of eye candy. Attempts to honestly break free of that were openly jeered at by TV hosts and audiences, right to her face. It's infuriating and heart-breaking to see.
Most surprising is that the last third is dedicated to Hargitay unspooling the story of her actual parentage. She never looked like her father, and while she shared her mother's build, her facial features were always different.
As it turns out, for thirty years, through an accident of gossip and fanboy gushing, she figured out that her real father is musician Nelson Sardellli, who is very much alive. I'll leave it to you to see that portion.
The doc is rock solid on not just a technical level, but a visceral level. It took a real feat of storytelling to not let it become some manipulative schmaltz or the alternative of leaving the viewer feeling details are missing - an act of dishonesty after asking you to watch. I am comfortable with what Hargitay put on the screen, and the knowledge that there's plenty that didn't make it. But this is a personal matter, and we got more than enough - she doesn't need to unbury every body.
The doc will likely initiate reconsideration of Mansfield's place in pop culture and Hollywood lore. And, I hope, offer Hargitay a second career consideration, should she find another topic she's like to document.
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