Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
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''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' is a 1957 American
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield and
Tony Randall Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play ''The Odd Couple'' by Neil Sim ...
, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell,
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
, Henry Jones,
Lili Gentle Lili Gentle (born Lillie Charlene Gentle; March 4, 1940) is a former American film and television actress. Biography Born Lillie Charlene Gentle in Montgomery, Alabama, she later changed the spelling of her first name to "Lili". As a child, both ...
, and Mickey Hargitay, and with a cameo by
Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
. The film is a satire on popular fan culture, Hollywood hype, and the advertising industry, which was profiting from commercials on the relatively new medium of television. It also takes aim at the reduction television caused to the size of movie theater audiences in the 1950s. The film was known as ''Oh! For a Man!'' in the United Kingdom. The film was produced and directed by
Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best kn ...
, who also wrote the largely original screenplay, using little more than the title and the character of Rita Marlowe from the successful Broadway play '' Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' by George Axelrod. The play had run from 1955 to 1956 and also starred Jayne Mansfield as Rita.


Plot

In lieu of a theme song and opening of the movie, Tashlin instead laid traditional opening credits over faux television commercials for products that failed to deliver what they promised. The film opens on a writer, Rockwell P. Hunter, who is low on the ladder at the La Salle advertising agency. With the agency set to lose its biggest accountStay-Put Lipstickhe hatches an idea to get the perfect model and spokeswoman for Stay-Put's new line of lipstick, the famous actress with the "oh-so-kissable lips", Rita Marlowe. For Rita to endorse the lipstick, however, Rock has to pretend to be her boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky, the star of ''The Jungle Man'' TV show, jealous. Bobo leaks the news of Rita's new romance in a TV interview and Rock is suddenly famous as her "Lover Doll". Rock's boss decides to leverage his employee's newfound fame, but when Rock gets Rita to agree on a television spectacular sponsored by Stay-Put, Rock becomes the advertising firm's highest-regarded employee. Rita, meanwhile, is miserable; she thinks she is falling in love with Rock, but her one real true love is the man who discovered her, George Schmidlap. Not being able to find Schmidlap, she pursues Rock, though her secretary Vi warns her that she is playing a dangerous game. (Ironically, Joan Blondell, who plays Mansfield's frumpy, middle-aged, all-business secretary, was herself a major movie sex symbol some 30 years before, and whose sexuality was an early target of the Hays Code). Rock soon finds fame to be a double-edged sword, getting him what he wants, but with a price to be paid for that success. Women are crazy about him, and he has no peace of mind. Ultimately, he moves up the ladder at work, becoming company president, only to find it is not what he really wanted. Rock confesses to his angry fiancée Jenny that he finds himself at the top of the heap without any meaning and she takes him back. As Rita opens her television spectacular for Stay-Put Lipstick, she is surprised by the appearance of the show's "surprise" guest star of (and the one true love of her life), George Schmidlap. Freed from the strain of advertising, Rock and Jenny retire to the country to tend a chicken farm, announcing that he has found the real "living end".


Main cast


Production

''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' received a nomination for a
Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
for Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy (Tony Randall) and a nomination for the Writers Guild of America, East WGA Award (Screen) for Best Written American Comedy (Frank Tashlin). The character Rita Marlowe is based on the dumb blonde stereotype epitomized by roles performed by Marilyn Monroe at the time. The film contains joking references to several of Mansfield's other roles, including '' The Girl Can't Help It'' (1956; also directed by Tashlin), '' Kiss Them for Me'' (1957), and '' The Wayward Bus'' (1957). The book Mansfield reads in the bathtub scene is '' Peyton Place'' (1956) by Grace Metalious, which became a feature film and a popular TV series. The buxom characters in the book were claimed to have been inspired by Mansfield. Former silent film star Minta Durfee has an uncredited role as a scrubwoman. Randall is featured at the beginning of the film playing the drums, a trumpet, and a string bass during the 20th Century-Fox logo and fanfare sequence. At the end, he remarks, "Oh, the fine print they put in an actor's contract these days!"


Legacy

''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' is known as Mansfield's "signature film". In 1966 Frank Tashlin said it was the film of his with which he was "most satisfied... there was no compromise on that one. Buddy Adler let me do it my own way." There's a reference to this film in the film of the 1964 spy novel ''
Funeral in Berlin ''Funeral in Berlin'' is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by ''The IPCRESS File'' (1962) and ''Ho ...
'', starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. When the secret agent Palmer gets forged papers with a new identity, he is dissatisfied with the name given to him and complains, "Rock Hunter! Why can't I be Rock Hunter?" In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Reception


Critical response

Film critic Bosley Crowther of '' The New York Times'' wrote in his review: "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at their television sets, no matter how scornful and superior they may feel toward video. The rocks may miss the vexing targets and crash through their own fragile walls. This axiom is clearly demonstrated in the flimsy motion picture that has been made from the flimsy stage play ''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?''". Ethan de Seife wrote in his book, ''Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin'', that we see with ''
Son of Paleface ''Son of Paleface'' is a 1952 American Comedy Western film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell, and Roy Rogers. The film is a sequel to '' The Paleface'' (1948). Written by Tashlin, Joseph Quillan, and Robert L. Welch, ...
'', '' Marry Me Again'', '' Artists and Models'', ''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'', ''
The Man from the Diners' Club ''The Man from the Diners' Club'' is a 1963 comedy film starring Danny Kaye and directed by Frank Tashlin. It was made by Ampersand and Dena Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. Plot Foots Pulardos is a mobster who intends to flee to ...
'', '' The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell'', and many others that American animation and American live-action comedy derive from the same tradition. Peter Lev wrote in his book, ''Twentieth Century-Fox: The Zanuck-Skouras Years, 1935–1965'', "''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' is more fragmented than '' The Girl Can't Help It'', and paradoxically it makes it a better film."


Awards and nominations


Home media

''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' is in a package called "The Jayne Mansfield Collection" along with ''The Girl Can't Help It'' (1956) and ''
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw ''The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw'' is a 1958 British-American Western comedy directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Kenneth More and Jayne Mansfield. Mansfield's singing voice is dubbed by Connie Francis. It was one of the first Westerns to be shot in ...
'' (1958) The film was released on VHS on July 2, 1996, by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...
.


References


Citations


Sources

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External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1957 films 1950s business films 1957 romantic comedy films 1950s satirical films 20th Century Fox films American business films American films based on plays American romantic comedy films American satirical films 1950s English-language films Films about advertising Films about television Films directed by Frank Tashlin Films scored by Cyril J. Mockridge Films set in New York City Films with screenplays by Frank Tashlin United States National Film Registry films CinemaScope films 1950s American films