Customer Reviews

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter [VHS]

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Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield have perhaps their best roles ever in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" This amusing film satirizes the advertising business, Hollywood, male-female relationships, television, and just about every other available target. Randall stars as Rockwell "Rock" Hunter, an ambitious ad man who finds out that he'll lose his job unless his firm can maintain the Stay-Put Lipstick account. Hunter devises a campaign featuring Hollywood's reigning sexpot - Rita Marlowe (Mansfield); when he manages to track her down, they develop an unlikely relationship.

Based on the successful play by George Axelrod ("Bus Stop") and directed by Frank Tashlin (who directed many Bugs Bunny cartoons), "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" remains an entertaining film. The film is reminiscent of a Doris Day-Rock Hudson film - full of candy-coated visuals, Tony Randall, and veiled sex; however, with Mansfield aboard, it manages to pack more punch than any of those movies. Mansfield's depiction of a vapid Hollywood sex symbol is somewhat mannered but still relevant. Amusingly, her love interest in the film, the neanderthalian Bobo Branigansky, is played by her real-life husband of the time, Mickey Hargitay (a former Mr. Universe); their daughter is Mariska Hargitay of "Law and Order" fame. Overall, this witty film should satisfy fans of 50's comedies - hope they release the DVD soon.

This satire movie skewers its first victim immediately after the 20th Century Fox logo, where Tony Randall is seen playing the drums and cello from the Fox fanfare with Cinemascope extension. After Randall briefly explains the plot of the movie, the credits continue with some satiric commercials on products that obviously don't cut the mustard.

Ever-suffering Madison Avenue TV commercial writer Rockwell Hunter is working at LaSalle, Raskin, Poole, and Crocket to save the Stayput Lipstick account. He's planning to marry Jenny, who's a secretary at the firm. He gets the inspiration of using blonde bombshell Rita Marlowe to endorse Stayput Lipstick from his teenage niece April, who's the local president of the Rita Marlowe fan club. Rita is in fact spending some time in New York to recuperate from a bad affair with jungle-man actor Bobo Branniganski, with her companion Vi in tow.

Hunter goes to Marlowe's apartment to get her endorsement. He does so, but in exchange for pretending to be her lover and making Bobo, with whom she's talking on the phone, jealous. She brazenly tells Bobo that Rockwell is the president of the firm.
His life then takes a tailspin for the better and wilder. He is mobbed by bobbysocksers in the same way the Beatles would be seven years later. However, things with Jenny becomes strained as he and Rita become an item, and it's clear that Rita genuinely falls in love with him.

There is also a half-time intermission, where Tony Randall speaks on the wonders of TV, which back then was a 21" screen with a "wonderful clean picture."

The main idea is that it's a fallacy to equate success with getting big money; if it makes you happy, do it! Therein lies the flaws of capitalism and big business. What is the big deal of gray-flanneled dreams, the ritual of getting a key to the executive washroom, and working on ideas to get the American people to buy things they don't really need? Henry Rufus, Rockwell's immediate supervisor, has the best lines. If he gets fired, he'll have no problem getting another job--he has no talent. His line "It's a miracle how you overcame your education" also implies that to work in the grey flannel jungle, a college education is the last thing needed. And best of all: "If talent had anything to do with success, then Brooks Brothers would go out of business. Movie studios would be turned into supermarkets."

Other jabs or references include Marilyn Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller, Marilyn wanting to play Grushenka in the Brothers Karamazov, Marilyn incorporating herself, tycoon J.D. Rockefeller's passion for roses, and Elvis-"I don't have sideburns!"

All the main stars work wonders here. Jayne Mansfield, having previously starred in a Tashlin vehicle, The Girl Can't Help It, has a ball spoofing herself in the best role of her career. Joan Blondell as Vi, Rita's caustic companion, has a wonderful role when she fondly and tearfully reminisces her unrequited love affair with a milkman. One of her great lines goes: "She couldn't speak English, being from Texas." Ironically, Blondell played another character named Vi, in Grease. Henry Jones (Rufus) is more extraverted than he was as Mousey in The Girl Can't Help It. British actor John Williams as LaSalle Jr. has a few appearances but a key role. And talk about the dialogue: slick, snappy, and laugh-eliciting. There aren't many movies like this one; it does appear dated, but the main idea is timeless. Remember, being happy is the very living end!

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?...What more can a fan say....
Jayne and Tony Randall created one hilarious duo on screen like no other pair. It even grounded their relationship, on and off screen, with mutal admiration for each other for years.
Tony playing a struggling advertising agent with the hope of scoring a huge endorsement for his company was just terrific.
Jayne's "Rita Marlowe" character, based on Marilyn Monroe during the Fifties,not only was funny....it made me a life-long Mansfield fan. You have to see this film!

Frank Tashlin and Jayne Mansfield-- a marriage made in cartoon heaven. Who better to point up the absurdities of pop culture,1950's style, than Mansfield, with her little girl squeal, breathy delivery, and protruding gunboats. She resembles nothing so much as Marilyn Monroe on steroids. And Tashlin, with his gift for social satire and cartoonist eye for exaggeration. Notice how cleverly sight gags are inserted to stress a point-- an overheated kiss that pops popcorn, a computer read-out that mimics the dialogue, celebrity-mad teen-agers that pour out of a man-hole. Notice too, how in the end, Tashlin confronts the glamorous but artificial world of advertising with the unglamorous but authentic world of living things. In a subtle way, Tashlin's subtext undermines the image-obsessed 50's by anticipating the back-to-nature 1960's. All in all, the movie remains a revealing document of its time.

It also serves as a perfect vehicle for the arch talents of Mansfield, the rubber-faced Henry Jones, and the nebbish Tony Randall. In fact, the scenes between Jones and Randall are among the most deliciously droll of that era, while Jones remains one of the most unusual and unsung among Hollywood character actors. Still and all, it's hard to exaggerate what was already extreme about that glossy decade-- the absurd mammary worship, the vacuous teen-culture, the mindless consumerism. Nonetheless, all get nailed in this inventive little spoofery that remains not only pretty funny in its own right, but reveals a lot about a decade that in many ways is still with us.

This 1957 satire has an astonishing sharp bite more than 40 years after it's initial release! The movie is loaded with sharp barbs on America's obssession with sexy blondes, big breasts, "personality" movie stars who want to be pretentious dramatic ones, two celebrities in "love" who have their every move covered by the press, ordinary citizens turned into media celebrities (or "reality stars" as we call them now), and television and commercials everywhere you turn makes you wonder if we've really changed at all in 50 years.

The star of this picture is the great Jayne Mansfield, often unjustly dismissed as a publicity hound instead of a real movie star but here she is in all her glory, dominating the screen and creating a real legend. Jayne's delicious perfomrmance here is as good as any of Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow's best comic work.

I did find Tony Randall a little unappealing, a movie leading man he ain't, even when playing a blah sort who gets hyped into stardom. All through the picture I kept thinking how awesome Jack Lemmon would have been in this role. Randall's not bad though and he doesn't hurt the picture. But he does make our Jaynie work overtime keeping the film lively.

Joan Blondell is enjoyable in one of her early films as a character actress, having been quite a sexy blonde lead herself in the 1930's and 1940's. Betsy Drake (best known as one of Cary Grant's wives) is an appealing ingenue sort as the real girlfriend of "Lover Doll" Randall who must stand by and watch the media promote Jayne and Tony as one of the great love stories of the era. The movie is hilarious from the opening credits to the final minute - but above all, this is a perfect showcase for the special talents of Miss Jayne Mansfield!!

It's pretty simple: there are few satires like it ever. Tashlin's not subtle in his satire, like, say, Billy Wilder could be, but that's the cartoonist in him. I could say more, but my gripe is that the film remains unavailable in DVD, which would assuredly present it in its original widescreen format. The beauty of the magnificent sequence which mocks the television screen, surely worth the price of the ticket in 1957, cannot be told in a pan and scan version. I cannot reccommend the VHS (which I believe is not letterboxed). Tape it off AMC or TCM if you can, or scour the e-auctions for laserdisc copies, or demand that Fox home video get out a DVD of this thing. This film is the reason they invented DVD!

For a guy who scaled the twin peaks of animation and feature films - a rare accomplishment in the 1950s - director/gagman Frank Tashlin has, surprisingly, few real standouts on his resume. Too often ill-served by either his material, his stars, or both at once, Tashlin's reputation rests on his cartoons (of course) and flashes of brilliance in otherwise so-so live-action movies. After all, in most civilized nations, being the director of both CINDERFELLA and THE PRIVATE NAVY OF SGT O'FARRELL constitutes a demerit if not an outright crime against humanity. Even Tashlin's better pictures, like SON OF PALEFACE and THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, tend to be mediocrities occasionally enlivened by his outlandish visual slapstick. WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? is the glorious summit of what had to have been a frustrating career, the one time he was matched with a writer (Geo Axelrod) and cast (led by Tony Randall & Jayne Mansfield) perfectly in sync with his playfully outre satiric sensibility. The end result will make you wish lightning had struck more often like this for Tashlin; ROCK HUNTER may be the most beautifully 'opened-up' stage property in film history. It's visually clever and sumptuous, engagingly witty and breathlessly paced all at the same time. Best of all, its satiric barbs (aimed equally at television and the Organization Man mindset) hit their targets consistently while never superceding the character-driven heart of the story. Randall is simply terrific here, and his wobbly tightwalk between schnook and lothario is hilarious. Add a few bonus points for the casting of the severely-underappreciated Henry Jones as Randall's fellow ad-exec, who oozes an authentic 50s boozy licentiousness & gray-flannelled desperation from his pores in every scene he steals. Jayne's at her very best to boot, doing her trademark sex-kitten squeal with one arched, knowing eyebrow, and displaying plenty of resourceful smarts in her wised-up line readings throughout. As satisfying a comedy as emerged from the American 50s. Make sure you see it widescreen, though: you won't want to miss a thing here. Tashlin's masterpiece, and his penance for Jerry Lewis and Phyllis Diller.

In the wake of Monroe's success, Hollywood teemed with imitations... This, in itself, was not an unusual phenomenon; what was extraordinary was the number of imitations...

Not only every studio but also every country came up with one... England had Sabrina and Diana Dors; France sold Mylene Demongeot in that image and, of course, Bardot... Germany came out with a series of teutonic, pneumatic blondes like Barbara Valentine... Back in Hollywood, Universal came up with the clone-like Mamie Van Doren, Columbia with Cleo Moore, Warner Brothers with Carole Baker, Paramount with Anita Ekberg, MGM tried with Barbara Lang, and on and on ran the list of actresses who found themselves poured into the mold... Even Sophia Loren and Tina Louise were, in a manner of speaking, off-shoots of the 'steamy' Marilyn in "Niagara."

No single studio was as determined to increase replicas as Monroe's own lot, 20th Century-Fox, who found the most extravagant pretender in Jayne Mansfield... Although none of the Monroe copies can be said to have made it in that guise, none tried harder (right up to her sudden death in a car crash) than Mansfield...

Mansfield worked in a succession of busty bits at various studios, it was the Monroe phenomenon which changed her from brunette to blonde, and made her play down her high IQ to dumb-blonde level... Her breakthrough came with the 'Monroe'-inspired role of the blonde sex-bomb in Broadway's "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" The display of her physical wares represented a personal triumph which led her back to Hollywood in 1956 where she became a star for Fox, who were looking to curb Monroe's power...

GEORGES AXELROD scripted this comedy, and MARILYN MONROE's THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, and both are perfect satire of the fifties.TONY RANDALL(remember this guy was in THE ODD COUPLE tv comedy)was quite young at the time.JAYNE was terrific in a role she was born to play;in fact ,she was at her best because she simply played a character just like herself.It was easily her best movie ,since moviegoers always prefered her rival MARILYN as the typical beautiful dumb blonde.Seeing GROUCHO MARX in a supporting role is strange, since he was so often a show by himself with his brothers.Who would have thought at that time that publicity would eventually had it's annual gala.? Oh god!please pray for us ,and find another MANSFIELD for the new century.

Why do I call this film the best Jayne Mansfield movie?.Well,it is the largest-budget film she ever appeared in + The Film was HERS.The Studio had paid quite a bundle for that play,that basically put Ms. Mansfield on the map.Even 'The Girl Can't help it'(also a great movie),was padded (no pun intended Jaynie!) with rock'n roll numbers,because the Studio was scared that Jayne could not carry the film alone(Were they ever wrong !).
To get back to Rock Hunter,the person that did the switch from the movie-satire to television-satire,did an excellent adaptation job.Tony Randall is fine as the ordinary-all-American-Joe.Betsy Drake is also good,in her plainesss(about a zillion women must have been able to relate to her).Joan Blondell is FANTASTIC,reminiscing about her milkman !.
Something that I have not read in the reviews are all the VERY obvious cheap-shots at Marilyn:1-about being a Communist(at the same time that MM had problems with Miller as they were travelling to England for 'The Prince and the Showgirl'.2-about the Brother Karamazov(MM wanted that role badly).We can easily understand why Monroe disliked Mansfield so much.
Jayne never looked better;after all she was then on TOP OF THE WORLD !,and could have stayed there a little longer if she had not decided to get married to Mr.Universe 1955,basically telling the heads of the Studios to go to hell.That was one wrong move,because after this film,her career went nowhere fast,and it went down,down,way down...
It is a shame.God only knows what other gems she could have appeared in.
In conclusion,I find that this film gives us an idea of what Jayne's real life was about.Oh yes,and before I forget! That scene when she gets off the plane ?.Well the Master himself,and I am naming Federico Fellini was HEAVILY inspired by it in 'La Dolce Vita',four years later with Sweden's answer to Jayne ...ANITA EKBERG,when she gets off the plane herself.The EXACT same scene,but Mansfield did it first,and a big BRAVO to you Jayne the EPITOME of Hollywood Fifties !