Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Frothy, fun comedy with some smart jabs at advertising and fan worship. Tony Randall is a hoot as the suddenly fish out of water main character and Jayne Mansfield, repeating her stage triumph, is a knockout and proves an adapt comedienne. She's no Marilyn Monroe but had she had more roles like this her career at the top might not have been so short.

While Tony and Jayne do most of the heavy lifting script wise the main supporting cast adds a great deal to the picture. Joan Blondell scores strongly as Jayne's right hand woman. An actress of wonderful subtlety she makes what could have been a nothing role both humorous and touching at times. Henry Jones and John Williams both add sly portrayals of two different kinds of successful men, one who wants to climb higher and the other who never wanted to be there in the first place. The weakest link is Betsy Drake as Rock's true love, the part doesn't offer much but unlike Blondell she doesn't have the distinction to make more of it than what's on the page. She doesn't mar the film she's just sort of there and when she's off screen you forget about her.

The picture has that high gloss studio sheen and gorgeous saturated color that was a signature of the A pictures of that time. A winner and a great showcase for its stars.

Advertising man makes publicity deal with voluptuous Hollywood star.

Hilarious spoof of the mammary-worshipping 1950's. The innuendos fly fast and furious so keep an ear cocked. Sure, viewers see much racier material now on TV. Still, the dialog's clever, the visuals inventive, and the cast superb. Director Tashlin's satiric eye is penetrating and years ahead, as the 1960's-like ending suggests.

That spoof of TV advertising is especially funny and still timely. Keep in mind that the TV medium was still new and so was making fun of its life-blood commercials. I love it when the jalopy crumbles under the salesman's boastful pitch. Corporations were also growing, laying out a new yardstick for success. So, Hunter's ecstatic delight with a symbolic key-to-the-washroom is not far off. And, of course, there's Rita's (Mansfield) low-hanging sex appeal, doubly emblematic of the time.

But Mansfield's also an adept comedienne. Catch how well she spoofs her own role. And were there two more droll characters than Randall and the underrated Henry Jones. Their little tete-a-tete's fairly ooze with actors' delight. Good also to see that great brassy dame Joan Blondell pick up a payday. (Catch the rather humorous shot of her coming rump-first out of the sleeping berth, which seems Tashlin's style, even with minor details.) Looks like someone also threw her the big dramatic grieving scene, maybe out of respect for her veteran status.

Anyway, the movie's a delightful glimpse of that strait-jacketed decade's more vulnerable absurdities, and in Technicolor's brightest candy box colors. Arguably, it's Tashlin's best.

Occasionally biting, sometimes off the mark with cornball sight gags, but solid for the most part. You can see Tashlin's cartoon background with some of the visual gags and sound/sight cues, but there's just a distance here that doesn't really work. Randall has no chemistry with his best girl and it's hard to buy that angle, but for a spoof movie, you can overlook stuff like that. Overall it's pretty funny, dated in parts for sure, but still watchable.

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 at both television and the gray-flanneled Organization Man) 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 authentic 50s smuttiness and 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 the widescreen version, though: you won't want to miss a thing here. Tashlin's masterpiece, and his penance for Jerry Lewis and Phyllis Diller.

This is a nice, snappy comedy that hits the G-Spot. This film is built on two mighty foundations; both of them belonging to Jayne Mansfield. Please forgive my tasteless allusions to the major building blocks of Jayne's talent, but she was also pretty funny in this film as well. One must always keep abreast of the latest techniques used by Madison Avenue. As Tony Randall finds out, opportunity is a very rare knocker. Some films are blockbusters, and some are boulders; your will have to decide which is which here. Jayne poses as the titular head of a partnership with Tony, in order to get her boyfriend jealous. A few scenes are in bars, but there were no Hooters at the time. My chest is heaving from overexertion of allusion material, so I will now hit the rack. Enjoy the show.