Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Frank Tashlin |
| Starring | Jayne Mansfield Tony Randall |
| Release date(s) | 1957 |
| Running time | 93 mins. |
| IMDb profile | |
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 20th Century Fox comedy motion picture starring Jayne Mansfield, with Tony Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, Mickey Hargitay, and a cameo by Groucho Marx.
It was directed by Frank Tashlin. He also adapted the story for the screen, based on the successful Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? by George Axelrod. The Broadway play ran from 1955-1956 and also starred Jayne Mansfield.
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? received a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy (Tony Randall) and a nomination for the Writers Guild of America WGA Award (Screen) for Best Written American Comedy (Frank Tashlin). The character, Rita Marlowe, is loosely based on Marilyn Monroe.
In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the movie "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
[edit] Plot
A writer for television advertising, Rockwell Hunter (played by Randall), is low on the ladder at the company he works for. He then finds the perfect model and spokesperson for his new line of lipstick, the famous actress with the "oh-so-kissable lips", Rita Marlowe (played by Mansfield).
In order for Rita to endorse the lipstick, however, Rock has to pretend to be her boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky (played by Hargitay), the star of a TV Tarzan show, jealous. Bobo leaks the news of Rita's new romance to the tabloids and Rock Hunter is suddenly famous. Women are crazy about him and he moves steadily up the ladder at work, becoming company president, only to find it is not what he really wanted.
Rock's fiancée, Jenny Wells (played by Drake), is not too pleased, but she takes him back in the end.
[edit] Trivia
- There's a reference to this film in Funeral in Berlin, starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. When the secret agent Palmer character, gets forged papers with a new identity, he gets unsatisfied with the name given to him and complains, "Rock Hunter! Why can't I be Rock Hunter?"
[edit] External links
 |
This comedy film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
