Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
|
|
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 20th Century Fox comedy motion picture starring Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, and Mickey Hargitay.
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.
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).
In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the movie "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
93 mins.; color
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 indorse 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), has not been too pleased, but she takes him back toward the end.