Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
By Jeremy Breneman and Eric Grigs | September 6, 2021
NEGLECTED FILM REDEMPTION
a series of conversations about forgotten and under-the-radar cinema.
This comedy film skewers Hollywood hype, star fandom, and mid-century television advertising. Bombshell movie actress Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) makes a deal with average guy Rock Hunter (Tony Randall) to promote his Stay-Put lipstick advertising account in exchange for Hunter pretending to be her new lover to make her ex-boyfriend jealous and create gossip buzz to boost her career.
Eric: I watched the movie last night and it’s a pure delight! I found myself laughing out loud several times it was so funny. I figured it’d be a fluffy, lighthearted comedy; I didn’t realize it was going to be a “swinging for the fences” comedy—a witty satire with charm to spare.
Jeremy: And you’ll notice 20th Century Fox is totally in on the joke!
Eric: Oh yes, from the start when Tony Randall is playing all the orchestra instruments alongside the 20th century Fox logo and iconic theme, and on through the credits where multiple television advertising spots go horribly wrong! Right out of the gate, I immediately knew this one was going to be a winner.
Jeremy: Did you catch all the references to Fox properties? Jayne Mansfield’s casting is a total wink to their own creation Marilyn Monroe. There’s Jayne in the tub reading Peyton Place, there’s Jayne as a standee at the theatre promoting her Fox feature The Wayward Bus! There is also a nod to Monroe directly (and quite aggressively when Jayne talks about her next picture about “two rival Russian brothers” which needed two great actors to make up for her mediocre talent. Of course the “her” in this was actually Marilyn Monroe who begged the studio to cast her in The Brothers Karamazov at the time as a chance for her to tackle more serious material. Fox really sticks it to her with this joke (as Monroe was off to Europe on loan to work with Olivier with another studio).
Eric: They sure did use Marilyn as a punching bag! Wasn’t that because she had a reputation of being difficult at the studio?
Jeremy: There’s a cruelty in their joke… but also a glimpse into the nature of marketing. I mean, Fox created one blonde and now was using another Fox blonde creation to essentially lampoon the first! It’s craziness, but genius comedy here.
Eric: I must confess I am largely unfamiliar with Jayne's career—outside of the Loni Anderson biopic and cult classic The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, both of which I adore.
Jeremy: Mansfield certainly was wonderful in this film. They even throw in a mention of one of her other films, The Girl Can’t Help It. Fox seemed to be promoting her to be the next Marilyn but it never reached full potential, though Mansfield would play it up until her death.
Eric: There’s a lot of fun in seeing her go for the broad comedy and screwball antics in this script, leaning into that ditzy bottle blonde archetype for which she was known.
Jeremy: I think the “Marilyn Blonde” was something that was terribly out of vogue by the time Mansfield met her end. She became a victim of the exact thing she was parodying in this film. That seems a cruel irony.
Eric: Let’s go back to the treasure trove of easter eggs and in-jokes in the film that you started to mention. There’s so much delight in spotting them. I glimpsed Mansfield’s real life hubbie and bodybuilder, Mickey Hargitay, playing Rita’s ex whom she's trying to make jealous for a publicity stunt. And later a hilarious gag cameo of Groucho Marx as Jayne’s long lost first love! What else caught your eye?
Jeremy: Speaking of husbands, the film also nodded to co-star Betsy Drake’s real-life husband Cary Grant at one point. Their union was highly publicized, and he was starring in Fox’s An Affair to Remember at the time. (Of course, that’s a film NO ONE remembers today…I jest). I was delighted to see Betsy Drake (Mrs. Cary Grant) in the role of Jenny, Rock Hunter’s fiancée. This was among her last films before retiring from the screen, but I always thought she was an underrated comedienne. Under contract the previous decade with Warner Bros., she was mostly loaned out to other studios. Drake never completely found her own niche, but she co-starred with her husband in several memorable films. What did you think of Tony Randall as a lead?
Eric: Randall gets top billing, finally. (Well, right under Jayne!)
Jeremy: He always seemed to be somebody’s sidekick on film and TV and here he was the romantic lead. If you can call anything about his film romantic!
Eric: I thought it was inspired casting. Perpetually the “best friend” in so many pictures, particularly second banana to Rock Hudson (there's a lot to unpack in that sentence, I now realize after saying it.) Tell me they purposefully named his character Rock Hunter to riff off of Rock Hudson’s name, right? Clever twist on the expectation of who is the leading man.
Jeremy: The origin of the film is from the play of the same name, which starred Mansfield on Broadway just the year before. From what I understand, the film bears no resemblance to the play regarding plot and most characters. Fox was having fun, winking all throughout the film, so your speculation about Rock Hudson may not be completely out of bounds here. The play was written by George Axelrod, who also wrote The Seven Year Itch. Now that film had to be highly rewritten from its play form to even make it remotely acceptable to filmgoers in the 1950s!
Eric: I’m struck by what a good sport Tony was, being the butt of the running joke where men say “him?” in response to his new nickname “Loverdoll” as he’s mobbed by herds of women. Guys question why starlet Jayne would be interested in such an average Joe (also much to the consternation of Jenny)! But that's where so much of the sweetness comes in. Through humor and without preaching, it kicks around universal themes like wanting to be the hero of the story, finally getting your chance with the hot girl or the top rung of the executive ladder (along with whether either are worth it!), and yearning to be the center of everyone’s attention (but careful what you wish for!).
Jeremy: What I really love about Rock Hunter is the idea that your own happiness is the key to true success. It’s the one thing none of these characters seem to fully embrace until the end—something so many of us forget in our 9 - 5 days and overworked existence. It seems particularly compelling when we look at what’s happening in the time of COVID.
Eric: As someone who makes a living in marketing, I enjoy watching how the advertising industry of yesterday is depicted in old films. Basically isn’t Rock Hunter trying to sell happiness? Aren’t celebrity ads based on the premise of wanting to be a successful somebody instead of a working nobody?
Jeremy: The advertising world is so completely different now. Now people are influenced by someone on social media shilling a product—someone they hardly know absolutely anything about—and yet, somehow we are influenced by that. No need for some glamorous Rita Marlowe to convince us of anything!
Eric: Everyone is a celebrity influencer. But if everyone is a celebrity now, does fame and celebrity mean anything at all anymore? It’s a real head scratcher. Related to bending reality, can we talk about the way the movie breaks the fourth wall, like when everything stops for Rock Hunter to take some jabs at television?
Jeremy: I love it when films break that wall! Not every film does it do well as Rock Hunter. I mean, how can you have a film about advertising without it?
Eric: This movie was made during a time when the film industry felt incredibly threatened by American viewing habits shifting to the small screen, so here he is minimizing the success of TV. Will its Golden Age success spoil Hollywood movies? (Well, we know the answer is it didn’t. It took a global pandemic to stop people from going to the movies!)
Jeremy: The film industry was certainly in the throes of a major technological threat… and that it even exists today is testament to the power of watching a film on a big screen. Fox’s answer to the TV threat was developing the revolutionary CinemaScope technology. As we know from growing up watching films on a dinky TV screen, the CinemaScope technology got lost in the “pan and scan” broadcasts of films. There’s irony to that, don’t you think?
Eric: Good point, I hadn't thought about that irony. The grandeur of CinemaScope used on a comedy film that really could just as easily be SitcomScope!
Jeremy: I love that the movie was filmed in that ratio. It’s truly part of the “I’m better than you” running joke!
Eric: What do you think about the amazing Joan Blondell, playing Mansfield's secretary Violet? Here she’s your typical middle-aged character, somewhat of a maternal figure. So I was howling at her scene about loving and losing the milkman because it punches a hole in the veneer that desexualizes older women—she has the same wants and desires as Rita Marlowe or any other woman using Stay-Put lipstick to get the guy! And the dance party scenes! It’s such smart casting because some 30 years before, Blondell was herself a major movie sex symbol.
Jeremy: She was indeed, but she also broke out in a period when all the studios were trying to find the next Jean Harlow. Blondell was one of Warner Bros. early attempts at marketing a blonde bombshell. Blondell was gorgeous, beautiful, and never completely matronly. She made a career of this, really all the way up to one of her last films, the pop culture juggernaut Grease. She never fully embraced character actress status in her twilight years like Bette Davis. She really didn’t need to!
Eric: This may be the most distinguished pick so far in our film discussion series because in 2000 the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry for its “cultural, historic, or aesthetic” significance. Talk about spoiled from success! I think it deserves such a pedigree and hope that means more people will check it out.
Jeremy: I completely forgot this was in the National Film Registry! At least that ensures it will never be truly overlooked or forgotten.
The gods of pop history smiled upon Jeremy Breneman and Eric Grigs when they crossed paths online, and they have been obsessing together over obscure curiosities ever since. Past entries in this discussion series have included Foxfire, Lucky Lady, The Killing of Sister George, and Hilda Crane.