Fresh and Exciting

An action-packed slog

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A brilliant comedy that spoofs the world of advertising, publicity and fan worship. Tony Randall scores his greatest role as Rock Hunter, a staid advertising executive looking for the perfect image for a lipstick advertisement. Discovering that his niece is obsessed with movie star Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield), he decides to get her to endorse the lipstick, hoping that it will get him in good with the stuffy head of the company, John Williams, who snubs him, bringing out the beast in thus mild mannered milquetoast. Mansfield not only agrees to endorse the lipstick, but creates a huge publicity scheme that makes everybody believe that Mansfield and Randall are in love. This is ultra upsetting to Randall's secretary/fiancée Betsy Drake and makes Randall's immediate supervisor (Henry Jones) wonder what Randall puts in his wheat germ to look like he does and all of a sudden become "lover boy", the sought after target of a group of determined fan girls.Ironically spoofing his friend Rock Hudson, Randall is both nebbish and sensual as the publicity turns him into somebody even he doesn't know. It is obvious who Mansfield is spoofing, and without making any names, she makes it very clear while gentlemen prefer blondes. Normally I can't stand the sound of female screeching (hawk calls I refer to them as), but when Mansfield does it, I can't help but roar in laughter.In fine support, Joan Blondell (once a popular blonde bombshell herself) is excellent as Mansfield's assistant, especially when she confides her own troubled romantic past. She provides a slew of wisecracks in the manner of her future "Grease" co-star, Eve Arden. Wearing little, sexy Mickey Hargitay is funny as a Tarzan style actor, complete with leading lady chimp, whom Mansfield insists he smelled like when he came to pick her up for their dates.Henry Jones also scores laughs as the dipsomaniac boss, creating guffaws by just pouring a morning martini, sending his daughter off to therapy and later, romancing Blondell. Look fast for Barbara Eden as a buxom secretary. While this might be considered a period piece as far as advertising industry is concerned today (as well as publicity for modern movie stars) it is one of the classic comedies of the 1950's. 20th Century Fox parodies their own publicity department, although it never once mentions the influential star whom Mansfield is spoofing. I can imagine the laughs that Mansfield must have gotten on Broadway, but like her first movie lead, you must admit, the girl can't help it.

What a neatly done job this is. Tony Randall is Rock Hunter, a minor functionary at a Madison Avenue advertising agency (this is a 1950s comedy and Mad Ave was the target of many jokes). He's about to be furloughed from his organization and then, by accident, manages to nail the outrageous Jayne Mansfield for her endorsement of the Stay-Put Lipstick account. Jayne doesn't care about the account but she wants to make her boyfriend back in Hollywood jealous so she pretends to be Randall's sex slave. An embarrassed Randall goes along with it. It all creates more ripples than Brittany Spears and Fed Ex or other couples of that ilk.Pretty much everything works. The director, Frank Tashlin, knew his way around a comedy, having been responsible for a number of cartoons. He recognizes a good sight gag when he sees one. Watch the door open and the diminutive Tony Randall appear, back lighted, dressed in the over-sized suit of a muscle man, and wearing elevator shoes, staggering around like Frankenstein's monster.He knows his hilarious dialog too. Randall is speaking to Mansfield's boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky, and pretending to be president of his ad agency. "Of course I'm the president -- but Miss Marlowe will be the TITULAR head of the company." Mansfield shrieks with delight, grabs Randall, and gives him an open-mouthed kiss, smothering half his face with her huge, blubbery lips. In a later scene, after having half his clothes ripped off by frenzied fans, Randall is offered a drink by the sympathetic Joan Blondell. Asked what he'd like, the morose Randall replies -- "I don't know. Make it something simple, a bottle and a straw." I don't want to give away any more of the gags, and the story isn't so convoluted that it hasn't already been limned in.Let me add, though, that it's exceptionally well acted by everyone involved. Note, in particular, one long speech done in a single take with Henry Jones, as he explains to Tony Randall that success is nothing more than being in the right place at the right time. How dull it could have been. Yet Jones, with his passionate, dramatic, outrageous sing-song, makes it both gripping and extremely funny.It's my understanding that the movie doesn't follow the play closely but I don't care. It has its own highly original touches. The movie is interrupted, for instance, by Randall who addresses the "TV fans in the audience" and demonstrates the failures of the luminescent orb in a way that makes us appreciate HDTV all the more. That scene couldn't have been in the play.See it if you have the chance, even if you've seen it before. It's anodyne. It will chase the blues away.

Director Frank Tashlin stretches his anything-for-a-laugh method of comic film-making to the breaking point with this very weak advertising send-up (with equally dull romantic-confusion underpinnings). Tony Randall seems the wrong actor for the part of struggling ad-rep Rockwell Hunter, who gets a buxom beauty queen to shill for a new lipstick--but at a price. It's supposed to be a riot, but Tashlin, who also adapted the script from George Axelrod's play, can't seem to bring the material (both farcical and cynical) to a cohesive whole. It's full of prankish jokes and questionable taste, but the episodic results are loud and forced instead of funny. There's a satirical, promising opening sequence (brightly prodding the TV commercials of the era), but the movie steadily loses steam from there. *1/2 from ****

Actually, this film is a lot of fun - 50's style. But the best performance in the movie is the one by Joan Blondell as Mansfield's assistant. She has a monologue about a milkman that will leave you in tears of laughter. Don't ever forget Blondell. Mansfield is quite funny, too! She takes her fan club very seriously and that makes it all the funnier. And that poodle!!All the references to Fox movies of the day are there, plus all the digs at TV. They even add a commercial - making it very small and in black and white, fuzzy and full of snow - something the kids these days have never heard of.Tony Randall is a scream and the perfect icon of the 50's. What a pity no one ever did an in- depth biography of him - - the stories he could surely tell!!The movie is a lot of fun, especially if you remember the 50's. Hey! It really was like this, kids!