KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Lechuguilla It's a super-dated fluff story about an ambitious advertising man named Rock Hunter (Tony Randall) who finds a way to climb the corporate ladder with the help of a bleach-blonde bimbo with big lips named Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield). She coos and squeals, and poses in front of a camera, on her way up Hollywood's stardom ladder. I have seen silent-era films that had more depth, entertainment value, heart, and contemporary relevance than this atrocity.Characters are as shallow as they are silly, as superficial as they are stereotyped. The only thematic message is contained in the film's title. And guess how the film defines "success"; materialistic values, here we come. Aside from this odious theme, there is no message. Viewers back in 1957 must have been easy to please and free from the burdens of critical thinking to enjoy such a nothing movie.Each main actor gets his or her own long monologue, no doubt a selling point to lure in the principal performers. I didn't like the way Tony Randall breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to viewers, corn pone savoir-faire straight from Hollywood. Script dialogue lacks subtext. And the plot flows straight from point A to point Z with nary a zigzag to interfere with viewers' minimal comprehension skills.Background music is standard 1950's nondescript. Casting is acceptable except for Tony Randall, a mouse who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, much less able to take on the rigors of cold, in-house corporate politics. The one really fine performance is from reliable Joan Blondell, as companion to dimwit Rita Marlowe. Joan Blondell and a few funny lines save this antique from being a total cinematic misdemeanor.Apparently aimed at an audience of giggly 16-year-old females, this popcorn and candy flick is pure diversionary fluff, and embarrassingly dated, a time capsule of horrid mainstream American pop culture during the stodgy Eisenhower era. No wonder juveniles back then were driven into delinquency.

MartinHafer "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" is a film that stars Tony Randall as a small-time advertising executive that somehow becomes a world-wide sensation. While none of this is particularly believable, it is fun. Here's how it happens. Randall and his boss (Henry Jones) are worried that they are about to lose one of the company's biggest clients--a cosmetics company. On a lark, Randall proposes that they get a famous movie star (Jayne Mansfield--playing a Marilyn Monroe knockoff) to endorse the cosmetics. However, Jayne's character is a bit of a self-publicizing nut and begins promoting Tony as her latest lover. With the usual media blitz following a bit star, Tony becomes all the rage--and EVERY woman seems to think he's an amazing lover. While he hates all this publicity, he cannot tell everyone the truth--or else Jayne will not sign the contract. So, until she does so, he has to pretend to be this 'Lover-Doll' and put up with the annoyance. There's a lot more to the film than this (including a clever cameo at the end) but I don't want to say more about this--it would spoil the fun.While I will admit that some of the humor is a bit broad, the film is quite fun and original. Randall is great and Mansfield is in one of her better roles. And, when it comes to spoofs about the advertising world and fame, it's very good. And, if you like it, try watching the great Doris Day/Rock Hudson film about advertising, "Lover Come Back"--it's even better.

sjrobb99-997-836393 I can't help it. I love this movie. Tony Randall is spot-on as Rockwell P. Hunter, the hapless, slightly prissy advertising schlub in love with his secretary, Jenny Wells (Betsy Drake). Rock wanders sweetly through life, a man in a gray flannel suit, raising his teenage niece April, pining for a key to the executive washroom, and hoping that the owner of his advertising agency, Mr. Lasalle, Jr. (a fabulously stuffy John Williams) will notice him someday. When Rock's boss Rufus(portrayed with wonderful smarm by Henry Jones) tells him that the agency may lose it's biggest account, Stay-Put Lipstick ("This whole place may foldy. You and I are slated for the chute!"), Hunter worries that this will delay his marriage to Jenny. "What's the matter, boy?" says Rufus. "No kopecks put away?" "No," sighs Rock. "Not a single kopeck." But wait -- if Rock can come up with something to save the account, he might save the day -- or, as Rufus says, "Your problem could be solvey-solvey!" Rock decides to ask the famous movie star Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) to endorse the product. After all, what is she known for? "Next question," deadpans Jenny. "No!" Rock giggles. "Stop that! she's known for her 'oh-so-kissable lips'!"Through a series of misadventures involving his niece, a dozen martinis, and a late-arriving bellboy, Rock manages to secure Rita's endorsement of the lipstick -- on the condition that he pretends for awhile to be her boyfriend, both to make her current boyfriend jealous and to secure free publicity for her upcoming movie -- "A Russian drama about two Russian brothers". Rita renames Rock her "Loverdoll" and they embark on an orgy of publicity that enrages Jenny Wells and stupefies Rufus. In the end, though, no one is really following their dream and when success comes it lands with a dull thud -- until all of the characters sort out where they are really supposed to be in life. This movie is riveting because of the performances (in addition to the rest of the cast, Joan Blondell is hysterical as Vi, Rita's personal assistant) and the script. So many quotable lines...RITA: "What WAS Bruno before I got ahold of him? A Cucamonga grape picker! Even his feet were blue!" VI: "I remember...you thought he never took his socks off."RUFUS: "Gladys told you I drank my lunch? She forgets I eat the olives. That's where the nourishment is."RITA(to Rock): "Don't sell yourself short, dolly. You know your way around a kiss. Where did you learn that?" ROCK: "I don't know. Maybe I inherited it from my mother? She was an accomplished musician. Trumpet,oboe, bassoon...brass and woodwinds, mostly." Tony Randall is at his dithery best, and Jayne Mansfield is wonderfully over the top. I recommend this movie highly.

blanche-2 "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" stars Tony Randall, Jayne Mansfield, Joan Blondell, Henry Jones, Betsy Drake, John Williams, and Mickey Hargitay in a dated but fun story that spoofs the advertising world and the movies' arch enemy, television. In fact, Tony Randall breaks the fourth wall for a "commercial" during one part of the film, extolling the virtues of that "big, 21-inch screen" as the little screen's picture has problems with its vertical.The story concerns an ad exec trying to get a movie star to endorse a lipstick - in return, she wants him to pose as her new boyfriend.The performances are uniformly wonderful - Randall is hilarious as a man trying to hold onto his job, and then onto his girlfriend. Joan Blondell is fabulous as Jayne Mansfield's assistant. She can't get over her milkman boyfriend, stating that loses it whenever she sees Half & Half.But the movie belongs to Jayne Mansfield and her tongue in cheek sex bomb image - she's so blonde, so zaftig, so breathless, and so darn funny with her squeals of delight and outrageous wardrobe. When you look beyond all Jayne's muchness, you see a beautiful, smart woman who found a great niche for herself. It's a pity that the last part of her life was so sad. What a delightful, refreshing performer she was. This film and "The Girl Can't Help It" are for me her best, though she made several other films that showcased her comedic ability.Very good movie, highly entertaining.