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Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? [Masters of Cinema] [Blu-ray]

Tony Randall , Jayne Mansfield , Frank Tashlin    Universal, suitable for all   Blu-ray
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £25.00
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Frequently Bought Together

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? [Masters of Cinema] [Blu-ray] + MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Masters of Cinema) Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) [1937]
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Product details

  • Actors: Tony Randall, Jayne Mansfield
  • Directors: Frank Tashlin
  • Format: Anamorphic, Colour, Widescreen
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region B/2 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: U
  • Studio: Eureka Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 25 Oct 2010
  • Run Time: 92 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0041GA89M
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 50,232 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

Product Description

Unsold on celebrity? Congested with consumption? Addled by status? You're in The World, kiddo, brought to you by Frank Tashlin "Because Someone's Got to Live in It." And now a brief word on our latest fine product, the one that gives you the answer to that nagging question: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Ladies and gentlemen, no-one does straight-and-narrow quite like Tony Randall, and we guarantee his turn as lovable ad-man Rockwell P. Hunter will leave you in so many stitches you'll be just silly with sc-HAH-rtissue! And speaking of tissue: once you see Jayne Mansfield bob and weave as starlet Rita Marlowe, the ambidextrous angel who takes Hunter under her "wings" to launch his agency into the $trato$phere, you too will coo her trademark "ooo"! But that's not all! You'll also get Ms. Joan Blondell, star of Nightmare Alley and of Opening Night, who rounds out the package as Ms. Marlowe's assistant and handler as they say in Paris, quel package! Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? proves that love CAN be manufactured (how else could we get our Blu-rays in your hands??), and finds Frank Tashlin doing what he did better than everyone else: Frank Tashlin'!!! Trust us when we say we here at The Masters of Cinema Series are simply over-the-moon to be presenting Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? for the first time on Blu-ray anywhere on the planet. - Gorgeous high-definition transfer of the film in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio - New and exclusive video introduction to the film by director Joe Dante (Gremlins 1 & 2, InnerSpace, Looney Tunes: Back in Action) - Vintage Movietone short which captures Jayne Mansfield on tour promoting the film - Alternate music & effects track with a different musical score for the opening of the picture and other 'temporary' effects-placement - Original theatrical trailer - Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired - 44-page booklet featuring two new essays by film writer David Cairns, and an exclusive 2003 interview about the film with Tony Randall conducted by Ethan DeSeife

Product Description

United Kingdom released, Blu-Ray/Region B DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), English ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Booklet, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Short Film, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Jayne Mansfield recreated her starmaking stage role in this film adaptation of George Axelrod's Broadway comedy. Mansfield plays a Monroe-like movie queen whom adman Tony Randall hopes to sign for a product endorsement. Through a fluke, the press believes that Randall is having an affair with Mansfield; she eagerly pounces on the attendant publicity, much to the dismay of her body-builder beau (Mickey Hargitay, then married to Mansfield). At the behest of his ad agency, Randall is forced to propose to Mansfield on a coast-to-coast TV show, which breaks the heart of his true love (Betsy Drake). Both Randall and Mansfield are saved from a marriage neither one wants by the last-minute arrival of Mansfield's hometown boy friend (Groucho Marx). Director Frank Tashlin uses Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter as an excuse to take satirical potshots at everything from TV commercials to the unwieldiness of CinemaScope. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Golden Globes, ...Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? ( Oh! For a Man! ) (Blu-Ray)


Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Trevor Willsmer HALL OF FAME TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
NB: As is their wont, Amazon have bundled the reviews for the Region 1 NTSC DVD Jayne Mansfield boxed set with the Eureka UK Blu-ray of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Please bear in mind that the extras and other titles here refer to the Fox boxed set, and NOT the Eureka Blu-ray.

The Girl Can't Help It is like a live-action Tex Avery cartoon - Jayne Mansfield even looks like Swingshift Cinderella herself, while Edmond O'Brien channels both Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd at times - although it's directed by another animator, Frank Tashlin, whose pen-and-ink work never quite dared to go this far. Smut is present in every scene, whether it be Mansfield holding two jugs of milk, or the outrageous milkman sight gag you cannot believe they got past the censors. The plot is a reworking of Born Yesterday but much, much funnier and a lot more likeable, with a mostly well-integrated array of rock'n'roll hits of the day from an impressive line-up of everyone from Gene Vincent to Fats Domino via Abby Lincoln and Eddie Cochrane, not to mention the mandatory Chuck Berry (although Barry Gordon's rendition of Blue Suede Shoes didn't make it further than the movie's trailer, included on the DVD). Yet for all the energy, perhaps the single most effective musical moment is Tom Ewell seeing old flame Julie London everywhere he turns when he hears Cry Me a River. The color is stunning in this 2.55:1 widescreen transfer, a big surprise for the usually lackluster DeLuxe color system. Perfectly joyous, and without an ounce of padding. Damn, it's catching!

(This has the best extras package of the set - an audio commentary geared more to the history of rock music than the film itself, a 43-minute Biography documentary on Mansfield and trailers.)

Yet somehow I still prefer Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? The Madison Avenue satire shares little more than a title and a character with the hit Broadway sendup of Hollywood, and it lacks the energy and jukebox construction of Girl (I mean the musical numbers, not the gal herself), but in taking on the corporate rat race rather than the music-and-gangsters milieu it seems just grounded enough for the gags to seem alternately more pertinent and more audacious. As well as being very smart, it's also unbelievably smutty, almost taking even more delight in censor-baiting than its predecessor, albeit with less milk. And in-jokes abound, whether it be Joan Blondel uttering "Well I'll be a writer's subplot," a Technicolor-dyed poodle named after Girl's cinematographer Leon Shamroy or a breathtakingly audacious two-minute break in the film for the benefit of TV viewers that sees the CinemaScope screen reduced to 24 inches of rolling flickering monochrome. Sadly the 2.55:1 widescreen transfer is not as good as the previouzs laserdisc release, though still acceptable. Extras are audio commentary and trailers.

The disappointment of the set is The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, a blockbuster hit in the UK but looking like nothing so much as an undernourished Rank Organisation movie with a much bigger budget. There's a serious lack of jokes for a comedy - mostly just variations on "He's English" as if that automatically turns every situation into a laugh-riot - leaving it to coast by on Kenneth More's likeability, which it just about does. As the rather dull romantic interest with nothing to work with Mansfield is pretty awful, but the film does have one nice song, The Valley of Love. The 2.55:1 widescreen transfer is good, but the only extras are a novelty trailer for the film featuring no footage but unbelievably badly faked laughter from a 'real' preview audience and trailers for theother two titles.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Tashlin - the DeLuxe Auteur 31 Aug 2011
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Even more than than THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT! this is a classic example of Tashlin's dark, anarchic world. It just seemed wonderfully whacky in the cartoon world(where Tashlin is right up there with Tex Avery & Chuck Jones), but when it's Ms Mansfield et al in color by deluxe, Tashlin's breaking down the 4th wall stuff is really disturbing and exciting. No wonder the Nouvelle Vaguers loved him!
His visual language is very very strange ... testimonials from Sam Raimi on this disc (& John Waters on THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT!) are fascinating as well.
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Amazon.com: 4.5 out of 5 stars  33 reviews
58 of 59 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Seamless Blending of the Sublime and Ridiculous 31 Dec 2006
By Jon Oye - Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
This long overdue collection deserves a place on your DVD shelf as much for archeological as entertainment value. The two Frank Tashlin-directed films ("The Girl Can't Help It" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter"), which parody the more garish aspects of Fifties life but manage to work equally well as celebrations of it, make this set worth the price. "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw" is icing, provided by the otherwise formidable Raoul Walsh.

"The Girl Can't Help It" is unlike any other film of its time, or of any other time for that matter. Equal parts comedy, love story, Hollywood musical, comic book fantasy, crass titillation, live action cartoon, and Rock `n' Roll road show, it somehow succeeds in engaging the viewer to the point that he or she genuinely likes the main characters - even the felonious ones - and inexplicably soaring above and beyond the sum of its parts. Sentimentality is held in check by the adept lunacy of the script and the strategic inclusion of then-embryonic Rock acts, and perhaps it's those acts that cause the film to transcend itself.

The Rock `n' Roll, Rockabilly, and R&B stars, near misses, and never-would-be's featured in TGCHI are showcased regally. This isn't one of those low budget, black and white, Alan Freed-mentored Rocksploitation vehicles so common at the time. While the acts are presented in a traditional manner for popular musicians in movies (similar to the way, say, Glenn Miller or Harry James were in the `40s), they're nevertheless the recipients of some perks that were usually reserved for A-list leading ladies and men, such as dramatic, "heroic" low angle shots, dollying boom shots, eye-popping color by de Luxe, and "the grandeur of Cinemascope", suggesting that something bigger than life was being archived for the ages. With the benefit 20-20 hindsight, we now know that it was.

Or at least in the cases of Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters, and Fats Domino . . . the same can't be said for The Chuckles, Johnny Olenn and a few others. But, after all, Rock `n' Roll was still a new thing in 1956, foreign to an incredulous world of worrying adults. Many no doubt thought it a passing fad, a novelty - as a result, every type of youth act the kids might have possibly liked was thrown in for the purpose of reaping immediate dividends. Perhaps, strange as it may seem, they saw no difference between Little Richard and The Chuckles. On the other hand, the naivete of those otherwise long forgotten performers being included on the same bill as bona fide immortals adds a certain charm to the film, as well as a sense of time and place of an increasingly distant, innocent past.

I would advise first time viewers against listening to the running commentary feature while watching TGCHI - the "expert" chosen to comment is frequently off base in his assessment of the Big Picture, and his muffing the minutiae is an ongoing annoyance. As an example of the latter, he doesn't seem to realize that the nickname of Edmond O' Brien's character is Fats - not "Fatso", as he calls him at least a dozen times throughout the course of the commentary. And that's NOT Phil Silvers delivering milk in the sequence of cartoon-like reactions to Jayne Mansfield's contour assets. Silvers was a big enough star at the time (he had been a well-known comic since WWII, and "Bilko" was in the works in 1956) to require a close-up in a cameo appearance (not to mention at least one line, or a quick wisecrack). If you're still not convinced, click the pause button and take a good look.

The (British) commentator is also oblivious to the "sock hop" phenomenon in the America of the era in which the film was made; he strains to find deeper meaning in the fact that the teenage audience dancing to the performances of Fats Domino and The Platters are not wearing shoes. It doesn't take a heck of a lot of research to determine that sock hops, or informal dances, were often held in high school gyms (as is the one in the film), and that a participant would be obliged to adhere to the enforced prerequisite of removing his or her shoes in order to dance in stocking feet, thereby sparing the floor from scuff marks - or else suffer the wrath of the principal.

While film historian Dana Polan, who ably handles the running commentary on "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter", stretches his credibility a bit on occasion, he's much more consistently on target than his TGCHI counterpart. For this picture, I would definitely recommend making the commentary part of your second viewing, if only to grasp the film's place in history, as well as the very history it's parodying. There's more to ponder in WSSRH, an honest to goodness satire of the excesses of postwar affluence, the `50s advertising boom, the growing cult of celebrity, and the phenomenon of celeb worship that followed as part and parcel.

Tashlin may have been hedging his bets and having it both ways in TGCHI, but WSSRH is undeniably scathing satire. There's palpable warmth permeating the former film, as well as a sense that the director wants us to feel some affection for the principles (beautifully played by Mansfield, the magnificent O'Brien, and "Seven Year Itch" alumnus Tom Ewell), which we do, and which is somewhat lacking - with few exceptions - in the latter film; in it Tashlin has bigger fish to fry.

As in TGCHI, the acting is vital to "Hunter's" success; as over-the-top as many of these performances are (by necessity), they are subtly nuanced all the same. Mansfield puts in a very fine performance as sex kitten/starlet Rita Marlowe, against the incredibly talented Tony Randall - the geeky but ambitious Rockwell P. Hunter of the title. The versatile and indispensable Henry Jones, a key player in "Girl", also shines, this time as Randall's co-worker, despicably shameless ad-man Henry Rufus. (In "Girl" Jones was ingeniously understated - here he goes brilliantly for broke.) Joan Blondell is also memorable as Mansfield's girl Friday.

But, to paraphrase Mousey in "The Girl Can't Help It", I don't want to "louse ya up", and leave you with the impression that these are heavy or deep films. Despite their worthiness for dissection and serious critique, it's all really secondary to the fact that these are two very funny and enjoyable movies, on any level, and both are ideal for an evening of lounging on the couch with a bag of popcorn, forgetting your problems, and laughing your contour assets off.
57 of 64 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Jayne Mansfield was a bigger-than-life star of the 1950s 19 Jun 2006
By John Malanga - Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although Jayne Mansfield never reached the heights of popularity and fame
of Marilyn Monroe, her films are highly entertaining, campy and great fun.
I am not familiar with The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw, but I rate
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (with Tony Randall) as a little gem of a Cinemascope,
Technicolor comedy. As she does in all her films, Jayne plays
a highly exaggerated parody of Monroe, but brings her own brand of humor
and sweetness to her roles. The Girl Can't Help It (also Technicolor and Cinemascope) has a big bonus because it features some legendary music stars of the 1950s: Fats Domino, The Platters, Gene Vincent and Little Richard. This one's a must for fans of early Rock 'n Roll. I forgot to mention that sultry Julie London sings her huge pop hit, "Cry Me A River".
All the films look beautiful. The colors are rich and fresh as when the films were first released.
The Girl Can't Help It looks most amazing! You will not be disappointed.
55 of 64 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Bombshell set 11 July 2006
By Flipper Campbell - Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
Just got it -- here is some more info since it's sketchy above. All titles are listed as widescreen (2.35:1), in English stereo. These are all CinemaScope titles and they look quite good.

"Girl Can't Help It" includes "Blonde Ambition," an hourlong A&E "Biography" documentary; commentary by "film historian" Toby Miller; and original trailer. Spanish mono and subtitles.

"Will Success Spoil Rock Junter?" with commentary by "film historian" Dana Polan. Brief newsreel clip on Mansfield in the U.S. capital. The English audio actually appears to be in four-channel. Spanish stereo.

"Sheriff of Fractured Jaw" lists only a still gallery and the original theatrical teaser and trailer. French 4.0 LCRS and Spanish subtitles.
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