Great Companion piece to Girl Can't Help it!
This movie and Girl Can't Help it are the best cult films ever. Just plain fun!

Just a tad over campy
Frank Tashlin's screenplay adapted from the play by George Axelrod (of "Lord Love a Duck" 1966 fame) that was adapted from Frank Tashlin's story, answers the question that has been on our mind "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"

Rockwell P. Hunter (Tony Randall) comes up with a plan to save the company he works for (Stayput Lipstick) from going down the tubes, by using a well known movie star that is noted for her kiss, to indorse the product.

The movie star (Jayne Mansfield) has plans of her own with will eventually propel Rock in to the limelight from there he may even advance n the company and become a success. And we all know what the big question is.

See if you can recognize the huge cast of supporting actors including Barbara Eden

Mansfield was the Monroe phenomenon which changed her from brunette to blonde...
In the wake of Monroe's success, Hollywood teemed with imitations... This, in itself, was not an unusual phenomenon; what was extraordinary was the number of imitations...

Not only every studio but also every country came up with one... England had Sabrina and Diana Dors; France sold Mylene Demongeot in that image and, of course, Bardot... Germany came out with a series of teutonic, pneumatic blondes like Barbara Valentine... Back in Hollywood, Universal came up with the clone-like Mamie Van Doren, Columbia with Cleo Moore, Warner Brothers with Carole Baker, Paramount with Anita Ekberg, MGM tried with Barbara Lang, and on and on ran the list of actresses who found themselves poured into the mold... Even Sophia Loren and Tina Louise were, in a manner of speaking, off-shoots of the 'steamy' Marilyn in "Niagara."

No single studio was as determined to increase replicas as Monroe's own lot, 20th Century-Fox, who found the most extravagant pretender in Jayne Mansfield... Although none of the Monroe copies can be said to have made it in that guise, none tried harder (right up to her sudden death in a car crash) than Mansfield...

Mansfield worked in a succession of busty bits at various studios, it was the Monroe phenomenon which changed her from brunette to blonde, and made her play down her high IQ to dumb-blonde level... Her breakthrough came with the 'Monroe'-inspired role of the blonde sex-bomb in Broadway's "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" The display of her physical wares represented a personal triumph which led her back to Hollywood in 1956 where she became a star for Fox, who were looking to curb Monroe's power...

Monroe on Steroids
Frank Tashlin and Jayne Mansfield-- a marriage made in cartoon heaven. Who better to point up the absurdities of pop culture,1950's style, than Mansfield, with her little girl squeal, breathy delivery, and protruding gunboats. She resembles nothing so much as Marilyn Monroe on steroids. And Tashlin, with his gift for social satire and cartoonist eye for exaggeration. Notice how cleverly sight gags are inserted to stress a point-- an overheated kiss that pops popcorn, a computer read-out that mimics the dialogue, celebrity-mad teen-agers that pour out of a man-hole. Notice too, how in the end, Tashlin confronts the glamorous but artificial world of advertising with the unglamorous but authentic world of living things. In a subtle way, Tashlin's subtext undermines the image-obsessed 50's by anticipating the back-to-nature 1960's. All in all, the movie remains a revealing document of its time.

It also serves as a perfect vehicle for the arch talents of Mansfield, the rubber-faced Henry Jones, and the nebbish Tony Randall. In fact, the scenes between Jones and Randall are among the most deliciously droll of that era, while Jones remains one of the most unusual and unsung among Hollywood character actors. Still and all, it's hard to exaggerate what was already extreme about that glossy decade-- the absurd mammary worship, the vacuous teen-culture, the mindless consumerism. Nonetheless, all get nailed in this inventive little spoofery that remains not only pretty funny in its own right, but reveals a lot about a decade that in many ways is still with us.

The BEST Jayne Mansfield movie
Why do I call this film the best Jayne Mansfield movie?.Well,it is the largest-budget film she ever appeared in + The Film was HERS.The Studio had paid quite a bundle for that play,that basically put Ms. Mansfield on the map.Even 'The Girl Can't help it'(also a great movie),was padded (no pun intended Jaynie!) with rock'n roll numbers,because the Studio was scared that Jayne could not carry the film alone(Were they ever wrong !).
To get back to Rock Hunter,the person that did the switch from the movie-satire to television-satire,did an excellent adaptation job.Tony Randall is fine as the ordinary-all-American-Joe.Betsy Drake is also good,in her plainesss(about a zillion women must have been able to relate to her).Joan Blondell is FANTASTIC,reminiscing about her milkman !.
Something that I have not read in the reviews are all the VERY obvious cheap-shots at Marilyn:1-about being a Communist(at the same time that MM had problems with Miller as they were travelling to England for 'The Prince and the Showgirl'.2-about the Brother Karamazov(MM wanted that role badly).We can easily understand why Monroe disliked Mansfield so much.
Jayne never looked better;after all she was then on TOP OF THE WORLD !,and could have stayed there a little longer if she had not decided to get married to Mr.Universe 1955,basically telling the heads of the Studios to go to hell.That was one wrong move,because after this film,her career went nowhere fast,and it went down,down,way down...
It is a shame.God only knows what other gems she could have appeared in.
In conclusion,I find that this film gives us an idea of what Jayne's real life was about.Oh yes,and before I forget! That scene when she gets off the plane ?.Well the Master himself,and I am naming Federico Fellini was HEAVILY inspired by it in 'La Dolce Vita',four years later with Sweden's answer to Jayne ...ANITA EKBERG,when she gets off the plane herself.The EXACT same scene,but Mansfield did it first,and a big BRAVO to you Jayne the EPITOME of Hollywood Fifties !