When a movie has a question for a title, like Will Success Spoil Hunter? (1957), the temptation is to simply write “No” and be done with my review.  I will avoid that temptation, though, as it is not my way.  I will add that I agonized over choosing this movie.  One of the reasons is the tile for it on Amazon Prime where I found it.  The image features Jayne Mansfield as Rita Marlowe, a blonde Hollywood bombshell in the mold of Marilyn Monroe laying somewhat suggestively with a sheet covering her.  At the same time, the film’s name alone poses a challenge for a Catholic reviewer.  Further, I figured that with such a release date and my knowledge of the strictures in place then for cinematic content, it could not be that bad.  What I got is pretty misogynistic, and not all that satisfying by any stretch of the imagination.  Stick around for the rest to find out how I came to that conclusion.

Rockwell “Rock” P. Hunter (Tony Randall) is the person in question in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?  He brings us into the film by breaking the fourth wall, telling us about his character and how he works at an ad agency.  The examples of the work he has done for his company that we are shown are where much of the misogyny comes from, but that was the 1950s for you.  We see him show up for his job, worshipping the owner of the agency, Irving La Salle Jr. (John Williams), and being ignored as Irving enters his executive bathroom.  Rock next visits his immediate boss, Henry Rufus (Henry Jones), who is in a state because they are about to lose the all-important Stay Put lipstick account.  This means they will be out of a job soon, but Rock vows to do what he can to come up with a way of saving the business.  He has an added incentive to do something because he is in love with his secretary, Jenny Wells (Betsy Drake), whom he cannot yet afford to marry.  There is also his dependent to consider, April Hunter (Lili Gentle), his teenaged niece.  The young girl happens to be a big fan of Rita, and instead of going to school the next morning, she sneaks off to the airport to greet the arrival of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.  Rita has come to New York City with her assistant, Violet (Joan Blondell), in order to make Rita’s current lover, Bobo Branigansky (Mickey Hargitay), jealous.  Upon landing in New York, Rita’s adoring fans flock around her as she disembarks.  The one who makes it onto the television broadcast of the event is April, and who should see it but Rock.  At first, he is angry that his niece is not as school as she should be, but then he has an idea he thinks can solve all his problems.  Following an unproductive night of brainstorming pitches for Stay Put lipstick, Rock sees Rita’s image and realizes that if they can get her to endorse the product, the agency will not have to fold.  So confident is he in this idea that he interrupts a board meeting being conducted by Irving.  Because the others are not aware of any financial problems, Rock is fired.  On the way out, he bumps into the executive from Stay Put lipstick and drops his posters on the floor, not coming back for them.  The Stay Put people are impressed with what they see and want Rock to go ahead with signing Rita to an ad campaign.  Convincing April to share with him the hotel in which Rita is staying, the unassuming Rock ventures to her hotel room to see if she is amenable to working with his agency.  As he enters the room, she is talking to Bobo and trying to make him jealous.  To continue the ruse, and in exchange for signing the advertising deal, she puts Rock on the phone with Bobo.  Unfortunately, the flirtation does not stop with this visit.  Word gets out that Rita Marlowe has a new man, complete with a nationally broadcast interview with Bobo about his feelings on her new choice for a lover.  Seeing a path to corporate advancement, Rock goes along with the publicity.  There is a cost for his newfound fame.  While he quickly receives a number of promotions, which brings him his long dreamed of access to the executive bathroom, he now has to deal with crowds of people wherever he goes.  There is also Jenny to consider.  Despite his best efforts to explain to her that he does not love Rita, Jenny finds it hard to believe him based on the increased scrutiny he has been receiving.  It also does not help that he is expected to act a certain way as the “Lover Boy,” as the press has dubbed him, when he is in public with Rita.  Against Violet’s warnings, Rita confesses to beginning to like Rock beyond their arrangement.  To curb her growing sentiment, the assistant reminds her boss that Rita’s feelings are the result of Rock reminding her of her first love, George Schmidlap (Groucho Marx).  Rock, too, is beginning to have a sense of unfulfillment.  He gets everything he thought he wanted, even being made president of the company when Irving confesses to not being happy in a role he inherited.  What Rock misses most is Jenny.  On the same morning he got to sit in the president’s chair for the first time, Jenny walks in to him passed out on the desk.  She has come to return his engagement ring, but he is finally able to convince her that he loves her instead of Rita.  They agree to get married that day, leaving Henry to take Rock’s place as head of the agency.  From there, April, Jenny, and Rock become chicken farmers, pursuing a lifelong dream of his.  As for Rita, she is reunited with George while doing a television ad for Stay Put lipstick.

After giving Rita and Rock happy endings, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? concludes with the cast getting together for a collective fourth wall break.  They answer the question implied in the title with a cheesy line about how success is the art of being happy.  I am not sure how to take that as a practicing Catholic.  “Success” is a nebulous term meaning different things to different people.  Measuring such things in terms of God is how I try to look at this subject, though that, too, is problematic.  In the Faith life, there will be successes as well as failures.  The failures can be as instructive as the successes because they are an opportunity for God’s grace to work.  The good times may also blind us to problems that will lead us away from God, which is a failure from which it is difficult to recover.  Along this same line of thinking, there is another idea put forward by Rock that is more useful.  After dealing with the pains of fame, he realizes that it is the “average guys” who are the real success, claiming that they run the world.  These words spoke to me on a Spiritual level.  There are so many of us that struggle, though the film does well to suggest that those in the limelight have their own problems.  In Catholicism, a crude comparison can be made between our saints and celebrities.  I am speaking simply in terms of notoriety as I would see little similarity between Rita and, to choose the first female saint to come to mind, St. Catherine of Siena.  Many Catholics look at saints as impossible to follow examples of piety.  However, piety does not mean a lack of turmoil.  When you read their writings, they have as many instances of Spiritual turmoil as Spiritual ecstasy.  They give us their insights on their relationships with God in order to help us who do not so easily have the better experiences in reaching God.

It is difficult to imagine being inspired with such thoughts after watching Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?  It becomes more difficult just listening to Rita’s squealing, which is then emulated by her fans and Jenny.  The most glaring problem with the film, though, is its insistence on a male dominated world.  They clearly did not think about this as a problem at the time of its filming, but it is clearer today.