DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Frank Tashlin  
PRODUCTION CO: 20th Century Fox
SCREENPLAY: Frank Tashlin, based on the play Rita Marlowe by George Axelrod
PHOTOGRAPHY: Joseph MacDonald
EDITOR: Hugh S Fowler
MUSIC: ​Cyril J Mockridge
WITH: Jayne Mansfield (Rita Marlowe), Tony Randall (Rockwell P Hunter), Betsy Drake (Jenny Wells), Joan Blondell (Violet), John Williams (Irving La Salle Jr), Henry Jones (Henry Rufus), Lili Gentle (April Hunter), Mickey Hargitay (Bobo Branigansky), Groucho Marx (George Schmidlap), Ann McCrea (Gladys), Barbara Eden (Miss Carstairs) 

REVIEW

“Rockwell P Hunter (Tony Randall) is as low as one can be on the mad-men totem pole, an all-around average schnook who longs for the respect of his snooty boss and droolingly covets a key to the executive washroom. But this ad-agency lackey has a bigger problem, since his company is about to lose its top account (with Stay-Put lipstick) and his job is on the line. It’s only thanks to his flighty fan-girl niece that inspiration strikes: He just needs to get buxom starlet Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) – in town for a bit of incognito publicity – to endorse Stay-Put, and Stay-Put will, well, stay put.

By contrast, Frank Tashlin’s colorful CinemaScope satire never holds fast to anything. The plot, adapted by the director from a hit George Axelrod play, is but a pretext for an endless series of see-what-sticks gags: Targets include everything from the pervasive TV culture that was then dragging audiences away from theaters (‘Your big 21-inch screens,’ Randall sneers in a hilarious fourth-wall-breaking sequence) to the near-cannibalistic celebrity worship that has only increased over time. Mansfield embodies the greatest joke of all – her shameless Marilyn Monroe clone has a dress-up poodle at her side, a laugh that sounds like a bomb-dropping whistle and an all-encompassing ditziness (is she in on the joke or isn’t she?) that constantly catches you off guard. She’s this unabashedly crude movie’s bleached-blond heart and soul.”

— Keith Uhlich, Time Out

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Timaru
Tuesday, 04 April, 6.00pm

Canterbury
Monday, 17 April, 7.00pm​

Hamilton     
Monday, 01 May, 6.30pm

​Auckland  
Monday, 08 May, 6.15pm 

​​​Wellington     
Monday, 29 May, 6.15pm

​​​​New Plymouth     
Wednesday, 07 June, 6.00pm

Nelson     
Tuesday, 20 June, 6.00pm

Queenstown  
Tuesday, 27 June, 8.15pm

​Dunedin     
Wednesday, 05 July, 7.30pm

​Whanganui  
Monday, 06 November, 7.00pm​

Palmerston North
​Wednesday, 29 November, 6.00pm
​
CULT & CLASSICS selection >>