WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? It already has, says Frank Tashlin in his brilliant 1957 satire on the age of Eisenhower even before Rockwell Hunter becomes the hottest ad executive in town by signing up a bosomy movie star Jayne Mansfield as Hollywood bombshell No. 1 to promote Stay-Put Lipstick («For those oh-so-kissable lips!»). As Ernst Lubitsch was to the 30s and Preston Sturges to the 40s, so was Tashlin to the 50s: a filmmaker gifted with an uncanny insight into the ruling delusions of his day. Loud and beautifully vulgar in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope, Rock Hunter is hilarious from the first frame. (Dave Kehr)