I can't help it. I love this movie.
Tony Randall is spot-on as Rockwell P. Hunter, the hapless, slightly prissy advertising schlub in love with his secretary, Jenny Wells (Betsy Drake). Rock wanders sweetly through life, a man in a gray flannel suit, raising his teenage niece April, pining for a key to the executive washroom, and hoping that the owner of his advertising agency, Mr. Lasalle, Jr. (a fabulously stuffy John Williams) will notice him someday.
When Rock's boss Rufus(portrayed with wonderful smarm by Henry Jones) tells him that the agency may lose it's biggest account, Stay-Put Lipstick ("This whole place may foldy. You and I are slated for the chute!"), Hunter worries that this will delay his marriage to Jenny.
"What's the matter, boy?" says Rufus. "No kopecks put away?"
"No," sighs Rock. "Not a single kopeck."
But wait -- if Rock can come up with something to save the account, he might save the day -- or, as Rufus says, "Your problem could be solvey-solvey!" Rock decides to ask the famous movie star Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) to endorse the product. After all, what is she known for?
"Next question," deadpans Jenny.
"No!" Rock giggles. "Stop that! she's known for her 'oh-so-kissable lips'!"
Through a series of misadventures involving his niece, a dozen martinis, and a late-arriving bellboy, Rock manages to secure Rita's endorsement of the lipstick -- on the condition that he pretends for awhile to be her boyfriend, both to make her current boyfriend jealous and to secure free publicity for her upcoming movie -- "A Russian drama about two Russian brothers". Rita renames Rock her "Loverdoll" and they embark on an orgy of publicity that enrages Jenny Wells and stupefies Rufus. In the end, though, no one is really following their dream and when success comes it lands with a dull thud -- until all of the characters sort out where they are really supposed to be in life.
This movie is riveting because of the performances (in addition to the rest of the cast, Joan Blondell is hysterical as Vi, Rita's personal assistant) and the script. So many quotable lines...
RITA: "What WAS Bruno before I got ahold of him? A Cucamonga grape picker! Even his feet were blue!"
VI: "I remember...you thought he never took his socks off."
RUFUS: "Gladys told you I drank my lunch? She forgets I eat the olives. That's where the nourishment is."
RITA(to Rock): "Don't sell yourself short, dolly. You know your way around a kiss. Where did you learn that?"
ROCK: "I don't know. Maybe I inherited it from my mother? She was an accomplished musician. Trumpet,oboe, bassoon...brass and woodwinds, mostly."
Tony Randall is at his dithery best, and Jayne Mansfield is wonderfully over the top. I recommend this movie highly.
Tony Randall is spot-on as Rockwell P. Hunter, the hapless, slightly prissy advertising schlub in love with his secretary, Jenny Wells (Betsy Drake). Rock wanders sweetly through life, a man in a gray flannel suit, raising his teenage niece April, pining for a key to the executive washroom, and hoping that the owner of his advertising agency, Mr. Lasalle, Jr. (a fabulously stuffy John Williams) will notice him someday.
When Rock's boss Rufus(portrayed with wonderful smarm by Henry Jones) tells him that the agency may lose it's biggest account, Stay-Put Lipstick ("This whole place may foldy. You and I are slated for the chute!"), Hunter worries that this will delay his marriage to Jenny.
"What's the matter, boy?" says Rufus. "No kopecks put away?"
"No," sighs Rock. "Not a single kopeck."
But wait -- if Rock can come up with something to save the account, he might save the day -- or, as Rufus says, "Your problem could be solvey-solvey!" Rock decides to ask the famous movie star Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) to endorse the product. After all, what is she known for?
"Next question," deadpans Jenny.
"No!" Rock giggles. "Stop that! she's known for her 'oh-so-kissable lips'!"
Through a series of misadventures involving his niece, a dozen martinis, and a late-arriving bellboy, Rock manages to secure Rita's endorsement of the lipstick -- on the condition that he pretends for awhile to be her boyfriend, both to make her current boyfriend jealous and to secure free publicity for her upcoming movie -- "A Russian drama about two Russian brothers". Rita renames Rock her "Loverdoll" and they embark on an orgy of publicity that enrages Jenny Wells and stupefies Rufus. In the end, though, no one is really following their dream and when success comes it lands with a dull thud -- until all of the characters sort out where they are really supposed to be in life.
This movie is riveting because of the performances (in addition to the rest of the cast, Joan Blondell is hysterical as Vi, Rita's personal assistant) and the script. So many quotable lines...
RITA: "What WAS Bruno before I got ahold of him? A Cucamonga grape picker! Even his feet were blue!"
VI: "I remember...you thought he never took his socks off."
RUFUS: "Gladys told you I drank my lunch? She forgets I eat the olives. That's where the nourishment is."
RITA(to Rock): "Don't sell yourself short, dolly. You know your way around a kiss. Where did you learn that?"
ROCK: "I don't know. Maybe I inherited it from my mother? She was an accomplished musician. Trumpet,oboe, bassoon...brass and woodwinds, mostly."
Tony Randall is at his dithery best, and Jayne Mansfield is wonderfully over the top. I recommend this movie highly.