fanfare sequence. At the end, he remarks, "Oh, the fine print they put in an actor's contract these days!" Legacy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is known as Mansfield's "signature film". In 1966 Frank Tashlin said it was the film of his with which he was "most satisfied... there was no compromise on that one. Buddy Adler let me do it my own way." There's a reference to this film in the film of the 1964 spy novel Funeral in Berlin, starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. When the secret agent Palmer gets forged papers with a new identity, he is dissatisfied with the name given to him and complains, "Rock Hunter! Why can't I be Rock Hunter?" In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Reception Critical response Film critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in his review: "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at their television sets, no matter how scornful and superior they may feel toward video. The rocks may miss the vexing targets and crash through their own fragile walls. This axiom is clearly demonstrated in the flimsy motion picture that has been made from the flimsy stage play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?". Ethan de Seife wrote in his book, Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin, that we see with Son of Paleface, Marry Me Again, Artists and Models, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, The Man from the Diners' Club, The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell, and many others that American animation and American live-action comedy derive from the same tradition. Peter Lev wrote in his book, Twentieth Century-Fox: The Zanuck-Skouras Years, 1935–1965, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is more fragmented than The Girl Can't Help It, and paradoxically it makes it a better film." Awards and nominations Home media Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is in a package called "The Jayne Mansfield Collection" along with The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958) The film was released on VHS on July 2, 1996, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. References Citations Sources External links 1957 films 1950s business films 1957 romantic comedy films 1950s satirical films 20th Century Fox films American business films American films based on plays American romantic comedy films