rock hunter crichton

In 1957, television was still public enemy number one as far as Hollywood was concerned. And while the two industries would learn to co-exist eventually, there were still a few good-natured shots fired over the bow now and then. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? gets in a few good licks on its small-screen rival and the absurdities of the advertising industry, populated by a bevy of booze-soaked, upwardly mobile hacks desperate to save their jobs at all costs (pot...meet kettle).

Rockwell Hunter (Tony Randall), however, is a man of integrity, raising his teenage niece, dating a sensible girl and sweating over the creative details of every important account...all with no recognition or respect. But that changes when his pitch for a new ad campaign starring Hollywood bombshell Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) catapults him into the ranks of the executive elite. Not only that, but Marlowe uses him as a promotional boyfriend - "Loverman" - to spite an old boyfriend and keep herself in the public eye. Rockwell is a teenage heartthrob and advertising giant overnight. But is a private bathroom really worth the total destruction of his private life?

Writer / director Frank Tashlin, whose career began with Warner Brothers cartoons, lends the film a distinctly Looney Tunes feel. Nothing is safe from satire, with each character coming off as a comic exaggeration ripe for ridicule. Tony Randall even interrupts the film, Bugs Bunny-style, to address the audience directly. With so many potential targets (Mansfield does a fine job mocking Marilyn Monroe and herself at the same time), the film doesn't lack for material. But the references are a bit dated, the comedy unapologetically broad and a few of the gags are well past their sexist expiration date. That said, Rock Hunter is an all-around good time, full of scattershot jokes and likable people (there are no villains here beyond the Elmer Fudd variety) putting on a show.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray looks a bit less sharp then their usual Fox transfers but includes an isolated music track, audio commentary, newsreel and theatrical trailer.

If only the upcoming Downton Abbey movie had the courage to take its upstairs-downstairs theme to the conceptual heights of 1957's The Admirable Crichton we would really have something to look forward to! After being shipwrecked on a deserted island, Lord Henry Loam and his pampered family are forced to rely on the practical skills of their previously oh-so loyal butler to survive. With the tables turned on hundreds of years of British hierarchy, society should look quite different in this tropical paradise. Or does it?

Based on a 1902 play by J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan) and adapted to the screen several times since, this version stars Kenneth More (A Night to Remember) as the stuffy British butler, Crichton, who at first rebels against the idea of bossing about his betters. But as the stakes rise, he realizes his employers are woefully unprepared to do their fare share of manual labor...and ungrateful towards his efforts to keep them alive. So, in a mostly humorous bit of Gilligan's Island-style ingenuity, the castaways elect Crichton their prime minister, even deferring to his choice of romantic liaison among Lord Loam's three available daughters and serving maid, Tweeny. Happier and healthier than ever, the social structure seems to be a success for all involved until the prospect of rescue - and a return to Mother England - throws the entire system into a catastrophic return traditions and titles that, it seems, aren't so easily forgotten after all.

Directed with a deft touch by Lewis Gilbert (Alfie, You Only Live Twice), The Admirable Crichton is perhaps more enjoyable today thanks to the success of Downton Abbey and popular culture's obsession with the often ridiculous rules of decorum. A household name in Britain but almost anonymous in the U.S., actor Kenneth More is wonderful in the title role, a man whose talent and ambition are smothered beneath a class system that his employer claims to despise, but only when convenient and temporary. Barrie's ideas are almost revolutionary, attacking the well-established status quo under the guise preposterous "what if" fiction. Upon closer inspection, however, The Admirable Crichton is as much a tragedy as it is a lighthearted fantasy.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray is a beautiful introduction to the film, re-titled Paradise Lagoon when released by Columbia. The high-def transfer is spot-on in every respect. Extras include an isolated music & effects track plus original theatrical trailer.