Film Version
Studio head Buddy Adler purchased the rights to the play to get Mansfield out of her stage contract, even though he didn't believe that the play would make a good movie. Frank Tashlin had seen Mansfield's screen test for The Wayward Bus and wanted her for his film version of Garson Kanin's novel Do Re Mi (which would become the comedy The Girl Can't Help It). Tashlin's solution was to throw out all of Axelrod's play and create a new comedy about the world of television advertising, using only the character of sex goddess Rita Marlowe (Mansfield). All the other characters in the movie version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? were created by Tashlin, including his new leading man, Rockwell P Hunter (Tony Randall).
To prepare for her role in the film (and for her new seven-year contract with Fox), Mansfield studied with Karl Malden at the Actors Studio. "I'm studying dancing, singing and dramatic acting," she told columnist Louella Parsons. "20th has promised to build me as one of their important stars."
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