The Girl Can't Help It

source: The Girl Can't Help It

Frank Tashlin's 'The Girl Can't Help It' is as much a valuable social document of 1950s rock 'n' roll as it is gaudy, cartoonish comedy. The appearances of 50's luminaries such as Little Richard and Fats Domino give the viewer a strong impression of the vitality and raw power of rock 'n' roll and the film is, if nothing else, a strong piece of archive material. The plot is somewhat slight but the cast all look as though they're having fun with the light-weight material. Tom Ewell is much more effective and bearable than he was as the whiney Richard Sherman in 'The Seven Year Itch' and is a joy to watch as the washed-up agent Tom Miller. I don't know about other viewers but I found Edmund O'Brien's turn as Fatso incredibly irritating - all growls and bluster and his 'hit' Rock Around the Rock Pile was excruciating! And so to Miss Mansfield. Jayne has a not entirely undeserved reputation as being little more than a peroxided pair of knockers, due in large part to her knack of picking rubbish film projects later in her career but here she is just wonderful. She gets the full A-list treatment from 20th Century Fox and looks and acts superbly. From her first appearance through those sliding doors dressed in a figure hugging white sequined gown to her famous sashay down the street in black wide-brimmed hat she is a cartoon character come to life. Leaving aside a few duff line deliveries, Mansfield is on the top of her game her as the seemingly talentless Jeri Jordan, who shuns celebrity for motherhood. Tashlin was well aware of Jayne's limitations as an actress and so everything she is required to do i n Girl she does extremely well and never looked better on film. It is sad to see Mansfield in such turkeys as 'The Fat Spy' after her turn in this classic although for those of you still needing proof that she could put in a dramatic turn, check out 'Too Hot to Handle'. For fans of 50's rock 'n' roll, Tom Ewell and the wonderful Jayne Mansfield, look no further than 'The Girl Can't Help It'.

These early rock & roll movies were almost uniformly lousy. Producers rushed to get a product out on the market before the fad went away. They had no feel for the music, and it shows. The only thing that redeems some of them are appearances by some of rock's early superstars. That's where 'The Girl Can't Help It' has it over most of its contemporaries. The performances are lip-synched and often interrupted by silly action and dialog, but look at this lineup! There's Little Richard doing "Ready Teddy" and "She's Got It" as well as contributing the title song. Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps perform "Be-Bop-a-Lula." Eddie Cochran does "Twenty Flight Rock" and Fats Domino adds "Blue Monday!" Wow! Even lesser lights Eddie Fontaine and the Treniers contribute worthy performances. The story that surrounds these musical clips (and has virtually nothing to do with them) is trivial and inconsequential. Edmund O'Brien looks to be having fun hamming it up as a mobster. Jayne Mansfield wiggles and coos her way through her part. Check out the not-so-subtle imagery of the exploding milk bottles as she walks down the street! But this movie does provide an argument for those who say she was an underrated and underappreciated actress. At the least she had a definite flair for light comedy. Could she have played this role any better? Could any other actress, including Marilyn Monroe? I think the answer is no. Tom Ewell continued his unlikely string of leading man roles opposite some of the decade's leading sex symbols, including Monroe and Sheree North. For those of you who don't care for the hard stuff, the Platters, Julie London and Abbey Lincoln also appear.

I can't believe that in the 34 prior comments, nobody mentioned that this film is a blatant rip-off of Born Yesterday. A man is hired to bring an ostensibly dumb blonde up to the requirements of a gangster. Hired gun and blonde fall in love and live happily ever after. Gangster is left in the lurch. But Born Yesterday was an intelligent treatment whereas this is just so much fluff. Technicolor transfer to DVD is deplorable. Natalie Kalmus would be rolling over in her grave. Check out the paperboy. Recognize him? But, it's historically interesting to see the roots of Rock 'n Roll. Also interesting is Ewell's introduction to CinemaScope, a new format at the time.

Kids these days are not familiar with the problem we had in the fifties. We heard singers but to see them was rare- Little Richard didn't make it onto American Bandstand. So the big thrill of this film then was to actually see Little Richard, Fats Domino , Gene Vincent doing their gigs! the storyline was farcical and little more than a cover for the music but planting the music scenes in the movie was ingenious. Jayne Mansfield was luscious, even doing a caricature of a vamp. What else can one say? The new release DVD captures the wonderful color of the fifties- mauves and pink pastels everywhere. And Eddy Cochrane does his Elvis imitation and showing why Elvis was the King (and Little Richard the Queen) of Rock and Roll. Worth it for the history lesson- 1950's anthropology.

This movie is a treasure and should be viewed by all serious movie fans, because there is nothing quite like it. Mansfield is perfection, Tom Ewell is his dependable funny self, plus all that music! I love Julie London's "Cry Me A River" the best. In any event, see this movie, even if the music is older than you are!

Wanna see when Little Richard(She's Got It-Ready-Teddy & Girl Can't Help It), Gene Vincent(BeBop A Lula),The Platters(You'll Never Know), and Fats Domino(Blue Monday)perform their hits live as the actually sang them in 1956? Wanna see campy Jayne Mansfied at her sexiest, wittiest best? Paradoies, sight gags and clever writing make the rocker musical an even better comedy, which has stood the test of time. Jayne bubbles over, while Tom(Ewell) bubbles under and somehow in the end they both bubble up to the surface and find happiness, kids.......... If this isn't enough Calander Girl Julie London does a sultry. teasing version of her hit Cry Me A River that will drive any man to drink. Check the cars out, I once owned one of those. See this movie twice to fully appreciate the music and catch all the gags, clever lines and parodies.

If there is such a thing as a "love and hate" movie this must be it. A movie that attracted all young people all over the world, showing in cinemascope and stereo for the first time "rock and roll". The Platters, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino and more, "trying" to do their best, and I mean "trying" because they were interrupted and couldn't finish their songs. I still remember the feeling, I was 13 when I saw this one, and the moment I heard "be bop a lula" I was in ecstasy. An ecstasy that didn't last too long because it was interrupted by a stupid silly line from a stupid silly Marilyn bad imitation. A song that only lasts 2' 35". An ecstasies that soon became a fury, and yes I kicked a lot of empty seats and left the movie theater in pure frustration. I always wonder if 20th century still has the cut material and could put it together just to make "The unfinished songs from "The girl can't help it"". Wouln't it be great if somebody comes with the idea of restoring all those legendary rock and roll performers singing their entire songs, instead of so many documentaries about the history of "rock" that abruptly interrupt the songs just when you are starting to enjoy them. I gave it a 10 for the music and a 0 for the plot and the rest, my total is 5.

Frank Tashlin used to be a cartoonist and it shows. A good deal of exploration of exaggerated effects has gone on since 1956 but Tashlin was one of the originals. Jayne Mansfield was used in his previous effort, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", and I do mean "used", in the same manner as here. As a judge once said about Jane Russell's appearance in the controversial "The Outlaw," her bosom spreads out over the film like a thunderstorm over a landscape. Milk bottles pop open and ejaculate their contents as she wobbles down the street with a waist so tiny I could circle it with both hands. She looks not so much like an hourglass as like a figure eight. She asks Tom Ewell if he thinks she's "equipped for motherhood" while leaning over the table in front of him wearing a low-cut dress and pressing to milk containers against her chest. Through an exercise of supreme will power, Ewell keeps his eyes locked unblinkingly on hers, nods, and replies, "Yessss." (She might have provided the model for the female figure in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit.") It isn't nearly as funny as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", although it's still pretty funny. The gags aren't quite up to the earlier one, and there are fewer of them, and the story is thinner than before. To make up for this, I suppose, the movie is padded out with contemporary rock and roll presentations. I was never a fan of the genre so I can't comment much on the acts themselves except to say that the only ones worth watching or listening to were Fats Domino and Little Richard. I take the point of presenting the other acts as parody. Most of them are amusing if they are seen as Elvis Presley imitators. Was popular music like this ever popular? "She's a cinnamon sinner, telling lollipop lies"? Did people listen to this crap? The last act we see -- some guy with his eyes squeezed shut, his face an agonized grimace, fists clenched next to his ears, in a transport of ecstasy, barely able to articulate his "Oh-oh-oh-ohhh"s is frankly hilarious. Julie London, on the other hand, gives us a smoky ballad, "Cry Me a River," that was immensely popular. The day I saw this movie as an adolescent, I had just bought her album and run into the actor Thomas Gomez at Enrico's in San Francisco. He knew Julie London and we spent an hour going over her personality and demeanor in detail. I lapped up every datum because I was deeply in love with her at the time. Oh, sure, I know I was naive. My taste since then has matured and I've moved on to the adoration of less dated, less artificial figures, like Madonna. But I thought then, and still think, this is pretty amusing, as long as you don't have to watch it more than once a year.

I saw this film when it was released in 1956. It was the first production for mainstream audiences to feature top R&B and R&R acts in color. My contemporaries were particularly delighted to see Little Richard, Fats Domino and The Platters on screen in color for the first time. I made a VHS copy from a cable TV screening, but later purchased a legal VHS release, only to find that the cable screening used a better copy, both audio and video wise. The only complaint I have about the film is that every one of the musical acts is interrupted by dialog. Despite that, especially for nostalgia buffs, it's still well-worth getting.