Press Release Criterion Press Release: The Girl Can't Help It (1956) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[The Loner]

Totally psyched about this. Don't know if I'll ever buy it, but psyched nonetheless!

 

[The Loner]

Maybe we will eventually get a bluray of Mansfield's other masterpiece: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW. Everything is great about this musical /western. I never tire of see the film on dvd. It looked even better when seen in cinemascope.

Wow. And yet I don't really like that movie. It seems too long and I'm a little indifferent to Kenneth More.​

 

[The Loner]

As Criterion have this, perhaps they will also be able to distribute The Best Things in Life Are Free, which many of us are waiting for.

I'd like to have THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE on a good, cleaned up Blu-ray. Perhaps this will give Criterion some incentive to get off their rockers.​

 

[Drew Salzan]

I'd like to have THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE on a good, cleaned up Blu-ray. Perhaps this will give Criterion some incentive to get off their rockers.​

YES!

 

[roxy1927]

I never miss an Ernest Borgnine musical.

 

[Drew Salzan]

I never miss an Ernest Borgnine musical.

LOL!!!!!!!!

 

[AlanP]

View attachment 125258​

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help Itbops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.

FILM INFO​

• United States
• 1956
• 97 minutes
• Color
• 2.35:1
• English
• Spine #1120

SPECIAL FEATURES​

• New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring film scholar Toby Miller
• New interview with Eve Golden, biographer of actor Jayne Mansfield
• New video essay by film critic David Cairns
• Interview with filmmaker John Waters
• New conversation between WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film
• On-set footage
• Interviews with Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)
• Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember Thisabout Mansfield
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from director Frank Tashlin’s 1952 book How to Create Cartoons with a new introduction by Ethan de Seife, author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin
  
  New cover by Jaffa the Unknown

April 19, 2022

Love the cover but, would have preferred the original poster.......

 

[Mark B]

I wonder if the footage and track exists for Barry Gordon's song, an excerpt of which is seen in the trailer.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

T h anks for posting that original cover ... I'll use it when I get the disc.

 

[The Loner]

I wonder if the footage and track exists for Barry Gordon's song, an excerpt of which is seen in the trailer.

That would be a nice addition.

 

[Nick*Z]

The Girl Can't Help It was originally released in Cinemascope with 4-track magnetic stereo. Possibly, the mag-tracks were later erased and reused, leaving only a mono mix to crib from. Fox did a lot of goofy stuff in their mid-70's purge. But my big complaint with the Blu is that it is blue in the extreme.

Ugly looking disc. Reds are Chinese orange red, not candy apple. Yellows are muted. Tashlin's garish exploitation of vintage DeLuxe color just isn't here and contrast is waaaay below par. Having been granted the opportunity to get my hands on this one before it's street date, I am sorely unimpressed by what's here. Add to that the 1.0 mono mix - not even 2.0 and I have to say, this is pretty underwhelming. For those who couldn't wait to get their hands on this disc - regrets.

Mr. Dave Cairns attempts to make comments on vintage DeLuxe 'scope's use of the color blue in a supplemental feature but completely overlooks the obvious - there's vintage DeLuxe blue and then digitally engineered blue, which is what we get on this disc. Like previous offerings from Fox (and you know what they are) this one skews toward a blue caste that was neither natural nor indigenous to its source. When every spectral highlight has a robin egg tint to it, in hair, pavement, other greys - and browns and greens register muddy and dull, you know some untoward digital tinkering has occurred.

The fact no one at Fox, now Disney is addressing it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist, which is the argument we continue to get from naysayers who believe all Cinemascope DeLuxe movies are a muddy blue or teal mess with pasty flesh and mostly anemic colors.

Look at the shot with the Julie London album. All the books on the shelf behind it are blue. Really? Look at the flesh of the hand holding that album - purplish with light blue highlights. The fridge, wallpaper and trim around doors and windows behind Mansfield - all blue?!? Sorry, but in the revival print I screened some years back, the kitchen had a beige/brown paper and the trim was decidedly a weathered white. Finally, the car in the shot below is Chinese red - not fire engine. The black convertible soft cover has a deep navy cast. It's black, folks. And the beach sand has a weird blue caste too. The trees behind Edmund O'Brien are supposed to be brown with green foliage. Not muddy, soft and nondescript. His beige hunter's jacket shouldn't have spectral blue highlights either. Just saying.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Accurate color.

 

[Trancas]

You mean Julie wasn't naturally blue?

The Girl Can't Help It!

 

[haineshisway]

Well, if you light with blue gels what do you suppose the result will be?

 

[Will Krupp]

So, I sat down and watched this disc tonight and my take is bound to be controversial with some of my fellow forum members but, on my LG Oled, I'm honestly not seeing what some of you are seeing.

I don't think there's anything "teal" about this disc. Yes, there's a lot of blue but it doesn't strike me as anything other than the result of production design. The reason for this is that the whites (that aren't the result of obvious blue gels at certain points in the movie) are pure white. Even when there ARE obivous blue gels being used, the whites are mostly still present and look as they should.

Look at the shot with the Julie London album. All the books on the shelf behind it are blue. Really? Look at the flesh of the hand holding that album - purplish with light blue highlights...

Accurate color.

I apologize in advance, Nick, but I don't honestly think that the shot of the album cover is entirely fair to use as an example. Everything is blue because the scene (and the whole sequence in fact) is obviously bathed in a strong blue light to simulate moonlight in Tom Ewell's apartment. In fact, the next shot is wider and he moves the album cover out of the direct light and it's clearly green (though not as bright as in Bob's picture.)

Now I'm the first to agree that SOME Fox transfers have, to me, appeared "too blue" (The King and I comes to mind) while others (Desk Set, for example) feel spot on. I realize that none of us will ever all agree on this, however.

I'm not seeing blue spectral highlights that can't be interpreted as a design choice. If there was an unnatural blue cast to the image, though, wouldn't it affect the whites as much as anything else?

Now, full discosure, I've never owned a DVD copy of this but the colors appear bright and stable to me (not to mention the grain and sharpness in this release is stellar, IMO) and the red car looks a lot redder and less "rusty red" in the movie than in that cap. As I said, though, I've never seen a previous home video release so I can't say that there hasn't been SOME color manipulation as I really don't know. I do know that, if the reds appear browner that they should, it's not from a blue cast to the image. No amount of blue added to reds should turn them brown (it should turn them to magenta/purple.) It's not to say there isn't SOMETHING going on here but I don't think it's a blue bias.

In any event, I loved this disc and I'm happy I decided on a blind buy (especially since, I have to admit, I've realized for some time now that I'm not really a fan of Frank Tashlin's work, unfortunately.)

 

[Osato]

So, I sat down and watched this disc tonight and my take is bound to be controversial with some of my fellow forum members but, on my LG Oled, I'm honestly not seeing what some of you are seeing.

I don't think there's anything "teal" about this disc. Yes, there's a lot of blue but it doesn't strike me as anything other than the result of production design. The reason for this is that the whites (that aren't the result of obvious blue gels at certain points in the movie) are pure white. Even when there ARE obivous blue gels being used, the whites are mostly still present and look as they should.





I apologize in advance, Nick, but I don't honestly think that the shot of the album cover is entirely fair to use as an example. Everything is blue because the scene (and the whole sequence in fact) is obviously bathed in a strong blue light to simulate moonlight in Tom Ewell's apartment. In fact, the next shot is wider and he moves the album cover out of the direct light and it's clearly green (though not as bright as in Bob's picture.)

Now I'm the first to agree that SOME Fox transfers have, to me, appeared "too blue" (The King and I comes to mind) while others (Desk Set, for example) feel spot on. I realize that none of us will ever all agree on this, however.

I'm not seeing blue spectral highlights that can't be interpreted as a design choice. If there was an unnatural blue cast to the image, though, wouldn't it affect the whites as much as anything else?

Now, full discosure, I've never owned a DVD copy of this but the colors appear bright and stable to me (not to mention the grain and sharpness in this release is stellar, IMO) and the red car looks a lot redder and less "rusty red" in the movie than in that cap. As I said, though, I've never seen a previous home video release so I can't say that there hasn't been SOME color manipulation as I really don't know. I do know that, if the reds appear browner that they should, it's not from a blue cast to the image. No amount of blue added to reds should turn them brown (it should turn them to magenta/purple.) It's not to say there isn't SOMETHING going on here but I don't think it's a blue bias.

In any event, I loved this disc and I'm happy I decided on a blind buy (especially since, I have to admit, I've realized for some time now that I'm not really a fan of Frank Tashlin's work, unfortunately.)

This will be a blind buy for me as well. I’m going to wait for the Barnes and nobles sale in June to pick it up.

I appreciate your thoughts on the disc too.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Sorry Will, but your review/image evaluation is exactly why I hate this forum so much.
You evidently don't give a damn about what the majority of us can or can't afford.
Now I'll have to go and buy the bloody thing after all. The wife will have to go on waiting for that new pair of shoes....

 

[Will Krupp]

The wife will have to go on waiting for that new pair of shoes....

No sympathy from me, she should have KNOWN that when she married you!!

 

[david hare]

No sympathy from me, she should have KNOWN that when she married you!!

Oh honey, she knew, believe me.

 

[RolandL]

Not taking any sides, just showing a comparison. If they found the stereo tracks I would have bought the Blu-ray.

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Blu-ray

DVD

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