Blu-ray Review The Girl Can’t Help It Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It, a rollicking comic satire on the music industry at the dawn of the rock and roll era, may not offer any superlative narrative turns, but it certainly hits all the right notes musically as it presents a handful of artists, several of whom would go on to become icons in the genre.



The Girl Can't Help It (1956)



Released: 01 Dec 1956
Rated: Approved
Runtime: 99 min




Director: Frank Tashlin
Genre: Comedy, Music



Cast: Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien
Writer(s): Frank Tashlin, Herbert Baker, Garson Kanin



Plot: A gangster hires a down-and-out press agent to make his airheaded girlfriend a singing star.



IMDB rating: 6.8
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Criterion...

Continue reading...

 

[Kent K H]

Huge fan of this flick! That 5/5 on the transfer has me very excited, as I love Tashlin's colorful visuals born of his time in animation. (I found the Twilight Time Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter transfer to be a little disappointing, and not because of the amount of blue.)

 

[Lord Dalek]

Seems to be a rather large divide in opinion between Matt and the Basoonist on that other site over the video quality here.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Aha and great! - no teal.
Great review Matt.
Now if only Criterion could get The King and I.

 

[Trancas]

Aha and great! - no teal.
Great review Matt.
Now if only Criterion could get The King and I.

Come on....this is a Fox-sourced scan. Of course it's teal.
"....here the color temperature of the visuals is shifted to cool/very cool and then a heavy blue tint compromises entire ranges of primaries and nuances. For example, the reds become light browns, while some very prominent steely grays overwhelm the whites"

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Girl-Cant-Help-It-Blu-ray/309417/#Screenshots

 

[Robert Crawford]

Seems to be a rather large divide in opinion between Matt and the Basoonist on that other site over the video quality here.

I trust Matt's opinion. Also, I guess those complaining about teal are now saying it's too blue.

 

[Matt Hough]

If those of you who are talking teal actually buy the disc and watch the bonus feature The Grandeur of Cinemascope, some of your impressions about Fox's "teal" transfers will be answered. I mention this in my review of the featurette. In short, Eastmancolor processed by DeLuxe had a blue bias that color timers had to grapple with. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy and Color Consultant Leonard Doss both favored blue in their designs. But Jayne's white lounging outfit is pure white, not tinted blue, and all the white shirts remain white even in rooms with blue walls. And red is VIBRANT red here, not muddy brown. At least it is on my OLED.

 

[DP 70]

Many thanks for the review.

 

[Mark B]

I would think this is scraping the bottom of the barrel for that batch of Fox color timing disasters. How many could be left in the vault at this point? I didn't even allow myself to consider purchasing it, as I felt this would be yet another fail. Indeed, it is.

 

[Trancas]

 

[haineshisway]

Yeah, well, screenshots, sure, right. Buy the disc. Matt knows what he's talking about. The good Dr. does not. It's really that simple.

 

[haineshisway]

Come on....this is a Fox-sourced scan. Of course it's teal.
"....here the color temperature of the visuals is shifted to cool/very cool and then a heavy blue tint compromises entire ranges of primaries and nuances. For example, the reds become light browns, while some very prominent steely grays overwhelm the whites"
View attachment 133249
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Girl-Cant-Help-It-Blu-ray/309417/#Screenshots

You see "teal" in that screenshot? I don't. And I would trust nothing that the good Dr. says or any screenshot he posts. Read what Matt has to say about the featurette.

 

[haineshisway]

If those of you who are talking teal actually buy the disc and watch the bonus feature The Grandeur of Cinemascope, some of your impressions about Fox's "teal" transfers will be answered. I mention this in my review of the featurette. In short, Eastmancolor processed by DeLuxe had a blue bias that color timers had to grapple with. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy and Color Consultant Leonard Doss both favored blue in their designs. But Jayne's white lounging outfit is pure white, not tinted blue, and all the white shirts remain white even in rooms with blue walls. And red is VIBRANT red here, not muddy brown. At least it is on my OLED.

Actually buy the disc??? Why, you, you radical, you. Why would they do THAT when it's ever so much more fun to look at some ill-taken screenshot by someone who knows next to nothing about color in films, but pretends to know everything. Shamroy's blues are legendary from that period. There are blue gels everywhere and it's very easy to spot them on people's hair and as they walk through that light into another it's equally simple to watch it disappear.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Day for night?

 

[Noel Aguirre]

If those of you who are talking teal actually buy the disc and watch the bonus feature The Grandeur of Cinemascope, some of your impressions about Fox's "teal" transfers will be answered. I mention this in my review of the featurette. In short, Eastmancolor processed by DeLuxe had a blue bias that color timers had to grapple with. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy and Color Consultant Leonard Doss both favored blue in their designs. But Jayne's white lounging outfit is pure white, not tinted blue, and all the white shirts remain white even in rooms with blue walls. And red is VIBRANT red here, not muddy brown. At least it is on my OLED.

Understood.
But there’s “teal” and then there’s “TEAL”. Many of the Fox titles are not properly mastered and need a redo especially The King and I which looks atrocious. This Oscar winner for color set production and color costumes deserves better.
However from your review of TGCHI it sounds properly color balanced all things considered. No amount of blue lighting is gonna make red look brown.

 

[Trancas]

You see "teal" in that screenshot? I don't. And I would trust nothing that the good Dr. says or any screenshot he posts. Read what Matt has to say about the featurette.

"In short, Eastmancolor processed by DeLuxe had a blue bias that color timers had to grapple with."
Color timers are dealing with a standard Eastmancolor negative run through standard Eastmancolor chemicals. Why would there be any added blueness from DeLuxe processing the negative?

Shamroy's blues are legendary from that period. There are blue gels everywhere and it's very easy to spot them on people's hair and as they walk through that light into another it's equally simple to watch it disappear.

Blue gels in a morning shot? Notice the orange juice and coffee pot? "Sunlight" should be blue filtered?

Now can you see the "teal"? A white refrigerator should be bird's egg blue?

 

[Trancas]

You see "teal" in that screenshot? I don't. And I would trust nothing that the good Dr. says or any screenshot he posts. Read what Matt has to say about the featurette.

Actually buy the disc??? Why, you, you radical, you. Why would they do THAT when it's ever so much more fun to look at some ill-taken screenshot by someone who knows next to nothing about color in films, but pretends to know everything.

I trust Atanasov's screenshots because of his other reviews, like this one: And Hope to Die 1972 . I have this blu-ray and the screenshots are accurate. It's a Rene Clement film with a crazy-mixed-up-criminal-cast of European and American actors. Try it - it's an interesting film. Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Lea Massari.
His review/screenshots of Cartouche are also unfortunately accurate (I purchased this too). Awful, brown-gold coloring of a once colorful film.
I also have the 3 Agatha Christie blu-rays from the 70's and 80's Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, and The Mirror Crack'd and again Atanasov's screenshots are very accurate. Check your own purchases against his screenshots: Atanasov review index

Should I trust a purely verbal description of a film's visual color from someone I don't know (when the other reviewer describes and shows the peculiar color of The Girl Can’t Help It)? Matt or you might have some degree of color blindness, cataracts or visual impairment for all I know.

 

[Will Krupp]

Matt or you might have some degree of color blindness, cataracts or visual impairment for all I know.

You can agree or disagree with a review. You can like the transfer or you can hate the transfer. You can buy it or you can pass on it. It's completely your choice. Do we have to stoop to denigrating the ocular abilities of a respected reviewer and a respected member of this forum because they don't share your opinion? Is it really worth it?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Matt or you might have some degree of color blindness, cataracts or visual impairment for all I know.

You've crossed the line with such comments! Please, don't do it again.

 

[Trancas]

I like the written portions of Matt’s reviews better than anything on Blu-ray.com. But he doesn’t have screenshots. I want to get some idea of what a disc looks like. If I’d just seen Matt’s review, and nothing else, I probably would have picked up this disk. But I don’t think I would have been happy with my purchase.
I’m sorry if I’m brusque. Matt’s great. But I’m not going to bite my tongue - I don’t think there’s anyone younger than middle age here - no tender vulnerable egos - and I did say the last line with tongue in cheek (or with Anaglyphic glasses on at least). Sorry all.