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 Production: 3.5/5
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 with its storytelling and acting, but it certainly hits all the right notes musically as it presents to the world a handful of artists, several of whom would go on to become icons in the genre. The story is as insubstantial as cotton candy, but you won’t forget some of the really talented rock artists who make major impressions here.
On-the-skids gangster Marty “Fats” Murdock (Edmond O’Brien) hires an alcoholic down-on-his-luck press agent Tom Miller (Tom Ewell) to make his blonde bombshell girlfriend Jerri Jordan (Jayne Mansfield, vocal by Eileen Wilson) a recording star in six weeks. Miller is willing, but he learns Jerri really doesn’t have her heart in show business. She’d rather be a wife and mother. But when Fats insists he go through with it without getting emotionally involved with the voluptuous Jerri, Miller is perturbed to learn Jerri can’t carry a tune. What’s more, the torch he had been carrying for his former client Julie London (playing herself in a cameo appearance and singing a melting version of “Cry Me a River”) fades away when he and Jerri begin to fall in love against both of their better judgments.
Director Frank Tashlin and his co-writer Herbert Baker have borrowed their framing plot a bit from Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday. It’s an okay premise fleshed out with a barrage of Tashlin’s goofy sight gags and cartoonish slapstick mostly built around Jayne Mansfield’s ample physical assets accentuated by carefully constructed gowns by Charles LeMaire. The lovers fight their mutual attraction, glowered over by the jealous and suspicious gangland boss, but in introducing Jerri around the nightclub scene and frequenting recording studios, Tashlin uses the opportunity to introduce us to a raft of rockin’ hipsters performing some of their seminal music: Little Richard’s momentous “Ready, Teddy” and “She’s Got It,” the Platters’ soulful “You’ll Never Know,” Gene Vincent swingin’ with “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” Eddie Fontaine’s punchy “Cool It, Baby,” Eddie Cochran’s classic “Twenty Flight Rock,” The Treniers’ snappy “Rockin’ Is Our Business,” and the immortal Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday.” Even lesser known talents like Abbey Lincoln, Johnny Olenn, and The Chuckles get a moment to show what they’ve got, and in this company, even they have a luster. When Jerri finally gets her hit song, “Rock Around the Rock Pile,” her only contribution is to provide the sound of a police siren (in Mansfield’s patented squeal, something Tashlin would exploit even further in her next starring vehicle Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter with him at the helm).
For the third time, Tony and Golden Globe winner Tom Ewell is cast opposite a blonde bombshell: first Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch and then Sheree North in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts, but one would have to say the attraction between the homely Ewell and the fully formed Jayne Mansfield (in her first starring role) here is the least believable of these three pairings. He does play his dipsomaniacal scenes with some authenticity, and he gets to introduce the movie in that famous sequence where he snaps the aspect ratio into Cinemascope size and flicks on the DeLuxe color after a couple of attempts. Jayne Mansfield doesn’t play an airhead innocent here; she knows what she wants and makes no excuses for going after it, so her more down-to-earth performance is more grounded than when she played ditzy (as she would in her next movie). No, her emoting talents were unquestionably limited, but in frivolous movies like this, she could easily do what was required. Oscar-winner Edmond O’Brien cuts the ham pretty thickly as the blowhard gangster eager for a comeback. He’s also a performer at heart (vocals by Paul Frees who offers a remarkably accurate singing match for O’Brien’s speaking voice), so he gets to “rock it up” a couple of times during the movie. Henry Jones is always a welcome addition to a movie, here as Fats’ henchman Mousie, and little Barry Gordon gets a couple of good gags in the movie. John Emery as a rival gangster and Juanita Moore as a jivin’ maid also make worthwhile appearances.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The original Cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The image is pristine (though some may find it a shade too dark) with no marks of age to be found anywhere. The DeLuxe color bursts from the screen, particularly in Mansfield’s succession of vibrant, form-fitting gowns, swimwear, and lounging clothes, and flesh tones are tanned but appealing. The movie has been divided into 15 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The uncompressed LCPM 1.0 sound mix (1.1 Mbps) is strong and solid with excellent fidelity for all of the rock music sequences. Dialogue has also been professionally recorded and been mixed with Lionel Newman’s background scoring and various sound effects into a solid mono track. There are no problems with age-related anomalies like hiss, crackle, flutter, or pops.
Special Features: 5/5
Audio Commentary: film historian Toby Miller does a pretty thorough dissection of the film from all angles: direction, performance, and musical influences. He makes an error here and there (that’s not Phil Silvers as the milkman), but the commentary is certainly worth hearing.
The Grandeur of Cinemascope (16:25, HD): film critic David Cairns offers some interesting information and insights for those who complain about the “blue look” of DeLuxe-processed color films in Cinemascope in this nicely produced featurette on the widescreen process and the cinematographer and color consultant who worked on this and many other Fox films.
John Waters Interview (21:01, HD): a 2004 interview with the director where he exults in detail the many attributes of The Girl Can’t Help It.
DJs Discussion (30:00, HD): a 2022 conversation between DJs Dave Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the many musical gems contained in the movie as well as the actors working in the picture and the music industry as a whole at the time of the film’s production.
Eve Golden Interview (14:15, HD): the biographer of Jayne Mansfield discusses the ups and downs of her life and career.
You Must Remember This (40:46): 2017 podcast by Karen Longworth going into detail about the life and work of Jayne Mansfield.
Archival Material: silent footage shot behind-the-scenes of the movie (13:34, SD), a 1957 interview with Jayne Mansfield on Tabloid (14:49, HD), a 1984 interview with Little Richard on The Merv Griffin Show (14:10, SD)
Theatrical Trailer (2:43, SD)
Enclosed Pamphlet: contains cast and crew lists, information on the audio and video transfer, some black and white stills from the film, and an analysis on the movie by critic Rachel Syme.
Enclosed Pamphlet: an excerpt from Frank Tashlin’s How to Create Cartoons and an essay by Tashlin biographer Ethan de Seife.
Overall: 4/5
A completely innocuous comedy starring Tom Ewell and Jayne Mansfield, Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It is most known today for the rich collection of rock and roll artists which dot the film offering one of the first A-list rock and roll movies of the era. Criterion’s new release featuring a gorgeous high definition transfer and a rich selection of bonus material make it a highly recommended new offering for both film and music fans.
The Girl Can’t Help It (The Criterion Collection) …
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Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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