The Girl Can’t Help It
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 De Luxe 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 question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help It bops 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.
Blu-ray Special Edition Features
- New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring scholar Toby Miller
- New video essay by film critic David Cairns
- Interview with filmmaker John Waters
- New conversation with WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film
- New interview with Eve Golden, author of Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It
- On-set footage
- Interviews with actor Jayne Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)
- Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This about Mansfield
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and 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
Blu-ray Special Edition Features
- New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring scholar Toby Miller
- New video essay by film critic David Cairns
- Interview with filmmaker John Waters
- New conversation with WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the film
- New interview with Eve Golden, author of Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It
- On-set footage
- Interviews with actor Jayne Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)
- Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This about Mansfield
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and 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
Cast
- Tom Ewell
- Tom Miller
- Jayne Mansfield
- Jerri Jordan
- Edmond O’Brien
- Fats Murdock
- Julie London
- Herself
- Ray Anthony
- Himself
- Barry Gordon
- Barry the Paperboy
- Henry Jones
- Mousie
- John Emery
- Wheeler
- Juanita Moore
- Hilda
- Fats Domino
- Himself
- The Platters
- Themselves
- Little Richard and his Band
- Themselves
- Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps
- as themselves
- The Treniers
- Themselves
- Eddie Fontaine
- Himself
- The Chuckles
- Themselves
- Abbey Lincoln
- Herself
- Johnny Olenn
- Himself
- Nino Tempo
- Himself
- Eddie Cochran
- Himself
Credits
- Director
- Frank Tashlin
- Produced by
- Frank Tashlin
- Screenplay by
- Frank Tashlin
- Herbert Baker
- Director of photography
- Leon Shamroy
- Music supervised and conducted by
- Lionel Newman
- Film editor
- James B. Clark
- Art direction
- Lyle R. Wheeler
- Leland Fuller
- Set decoration
- Walter M. Scott
- Paul S. Fox
- Special photographic effects
- Ray Kellogg
- Executive wardrobe designer
- Charles LeMaire
- Vocal supervision
- Ken Darby
- “The Girl Can’t Help It” and “Rock Around the Rock Pile" words and music by
- Bobby Troup
- Makeup
- Ben Nye
- Hairstyles
- Helen Turpin
- Sound
- E. Clayton Ward
- Harry M. Leonard
- Assistant director
- Ad Schaumer
- CinemaScope lenses by
- Bausch & Lomb
- Color by
- De Luxe
- Color consultant
- Leonard Doss
Trailer for The Girl Can’t Help It
