The Girl Can't Help It

The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 comedy, musical film, starring' Tom Ewell, Edmond O'Brien and Jayne Mansfield. It was directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay written by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker from an uncredited novel ?Do Re Me? by Garson Kanin.

Related Topics:
1956 - Comedy - Musical - Tom Ewell - Edmond O'Brien - Jayne Mansfield - Frank Tashlin - Herbert Baker - Garson Kanin

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The original music score was credited to Bobby Troup, with an additional credit to Ray Anthony for the tune ?Big Band Boogie?. It was shot in Color (De Luxe), filmed in Cinemascope and it lasted 99 minutes.

Related Topics:
Bobby Troup - Ray Anthony - Color (De Luxe) - Cinemascope

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The script is witty, encapsulating many of the attitudes and opinions of the time, although the storyline is really very simple. A slot machine mobster, Marty ?Fatso? Murdock (O?Brien) wants his blonde girlfriend, Jerri Jordan (Mansfield) to be a singing star, despite the fact that she seems to have no talent.

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In order to achieve this aim, he hires Press Agent, Tom Miller (Ewell) to promote her career. He chooses Miller, because of his past success with the career of singer Julie London (a fiction of the script) and the fact that he never makes sexual advances towards his female clients.

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Miller reluctantly takes on the job and sets to work by showing her off around numerous night spots and rehearsal rooms in order that she may be seen by those that matter in show business. He merely requires her to move around looking beautiful, whilst always dressed in the latest haute-couture fashions.

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Miller?s machinations arouse interest in Jerri and soon offers of contracts follow. A distraught Miller, terrified of Murdock, twists and turns and uses various ruses to keep him at bay. On top of this, there are the usual misunderstandings, when Mousie, Henry Jones, an associate of the ever jealous Murdock incorrectly interprets snatches of overheard conversation.

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Finally it is discovered that Jerri does have talent, which appears to solve Miller?s problems. That is until Jerri reveals that she is only interested in home and motherhood and that he is the real object of her affection. There is, of course, a happy ending for everyone.

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Tom Ewell gives a good performance in his role as Miller, although he is really reprising his role in ??The Seven Year Itch?? when he played opposite Marilyn Monroe. He maintains the stoic air of a man struggling against adversity; no mean feat, when part of that adversity looked like Jayne Mansfield.

Related Topics:
The Seven Year Itch - Marilyn Monroe - Jayne Mansfield

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Edmond O'Brien is loud and overbearing as Murdock, but his performance is obviously tongue-in-cheek and he shows a good grasp of comedy in some of his witty asides. Particularly memorable is his sentence, ?etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?, which is a parody of the same line used by Yul Brynner in the 1956 film, ??The King and I??.

Related Topics:
Edmond O'Brien - Yul Brynner - 1956 - The King and I

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Jayne Mansfield merely carries out the role, which the director has set for her. She utters a series of simple lines and stands or moves around looking beautiful. Her speech about a woman?s place being in the home, may sound old fashioned, but it was very much the way of thinking in 1956. Tashlin may have kept her role deliberately simple in order not to invite unfair comparisons with Marilyn Monroe, for whom the role may have originally been written.

Related Topics:
Jayne Mansfield - Marilyn Monroe

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Appearing at the night spots, which Miller and Jerri visit, is a line-up of some of the golden greats of Rock & Roll, such as Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Platters, Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps, as well as lesser known artists, such as Eddie Fontaine, The Treniers and The Chuckles, who obtained brief bursts of popularity in 1956, but who soon faded. There are even young hopefuls like Teddy Randazzo, who hung around the Rock ?n? Roll scene for years, but who never became major stars.

Related Topics:
Rock & Roll - Little Richard - Fats Domino - The Platters - Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Eddie Fontaine - The Treniers - The Chuckles - Teddy Randazzo

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The auburn haired, husky voiced, sultry singer Julie London is also featured in the film. She appears in Miller?s apartment as a haunting, spirit of a love past, who follows him from room to room, with constantly changing evening dresses and hair styles, singing her Top Ten hit of that year, ??Cry Me a River??.

Related Topics:
Julie London - Top Ten

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The most memorable scene, however, is probably the one, which introduces the film?s theme song. In this scene, Jerri walks along the pavement, like a fashion model on the catwalk, wearing a tight fitting black two-piece costume with matching broad brimmed hat, gloves, shoes and handbag. All around men are ogling her and even the milk in a delivery van boils over as she passes, whilst an unseen Little Richard is belting out, ??The Girl Can?t Help It??.

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The Girl Can't Help It received critical praise at the time and it was better regarded than other Rock & Roll films of the period, such as Rock Around the Clock, Don't Knock the Rock, which were really promotional vehicles for Bill Haley and His Comets, and Rock, Rock, Rock.

Related Topics:
The Girl Can't Help It - Rock Around the Clock - Don't Knock the Rock - Bill Haley and His Comets - Rock, Rock, Rock

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These films were considered to have been thrown together to cash in on the Rock & Roll craze and to be merely propaganda for the genre. ?The Girl Can?t Help It? was considered to have a stronger storyline than these other films, to feature better known actors and to have the advantage of being shot in color. ?The Girl Can?t Help It? was even able to poke fun at Rock & Roll, which the other films were not.

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In some scenes, the stockily built Edmond O'Brien wore a plaid dinner jacket of the type favoured by the stockily built Bill Haley and as a final twist, at the end of the film his character Murdock became a Rock & Roll singer. His voice was atrocious and his hit record, ?Rock Around the Rock Pile? was really an impersonation of what an adult, brought up in the Swing Era, thought Rock ?n? Roll sounded like.

Related Topics:
Edmond O'Brien - Bill Haley - Swing Era

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Poking fun at this attitude was used to good effect in another scene. Here Miller is pleading with Murdock, over the telephone, that he cannot get Jerri a spot on television as she has no talent. Murdock screams at him to watch the television since, if someone can make a noise like the featured act and get on TV, there should be no problem in getting a TV spot for Jerri. Miller switches on the TV to witness a very young Eddie Cochran singing '?Twenty Flight Rock??.

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The Girl Can't Help It was a box office success at the time and it is now a cult film, watched by those who wish to see some of the golden greats of Rock & Roll as they were then.

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