The Girl Can’t Help It **** (1956, Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien, Barry Gordon, Henry Jones, John Emery, Juanita Moore, Julie London) – Classic Movie Review 1147

Producer/co-writer/director Frank Tashlin puts his comic-strip style onto this enjoyable 1956 musical satirical farce. Edmond O’Brien plays Fats Murdock, a gangster who takes on decrepit, down-at-heel PR agent Tom Miller (Tom Ewell) to publicise his sexy, blonde bombshell, bimbo girlfriend Jerri Jordan (Jayne Mansfield) and turn her into a singing recording star in six weeks.

But looks can be deceptive and it turns out that she’s got no talent and is just a homebody, preferring to be a housewife to a rock ‘n’ roll superstar. And then eventually she falls for Miller and prefers him over Murdock.

Always an amusing, diverting movie as a vehicle for a delightful Mansfield, The Girl Can’t Help It is now also a valuable 50s period piece as a celebration of teenagers and rock ‘n’ roll music, with lively performances and fascinating guest cameo acts from the music business, especially Julie London, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and Little Richard.

It earns an honourable place in film history as cinema’s first major rock ‘n’ roll movie, as well as being Mansfield’s first star role. She’s the butt of a lot of the sexist humour but she rises above it gamely, amusingly and charmingly.

There’s a rich crop of time-capsule music with appearances from The Platters, Julie London, Ray Anthony and his Orchestra, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, and Little Richard and His Band. Songs include ‘Blue Monday’ (Fats Domino), Cry Me a River (Julie London), ‘You’ll Never Never Know’ (The Platters), Twenty Flight Rock (Eddie Cochran), ‘Be Bop a Lula’ (Gene Vincent), ‘She’s Got It’ and of course the title number (both performed by Little Richard).

Also in the cast are Barry Gordon, Henry Jones, John Emery and Juanita Moore, as well as The Treniers and Eddie Fontaine as Themselves.

The film was hugely popular and was one of the year’s biggest hits and made Mansfield into a film star. It took $6,250,000 on a $1,310,000 budget. The screenplay is adapted by Tashlin and Herbert Baker from Garson Kanin’s un-credited 1955 novel Do Re Mi.

The film reached Liverpool in the early summer of 1957. Paul McCartney demonstrated his musical prowess to John Lennon by performing Twenty Flight Rock similar to the way he had seen it played by Eddie Cochran in the film. This led to Lennon inviting McCartney to join the group.

Production began on the film in mid-September 1956 just as Mansfield was finishing her Broadway triumph in the play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Tashlin made a film of it in 1957 with Mansfield and Tony Randall. The Girl Can’t Help It was made just in time to be released in the US for Christmas 1956.

Ewell was lucky enough to work with Marilyn Monroe too in The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Reportedly, the producers wanted Elvis Presley to star, but his manager Tom Parker sought too much money.

Juanita Moore, the Oscar-nominated star of Imitation of Life, died at the age of 99 on January 1 2014.

Fats Domino.

Fats Domino died on October 24, 2017 in New Orleans, aged 89. He had hits with Blueberry Hill and Ain’t That a Shame, and sang in cinema’s first major rock ‘n’ roll movie.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1147

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Sophia Loren looks askance at Mansfield.