The Girl Can't Help It

Marty Murdock is a former gangster who has built a jukebox empire. He wants to make his fiancee Jerri a singer. Jerri does not want to sing; all she wants is to marry and cook in a kitchen. Marty finds a manager: Tom Miller, a finished man who drinks. The task is to get the girl into the charts within six weeks. Tom hears her voice and understands the situation. He tries anyway. Meanwhile Jerri and Tom take to each other, and Marty's own past will not leave him alone. Frank Tashlin directs. Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien and Henry Jones are in the cast. It is an American production. Musicians of the period appear as themselves; Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran play in the film. It is among the first productions to show rock and roll in colour and on a wide screen, which gives it a separate place in the history of the music. Tashlin came from cartoons and the narrative uses cartoon logic; exaggeration, sudden cuts and visual gags. The matter it treats is image; the film is about a woman's body turned into advertising material, and it uses that material at the same time. Jayne Mansfield plays with her own image and the film knows it openly. The narrative mocks the music business and the jukebox trade. The colour and the sets are deliberately excessive. The ending arrives where it is expected. Its limit is point of view; some of the jokes are sexist and stock today. Who it is for: viewers who like American comedy of the fifties and early rock music. Who it is not for: it is dated, the humour is troubling, and the ending simple.