The Girl Can’t Help It
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Written by Frank Tashlin and Herbert Baker
1956/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/YouTube
Barry the paperboy: [after Jerri Jordan walks by] If that’s a girl, then I don’t know what my sister is!
Tom Ewell plays the same nebbish as in The Seven Year Itch, this time opposite Jayne Mansfield as the blonde. It’s a cartoonish comedy enlivened by many fantastic rock and roller’s of the 50’s.
Gangster Fats Murdock (Edmond O’Brien) is engaged to blonde bombshell Jerri Jordan (Mansfield). He feels like he can’t marry a “nobody” so he wants to turn her into a star. He hires alcoholic agent Tom Miller (Ewell) to make her one, almost solely because he has the reputation of keeping his hands off his female clients. It turns out Jerri is with Fats only from gratitude for getting her father a lighter prison sentence. Jerri’s big dream is being a wife and mother but she is willing to play along with aiming for stardom.
Of course, Tom and Jerri develop feelings for each other and Fats gets suspicious. Fats also gets involved in the project by coming up with a silly song about breaking rocks in prison. One way or another, the film manages work in almost non-stop performances by the likes of Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, and Julie London.
I don’t ordinarily go for these leering type 50’s comedies but the music kept me riveted to the screen.
Trailer
clip – Little Richard sings “Ready Teddy” and “She’s Got It”
I saw this a few months ago and I remember rolling my eyes a lot (as I do with a lot of 1950s comedies). But with the passing of time, I have developed a certain fondness for it because it is wildly entertaining, partly for the musical numbers but also for the magical Miss Mansfield.
It’s not just because she so hot! She was a very talented comedic actress and it comes through in almost every thing she made. She’s so much better than her material! Except for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, her movies are generally a little lacking. Some of them are very entertaining but I always sigh with regret that Hollywood had no real idea what to do with her.
I say that as a huge fan of Primitive Love and The WIld Wild World of Jayne Mansfield.
Sad she had such a short career. I will keep my eyes out for her other movies!
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is by far her best movie.
I like The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw quite a bit. Jayne is great as usual, but you also get super-cheerful, super-English Kenneth More. Mansfield and More are much much funnier than the material.
And then there’s the Hercules movie Mansfield made. I think it’s usually called Hercules vs. the Hydra in English but I’ve seen it under several titles. Jayne plays twins! And both of them change clothes a lot! And one of them has purple hair! And Hercules fights the Hydra. And Jayne’s husband Mickey Hargitay is Hercules. And I’ve barely scratched the surface!
And then there’s The Burglar, with Dan Duryea. It has it’s moments.
Ooh, IMDb has Hercules vs. the Hydra as The Loves of Hercules and it’s on YouTube. Will make a note of that for 1960! Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is already on the list for 1957. Thanks for the tips!
well I saw this on the YouTube sidebar (what a great version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCGNYJOrebA
Which led me to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwheXIa8Cl0
and I end up here of all places!!
(and glad I did – knew nothing about this one and this’ll get me in “the film manages work in almost non-stop performances”….on “The List”.)
Thanks
So good to hear from you again! And that you are living in the land of the sane. California just went back to mandating the use of masks when out and about indoors and when we can’t distance outside which is usually because this country is full of individualists who believe one should do as one damn well pleases – well unless you want an abortion, are a minority, etc. etc.
“Land of the sane” – not sure about that as we also emptied supermarkets and toasted 5G towers amongst other lunacies…..just lucky that we are more isolated, less populous and have a lesser lunatic at the wheel than your nation maybe. So we didn’t have the pressures that let ignorance flourish. I’m not sure this thing is over yet so masks may become more than an accessory here as well. Sorry to hear that “maybe” has become “fact” in your neck of the woods. Have another online friend in Milan Italy and sounds like he had to cope with a real nasty situation.
Hope you can keep safe.
The virus hasn’t actually gone anywhere and I think we are in maybe the middle of Wave 1. The more “normal” we get the more virus we will get. I think the best thing we can do at our house is keep away from humans as much as possible and hope for a vaccine. Though I don’t know how I would feel about taking a vaccine rushed through the governmental approval process by this administration in an election year. Sorry to be such a downer …