THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT! (Frank Tashlin, 1956)

"The Girl Can’t Help It! is more than a good film, more than a funny film, more than an excellent parody; it is a kind of masterpiece of the genre,” wrote François Truffaut in the first paragraph of his review of this film when it came out in France. It was a huge hit in the 50s, accepted generally as the definitive portrait of the rock music craze and also as the definitive parody of that craze. Today it’s practically forgotten. You won’t find an entry for this film, or any of Tashlin’s works from the 50s, in any AFI list, or any list by Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine, Premiere or Empire.

“Our story is about music, not the music of long ago…but the music that expresses the culture, the refinement and the polite grace of the present day.”

Truth in Advertising – Culture and Refinement in the background, Polite Grace supplied by Mousie(Henry Jones) and at the centre in vibrant pink is the Jukebox – All standby as Edmond O’Brien beats up a bartender.

I didn’t know Tashlin was a cartoonist and an animator when I first saw The Girl Can’t Help It! In retrospect, it was logical. Edmond O’Brien’s wacky performance as Fats Murdoch is in effect a live-action rendering of Daffy Duck(right down to him crawling out of the iris fade-out at the end of the film to remind the audience that he’ll sing in the lobby). Then there was the vibrant colour scheme, such as the hot pink glow burning inside Fats Domino’s piano. And quite a few people have noted that Julie London’s famous Cry Me A River phantom appearance is a lot like Droopy appearing anywhere and anytime he wants.

Then there is the famous walk. The plot and characterization dictate that she merely surprise the alcoholic agent Tom Miller(played by Tom Ewell) with homemade breakfast and souse him out of his latest binge. Tashlin sets her up as she moves almost doll-like down the street to the…er…shock and awe of the male bystanders. Jayne Mansfield is first shown to Tom Ewell(and in effect the audience) as a blonde sexpot with giant breasts and then Tashlin shows us how most people react(and how audiences are expected to react) to her mighty décolletage. Tashlin considered America’s obsession for big breasts an embarrassment and believed that American kids didn’t seem to get enough baby milk as small children. Tashlin’s idea of parody is basically, “give em’ enough rope”. He objectifies Jerry Jordan(Jayne Mansfield) to a point that the people who see her as objects become inhuman and mechanical all the while keeping her innocent of any of the perceptions and objectification that surround her.

The walk is of course set to the classic Little Richard title track. The film uses rock music diegetically except for this scene where the famous song is edited to a montage that essentially narrates the song’s lyrics(“If she winks an eye, bread slice turns to toast”). The song describes the Jayne Mansfield character’s personality to a T. Her looks and her body invite leers, sexist jokes and the attention of lecherous freaks like Fats Murdoch but she’s above that herself. This makes the Little Richard track her theme song and essentially transform the rock anthem to function in the manner of a musical number. This use of music was of course extended even further in later decades but the awareness on Tashlin’s part of the cinematic use of rock music as counterpoint in his film is still striking. Tashlin takes this even further in the climactic Platters’ performance of You’ll Never, Never Know. The performance of the classic group on stage is cross-cut with the scene where Tom and Jerri(her real name is Georgianna, by the way) finally declare their love for each other even if they both think it’s too late.

The use of the song is striking because in-between the performance, the two lovers walk just behind the stage and they have a dialogue exchange where they bid each other goodbye.

Tom – “All the best, Georgie!”

Georgianna “Jerri” Jordan – “Can’t stand to hear me sing again, huh?”

Tom – “You know that isn’t true!”

And Cut to…

…Herb Reed intoning “You’ll Never Know!”

Moments like these are what are known as “grace notes”. This is beyond today’s oversaturated use of popular music or bland, static music videos(which Tashlin finds time to invent and perfect with Julie London’s appearance in the film). The faces of the performers(especially Reed’s great presence with his Buster Keaton eyes), the rhythm of the music merges with the performances of the actors to create a really priceless effect that is totally cinematic.

The Girl Can’t Help It! is unusual in that a lot of the times there’s also a disturbing edge to the film. Tom Ewell’s brilliant performance makes Tom Miller’s character not only a comic straight man but also a genuinely disturbing self-destructive type. Tom Miller can’t let go of booze anywhere he goes. In his first encounter with Fats Murdoch, his eyes make a beeline for the bottle of bourbon before him rather than to the big screen. Then there’s his dance scene with the cigarette girl in a club where Johnny Olenn performs. He’s drunk to the core but puts all his energy to a flirtatious dance with the girl and the music allows him to lose his self for a brief moment. And his enthusiasm even takes over the girl to the point that when Tom falls, she continues her dance steps as does the crowd around them rather than help the guy on his feet as you would expect in a realistic context.

The most unusual conceit of the film is Julie London. She was a real life singer-actress but in this film she’s an important off-screen character. I can’t think of any other film which posits a real life figure (and actively working at the time of the film’s release) as a character who figured heavily in the protagonist’s life. In this film, she once fell in love with Tom but he rebuffed her for the sake of both their careers only to her success and independence from him and his everlasting, self-destructive regret. This culminates in the haunting rendition of Cry Me A River where Tom plays her record and drinks some more and imagines her phantom performing the record right before his eyes in every room of his apartment.

It happens earlier in the film but it is symmetrical to the use of the Platters track. There a public performance to an active audience comments on a private scene by association, here a record made in the studio for a mass audience becomes a private torment for the solitary audience because of his own personal connection to the singer.

Truffaut said about the film, “We are dealing with a variation---or if you will, variations---on the Pygmalion theme. In this case, the sculptor falls in love with a model he refuses to carve.” Tom Miller is a great agent and sharper than anybody about great talent and the drive it takes to succeed but what seems to be a chance for him to get back on his feet becomes a moral issue for him. Should he turn a sweet girl into a successful star at the expense of her freedom and her human qualities? He tries to escape it after he falls in love with Georgie in the famous beach scene. The scene is shot on location and Leon Shamroy’s camera practically sighs in contentment at the presence of beautiful afternoon sunlight and the great green-blue sea. The rest of the film is filled with gaudy sets and interiors but this scene is elegantly dappled and framed. And the shot of Jayne Mansfield rushing to the sea is a sight to behold. Georgie believes she owes Fats Murdoch for him keeping her father out of prison and Fats in turn projects his failings and insecurities in the image he has of her. Tom meanwhile is lost in his image of Julie London and is confused about his feelings for the girl who can’t help it!

The film’s capacity to place caricatures like Fats Murdoch alongside a dramatic character like Tom Miller, Jayne Mansfield’s performance which allows Georgie to be at once a three-dimensional character and a caricature is mirrored by the form of the film that finds something real in the artifice or about the inability of people to be real anymore in the burgeoning over the top mass culture.

It’s fitting that the film’s best number is Fats Domino’s Blue Monday. A song about weekend’s relief from a working week’s pressures. Fats Domino is an amazing presence as he bangs his piano to a crowd of twirling couples. The amazing thing is how the number starts. At first on the soundtrack you hear the sound of banging footsteps on the dance floor alternating with medium and close-up shots of Fats Domino and his band on stage. Then around the time of the first chorus we cut to a close-up of the dancers’ feet and lo…

…they’re on their socks and bare feet. And we cut to a close-up of Fats Domino hammering the ivory out of his instrument.

It’s a transcendent moment.

Of course the beauty of this scene makes the irony of what happens even more shocking. Tom and Georgie get married and Fats Murdoch gets on stage and gets the same audience as excited as Fats Domino did, though a more lethargic kind of excitement and of course he becomes a success. It’s a happy ending of a very cynical kind. The film-makers celebrate the success of one of the lead characters but his success is against the power and beauty of the best acts in showbusiness. The public wants both Fats Domino and Fats Murdoch. In the 1950s that might have been tolerable, today’s music business wouldn’t hesitate in signing an act they can control and package rather than a great singer. Tom Miller wants out of the system of control and Georgie wants to get away and they seem to get a happy ending but…who’s on their TV set…

…why it’s Fats Murdoch.