Movie DVD Store (UK) - The Girl Can't Help it
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £7.86
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: UMBRELLA
Starring: Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London, Ray Anthony
Directed By: Frank Tashlin
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9322225031364
Format: PAL
Label: UMBRELLA
Manufacturer: UMBRELLA
Publisher: UMBRELLA
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2005-02-23
Running Time: 99
Studio: UMBRELLA
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Cinematic Joy!
Comment: I just had to comment on the 1 star review here, I just do not recognise where this person is coming from. As you will see fro other reviewers the quality of this DVD is excellent.
To the film itself, it is a wonderful companion piece to that other great Tom Ewell classic Seven Year Itch [1955] with the other blonde bombshell Marilyn Munroe. I am a great fan of that movies and thought Munroe was ultimate foil to Ewell's "ordinary Joe" character but Mansfield here puts in a stunning performance. Her performance is far more knowing than Munroe's and I think on balance it is The Girl Can't Help It that comes out on top.
Although this seems like an antagonism to the feminist cause, in as much as the Jerri Jordan character just wants to be a housewife with a husband and children to care for, it is also a challenge to the stereotyped perception of the blonde bombshell as shallow and ditsy.
The constant innuendo is also delivered with some style as it is never done in such a way as to offend the innocent.
The big star of the movie, aside from Ewell, Mansfield and the excellent Ed O'Brien as Fats Murdock is the music. Rarely has an attempt to shoehorn popular music into a movie worked so well as it does here. Anyone considering a pop music exploitation movie (and I do not use that term in a negative sense) should watch this move firms to se how it is done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: poor transfer
Comment: The film can't help it, it's a lot of fun and it should look great, but
Second Sight's dvd transfer is poor.
Do yourself a favour and hang on until some company does this film justice with a special edition and an anamorphic transfer with a much much higher bit rate.
If this transfer were priced at 0.99, I'd call that overpriced.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still a star effort!
Comment: This was the very first film to seriously look at rock n roll. You might question therefore what the hell the Treniers and Ray Anthony and His Band are doing in a ROCK film, then,but both had already more than held their own on rock package tours across the USA,so there!
It features a brief glimpse of Eddie Cochran,a briefer glimpse of Gene Vincent,but plenty of Fats Domino and a lot of Little Richard. He is as mental as ever on stage and nearly succeeds in stealing the film with each of his 4 numbers.
The other issue explored sensitively here is one of the greatest mysteries of the 1950's. Why DID so many Hollywood blondes fail to buy their sweaters in the right sizes between about 1956-1960? Alternatively,why didn't these girls find a washing powder that didn't shrink the said sweaters 3 sizes every time?
It's a credit to other actors(Tom Euell & Edmund O'Brien)and the rock acts that you can concentrate on their performances,at least sometimes,without forever wondering why Jayne Mansfield looks like she's been shot in the back with a couple of guided missiles. The question does come back to haunt you occasionally, just like the ghost of Julie London & her hit recording of Cry Me A River keeps haunting Tom Ewell,until he finally pulls Jayne!
Anyway, it is a fun film,the music is wonderful and the fact is most people concerned acted as if this was something we'd all soon forget in a few months. Maybe that little error of judgement is why it's still so fondly regarded;every one had a darn good time making it,and most people have had a damn good time in the last 52 years watching it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best rock'n'roll film ever?
Comment: I saw this film in 1957 and more recently on TV. It still entertains thanks to the cast and the musical performances, particularly Eddie Cochran singing 'Twenty Flight Rock.' Chuck Berry does not appear in this film as stated by another reviewer, and Abby Lincoln and The Three Chuckles were left off the CD release that I have. Teddy Randazzo from The Three Chuckles tried to lead a rock band playing an accordian! Good for a laugh but not very cool!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Virtually a live-action cartoon - and all the funnier for it!
Comment: The Girl Can't Help It is like a live-action Tex Avery cartoon - Jayne Mansfield even looks like Swingshift Cinderella herself, while Edmond O'Brien channels both Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd at times - although it's directed by another animator, Frank Tashlin, whose pen-and-ink work never quite dared to go this far. Smut is present in every scene, whether it be Mansfield holding two jugs of milk, or the outrageous milkman sight gag you cannot believe they got past the censors. The plot is a reworking of Born Yesterday but much, much funnier and a lot more likeable, with a mostly well-integrated array of rock'n'roll hits of the day from an impressive line-up of everyone from Gene Vincent to Fats Domino via Abby Lincoln and Eddie Cochrane, not to mention the mandatory Chuck Berry. Yet for all the energy, perhaps the single most effective musical moment is Tom Ewell seeing old flame Julie London everywhere he turns when he hears Cry Me a River. The color is stunning in this 2.55:1 widescreen transfer, a big surprise for the usually lackluster DeLuxe color system. Perfectly joyous, and without an ounce of padding. Damn, it's catching!
Where the US DVD includes a historical audio commentary, documentary on Mansfield and trailers, Second sight's UK DVD includes an interview with kitsch director John Waters on the film.
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