THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT

In 1956, rock and roll was threatening to destroy American civilization, and Jayne Mansfield was threatening to destroy the structural integrity of the buildings around her. Naturally, Frank Tashlin decided to put them both in the same movie. Mansfield plays Jerri Jordan, a spectacularly proportioned blonde whose gangster boyfriend (Edmond O’Brien) is determined to make her a singing sensation, despite the minor complication that she may not actually be able to sing. Enter a washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell), who discovers that behind Jerri’s world-famous figure is a sweet, ordinary girl whose greatest ambition is to stay home and cook dinner. Unfortunately, the rest of America has other plans for her.

A former Looney Tunes animator with a genius for turning the human body into a public safety hazard, Tashlin unleashes a CinemaScope carnival of exploding milk bottles, melting ice, screaming teenagers, colors that practically glow in the dark. Between the gags comes an astonishing parade of rock and roll royalty, including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and the Platters, captured at the precise moment their music was driving parents out of their minds.

Part jukebox musical, part sex comedy, part deranged investigation into the American entertainment industry, THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT is a movie that understands two fundamental truths about show business: sex sells, and nobody in charge has the slightest idea what young people actually want. Tashlin makes a glorious spectacle of the whole ridiculous enterprise, somehow managing to celebrate American popular culture and accuse it of crimes against humanity at the same time.