Vintage Image of the Day: The Girl Can't Help It
Filed under: Comedy, Music & Musicals, Home Entertainment, Vintage Image of the Day
DVD Times announced on Wednesday that Fox will release The Jayne Mansfield Collection, a three-movie DVD boxed set, on August 8. This is the first American DVD release for all three films: The Girl Can't Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, all from Jayne Mansfield's early film years (1956-58).
Of the three films, I have seen only The Girl Can't Help It, which stars Mansfield and Tom Ewell. The 1956 comedy is slight and unremarkable except for two things. One is the number of talented rock musicians appearing in the film, including Fats Domino, The Platters, Gene Vincent, and Eddie Cochran. The other is the above iconic image. As Mansfield walks to Ewell's apartment, milk bottles pop open, foam, and overflow, all backed by the sound of Little Richard performing the title song. She kindly brings Ewell his bottles from the milkman, carrying them in that unforgettable, unsubtle way. Nothing like Production Code-era sexual symbolism, is there?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-04-2006 @ 12:47PM
Peter Nellhaus said...
Well it figures Fox would do it soon after I bought my R2 copy the "The Girl Can't Help It". I wonder if the R1 version will have John Waters discussing "Girl" and Jayne Mansfield though?
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5-04-2006 @ 2:12PM
Karen said...
The Girl Can't Help It truly is a forgettable film on its own merits. Hollywood's attempts to market Jayne Mansfield as the new Marilyn were doomed from the outset and, even without that aspect, it's just not a very good film.
What's interesting to me about it, though, is its role in creating a new kind of musical. I think it might be in the documentary "Beatles Anthology" that we learn that the Fab Four LOVED this movie, and it was a great influence for them when they decided to embark into film with A Hard Day's Night. Their film is certainly the one most people think of as the seminal rock (or pop) music movie, but for the Beatles it all came out of this odd 1956 confection.
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