The Girl Can't Help It - The Criterion Collection (US Import)

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious DeLuxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The only question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help It bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.New high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayAudio commentary featuring film scholar Toby MillerNew interview with Eve Golden, biographer of actor Jayne MansfieldNew video essay by film critic David CairnsInterview with filmmaker John WatersNew conversation between WFMU DJs Dave “the Spazz” Abramson and Gaylord Fields about the music in the filmOn-set footageInterviews with Mansfield (1957) and musician Little Richard (1984)Episode of Karina Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This about MansfieldTrailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingPLUS: An essay by critic Rachel Syme and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from director Frank Tashlin’s 1952 book How to Create Cartoons with a new introduction by Ethan de Seife, author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin