THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (1956) *** Whoever this is their favorite film, I think I like that person. It has all the germinations of the best of the world to come: great music, racial inclusion, interesting characters creating authentic and innovative value systems. The music's the centerpiece of it all, youth culture growing up for all ages. It's not really one of my favorite eras but the selections are flawless, they recognized quality and put it on: Eddie Cochrane, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent; then there were some really cool people that I'd never even heard of or forgot about, the Treniers, and Abbey Lincoln, even Julie London. And of course, Little Richard's definitely the champ. So a big thumbs up to the music, which is important if you're going to set it off every two seconds. Hollywood hadn't even begun to finish what it was doing to Jayne Mansfield and honestly, she's more charming than sleazy or over-sexed. She's credible cooking breakfast, but you can see that ghost cloud haunting her as she sashays her way from room to room. You know she's too good for Tom Ewell anyway. I mean, hell, if we're going to run around breaking down value systems let's let the doomed girl enjoy the ride with Edmond O'Brien, who's unscrupulous but has talent of such transcendence and sophistication that anyone willing to be a talent agent wouldn't recognize it.
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