The Girl Can’t Help It

Filling out our Marilyn Monroe series is Jayne Mansfield's The Girl Can't Help It, which takes the 1950s' craze for blonde bombshells to its most hyperbolic extremes.

Mansfield essentially plays a cartoon-character version of Monroe (which is no surprise, given that director Frank Tashlin started his career making Looney Tunes shorts). Mansfield’s gangster boyfriend hires Tom Ewell (Monroe’s costar in The Seven Year Itch) to make her a star…any kind of star. The film outrageously sends up the mores, culture, and rock music of the era in eye-popping Cinemascope and Technicolor! With musical appearances by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and Julie London. (99 mins., 35mm)