Mr Lime
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Christmas comes in April this year and another one crossed off the wants list!
The Girl Can’t Help It is one of my most longed for, nay lusted for, films and finally it makes it to Blu-ray in April courtesy of Criterion USA!
Written produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, a former animator and animation director for Disney, Columbia and Warner's Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig series, his same cartoon sensibility is often carried over into his live action features, including what is undoubtedly his masterpiece, The Girl Can't Help It.
A satire on the television and burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll music industries of the 1950s, the film stars Tom Ewell straight off ‘The Seven Year Itch’ with Marylin Monroe, here cast alongside Poundshop Monroe and real-life Jessica Rabbit, Jayne Mansfield, doubtless cast for her resemblance to a living cartoon character. A strong hint of Tashlin's “living cartoon” intent is given, in that the names of the male and female leads are respectively Tom and Jerri, who, throughout the film, indulge in a form of sexual cat and mouse game.
The film was a major influence on director John Waters, who modelled his star Divine on Jayne Mansfield. Waters also based Divine's notorious walk through the streets of Baltimore in Pink Flamingos (accompanied by the song The Girl Can’t Help It) on Jayne Mansfield's similarly head-turning walk to Tom Ewell's house; a sequence in which the impossibly pneumatic Jayne Mansfield, causes mayhem among the male populace, including one very thinly veiled, ersatz male orgasm that slipped past the censors.
The script is sharp as a razor and accompanying the on screen hi-jinks is a superb music soundtrack music from a who’s-who of the music biz of the ‘50s, including Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino, The Platters, Eddie Cochran and in one memorable fantasy sequence Julie London.
The Girl Can't Help It is a Cinemascope and Technicolor visual treat (the film even features an opening sequence where Tom Ewell's character plays with the aspect ratio of the screen) that has only been available in the UK on a very ropey DVD which was not only non-anamorphic, but also badly in need of a restoration. So one for the car boot sale.
This is a film that has been crying out for a Blu-ray sprucing up and finally the wait is over, and who better to restore it to its full glory than The Criterion Collection.
I think I’ve wee’d myself.
The Girl Can’t Help It is one of my most longed for, nay lusted for, films and finally it makes it to Blu-ray in April courtesy of Criterion USA!
Written produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, a former animator and animation director for Disney, Columbia and Warner's Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig series, his same cartoon sensibility is often carried over into his live action features, including what is undoubtedly his masterpiece, The Girl Can't Help It.
A satire on the television and burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll music industries of the 1950s, the film stars Tom Ewell straight off ‘The Seven Year Itch’ with Marylin Monroe, here cast alongside Poundshop Monroe and real-life Jessica Rabbit, Jayne Mansfield, doubtless cast for her resemblance to a living cartoon character. A strong hint of Tashlin's “living cartoon” intent is given, in that the names of the male and female leads are respectively Tom and Jerri, who, throughout the film, indulge in a form of sexual cat and mouse game.
The film was a major influence on director John Waters, who modelled his star Divine on Jayne Mansfield. Waters also based Divine's notorious walk through the streets of Baltimore in Pink Flamingos (accompanied by the song The Girl Can’t Help It) on Jayne Mansfield's similarly head-turning walk to Tom Ewell's house; a sequence in which the impossibly pneumatic Jayne Mansfield, causes mayhem among the male populace, including one very thinly veiled, ersatz male orgasm that slipped past the censors.
The script is sharp as a razor and accompanying the on screen hi-jinks is a superb music soundtrack music from a who’s-who of the music biz of the ‘50s, including Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino, The Platters, Eddie Cochran and in one memorable fantasy sequence Julie London.
The Girl Can't Help It is a Cinemascope and Technicolor visual treat (the film even features an opening sequence where Tom Ewell's character plays with the aspect ratio of the screen) that has only been available in the UK on a very ropey DVD which was not only non-anamorphic, but also badly in need of a restoration. So one for the car boot sale.
This is a film that has been crying out for a Blu-ray sprucing up and finally the wait is over, and who better to restore it to its full glory than The Criterion Collection.
I think I’ve wee’d myself.
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