Girl Can't Help It, The

In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that hed 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 mobsters bombshell girlfriendthe one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film roleand 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 Cant Help It bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazersincluding Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincentwho light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.