Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/756468
26 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2016 allows Tashlin to satirize American racial and sexual attitudes. "Do Re Mi," the short story that became The Girl Can't Help It, was penned by Garson Kanin, best known for the screenplays he wrote with his actress wife, Ruth Gordon, for director George Cukor. Published in The Atlantic magazine in March 1955, the story involved organized crime's control of the jukebox business spreading into music promotion. The story was picked up by Fox and assigned to the prestigious veteran writer/producer Nunnally Johnson for development. As the new music boomed among teens, the studio decided to change the story to spotlight the music itself in a comedy, and it was reassigned to Tashlin on July 5, 1956. Having worked 15 years as an animator and director, chiefly for Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes, Tashlin started writing gags and feature comedy scripts in the mid-1940s for stars like the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. In 1952, he directed his first feature, aptly titled The First Time. Tashlin the writer worked quickly with co-writer Herbert Baker to complete a first draft of Do Re Mi by mid-August, delivering a final script on September 7. With his cartoonish visual sense and sharp comic timing, Tashlin the director built into the screenplay striking collisions of music, gags and emotion. Despite retaining jukeboxes and music promotion in the film, the visual style, the music and the love story of Mansfield and Ewell had little to do with the original story. Kanin asked the studio to remove his story credit, and Tashlin the producer renamed the picture. Ewell had left Hollywood for a three- year run on Broadway in George Axelrod's The Seven Year Itch, which brought him back West to star in Billy Wilder's 1955 film adaptation opposite Marilyn Monroe; early in 1956, he also starred in Tashlin's The Lieutenant Wore Skirts. Edmond O'Brien, Supporting Actor Oscar winner for The Barefoot Contessa (1954), took the part of The Girl's overbearing, songwriting racketeer, who also has Vermeers and Toulouse-Lautrecs hanging on his walls. Back in May, Fox had signed Mansfield to a seven-year contract as a new sex goddess, and Tashlin was delighted to write the script with her in mind. The September 14 start date, however, conflicted with her contractual obligation to continue in her starring role in the Broadway run of another hit play by Axelrod, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Studio executive producer Buddy Adler solved the problem by purchasing the play and releasing Mansfield from her theatrical contract, just in time for her to join the production. She arrived in Hollywood the day after shooting started with the cream of the studio's below-the-line talent working on the project. Director of photography Leon Shamroy, ASC, with four Oscars and 18 nominations, lensed the picture. Art directors Lyle R. Wheeler (who did Oscar- winning work earlier that year on The King and I) and Leland Fuller designed the production, including the boldly colored, stylized nightclubs and dance halls. Editor James B. Clark, Oscar-nominated for John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), cut the picture and, shortly after, became a full- time director. Legendary Lionel Newman was music supervisor and sound was by Harry M. Leonard and E. Clayton Ward; all three had scores of classic Fox credits. The director shot all the musical numbers for the picture first, but had to have the sexual content of all the songs' lyrics approved by the Production Code Administration (PCA) in advance. They passed PCA muster, but the prevailing attitude toward rock music can be seen in THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY The Girl Can't Help It. 20th Century-Fox/ Photofest CONTINUED ON PAGE 29