Hanns Eisler argues how film music was forced to serve as what he identified as ‘hyper-explicit’ illustrative function, where two or more happenings such as image, music, sound effects, and dialogue may mimic each other. (Cited in Flinn, 1992, p. 34) Rudolf Arnheim has labelled this as “paralleling”. An extreme example of this is ‘mickey-mousing’ a technique that, as the name suggests, appears frequently in animated films. (Cited in Flinn, 1992, p. 34) In this scene the classical music mimics the character as it would in a cartoon. The narrator continues to inform the audience that the picture is about contemporary music, expressing “the culture, the refinement, the polite grace and the present day...” the camera pans to a lit jukebox as Little Richard’s title song, “The Girl Can’t Help It,” (1956) blares, drowning out his remarks. The opener praises and mocks new conventions in one brief sequence. Throughout the film, new versus vis-a-vis values, lifestyles and music are the sequence.
The story begins with the ever present musical accompaniment and the heavy drinking agent, Tom Miller, who spends a lot of time in night spots listening to rock acts. He receives an invitation by Fats Murdock which he accepts. In order to elevate himself into newsworthiness, Fats wants Ewell to make his girlfriend into a star. Obtaining a $10,000 advance, Miller accepts Fats’ challenge. He celebrates in another nightclub with a band blasting “Ain’t Gona Cry No More.” Here the lyrics relate to the narrative of the film, the song has just conveyed in simple terms the emotions of Tom Miller. The music also interacts with other aspects of the scene as the band is also playing in the night club whilst Tom Miller dances along. This is one of the main musical features of the film, where the lyrics mimic what a character is feeling or doing. This is also shown in the next scene where diagetic music is used to accompany Jerry walking down a street. On her travels ice melts, milk bottles burst open and reading glasses split as Jerry walks by three men to the title song “The Girl Can’t Help It”. Again cartoon behaviours appear in this scene.
As the song “The Girl Can’t Help It” appears in the title credits and later in the film, it is functioning as a kind of leitmotiv. Leitmotiv is a Wagnerian term where music refers to other musical events within a film and is memorable because the scene is structured to give a great deal of attention to the music. (Schroeder, 2003, p. 75) Theme songs are generally given a high degree of attention and often become attached to a film. This then creates audience connotations where a particular emotion or image becomes attached to a song. Identifying music often marks other features of a film. For instance, setting is often identified by quoted source music. Here the connotations of Jerry walking down the street are attached to this song as later in time it is used in the film “Pink Flamingos” (1972) where a transvestite is seen strutting down a street in the same way Jerry did.
In the storyline, as a marketing ploy, Miller escorts Jerry on a nightclub crawl, displaying her to bistro managers. Little Richard is seen performing “Ready, Ready,” plus “She’s Got It” where Jerry is strutting across the floor to get noticed by the manager. As Richard sings the lyrics “She’s Got It” the camera cuts between Jerry and the reaction of the manager. The lyrics of “She’s Got It” act as a narrative to the scene, also the manager mimics it in dialogue and says “she’s got it all.” Throughout the night many musical acts are shown including The Three Chuckles, featuring Teddy Randazzo, performing “Lollipop Lies”; Eddie Fontaine performs “Rock Love”; and Abby Lincon sings the gospel tune “Spread the Word”. Kassabian stresses the drawbacks of using popular music in films and comments: “with their range of complete songs used just as they are heard on the radio, they bring the immediate threat of history.” (Kasabian, 2001, p. 8-9) However in this particular film that is what was intended, the film acts as a type of historical document. Not many people of the Fifties got to see bands or singers so the cinema created a gateway for rock ‘n’ roll music. Ernest Lindgren in The Art of the Film makes the point that “The use of well known music is… distracting, and has the additional disadvantage that it often has certain associations for the spectator which may conflict entirely with the associations the producer wishes to establish the film.” (Cited in Flinn, 1992, p. 37) A certain level of distraction occurs in the film as one of the main reasons to see it was for the popular acts and when songs where cut short it left viewers wanting more. The dialogue, visuals and other elements are often scarce when such acts appear on screen, which makes it seem a deliberate ploy for attention to be on the music. The volume of the music is often lowered and the camera cuts to the characters when dialogue starts.
The leitmotiv is used again in the film when Miller is in his apartment and he discovers a vision of Julie London (a former love) singing “Cry Me a River” (1953) which is about a lost love. Miller tries to escape her presence yet she appears wherever he goes but disappears as the music fades. This scene identifies he is in love with Julie London and again the music mimics the emotions of the character. Music used for identification does not always rule out the same music all together. Identifying music can convey or evoke all of the things mentioned in the definition of leitmotiv. The song “Cry Me a River” appears later in the film where Miller is looking for the hallucination of Julie London but instead sees Jerry. This conveys that the song not only has character recognition but the emotion of love also attached to it.
The Girl Can’t Help It presents teenage rock ‘n’ roll in ‘adults only’ venues. In a kind of variety show format, the rock ‘n’ rollers are inserted into the narrative and given their one moment on screen. Interestingly, none of them are integrated into the plot. Stephen Heath, Ed Branigan, and Kristen Thompson have pointed out that in “historical enquiries on early cinema, color, and animated film, respectively, new technological developments in dominant cinematic representation do not contribute solely to greater “realistic effect.” These inquiries suggest that it is the novelty of the technology that is celebrated for a while.” (Cited in Gorbman, 1997 p. 44) This is clearly the case in this film as many rock films in the Fifties put more emphasis on the use of popular bands to promote the film rather than the greatness of the plot.
Kassabian suggests that there are uses of film music that link directly to other musical events. She calls this “quotation” which is the “importing of a song or musical text, in part or in whole, into a film’s score.” (2001, p. 49) David Shumway has suggested that the roots of these contemporary compiled scores can be found in early rock scores. (Cited in Kassabian, 2001, p. 49-50) In the mid 1950’s teenagers’ tastes in music were introduced as a separate segment of the mainstream, with rock ‘n’ roll being the genre for that taste. The movie producer Samuel Z. Arkoff states “the oddity was that old people were afraid of rock ‘n’ roll... I don’t know why but all adults thought that rock ‘n’ roll was immoral.” (Coleman, 1997, p. 141) The Girl Can’t Help It contributed to changing this, perhaps half of the featured performances such as Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and the Coasters are concessions to the teenage audience; the remainder Ray Anthony, Julie London, and Abby Lincoln are for the adults’ tastes. The film premiered “attracting a large adult audience, the movie gave the much maligned rock ‘n’ roll some respectability, though Films in Review it called it “a showcase for the leading purveyors of the jungle caterwauling known as rock ‘n’ roll, and... thereby a cultural debilitator our descendants won’t forgive us for”” (Coleman, 1997, p. 141) The Girl Can’t Help It showed that Hollywood was taking rock ’n’ roll seriously.
In conclusion, the music was not only used to set the right ‘mood’ using the composed score but to also set the scene with the compiled. Caryl Flinn suggests music reveals glimpses of a better, more unified world. It allows film to open doors to exotic locations and fantasy. It can also capture a sense of lost integrity and grandeur. (1992) As the film features mostly popular and jazz acts of the Forties and Fifties, Billboard reported on July 15 that the film “may lend an aura of rock ‘n’ roll” to the movie. (Cited in Cloeman, 1997, p.164) However the films reality is partly distorted from using such functions as ‘mickey-mousing’ and ‘paralleling’ yet the style of music does reflect the genre of the film. The storyline and music attracted both teenagers and adults by bringing adult themes and popular culture together, and portraying it in a way they could both enjoy. This was uncommon in the Fifties and Tashlin used Little Richard’s music to “send up American attitudes towards sexuality and racism.” (White, 2003, p. 81)
This film most probably would not have been a success without the rock ‘n’ roll. Gorbman suggests that an argument runs that “sound, in the form of music, gave back to those “dead” photographic images some of the life they lost in the process of mechanical reproduction” (1997, p. 39) and in this case the film would be ‘dead’ without the popular acts. Leonard B. Meyer argues “while the image itself is relevant to the music, the significance that it has for the particular individual is purely personal. (Cited in Kassabian, 2001, p. 56) Not only has the soundtrack shown clear musical technical advancements, but it also has a higher role to play in social advancements. It helps adults to understand the preferences of teenagers and offers a common ground between the two age groups. Rock ‘n’ roll films also have a deeper meaning and start to touch on racial inequality by including black musicians as America’s popular culture.
Bibliography
Coleman, Rick. 1997. Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of rock ‘n’ roll. Cambridge: Da Capo Press.
White, Charles. 2003. The Life and Times of Little Richard. London: Omnibus Press
Gorbman, Claudia. 1997. “Film Music”, in The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, ed. John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kassabian, Anahid. 2001. Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. London: Routledge.
Flinn, Caryl. 1992. Strains of Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia and Hollywood Film Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
David Schroeder 2003. “The Leitmotif”, in Cinema’s Illusions, Opera’s Allure: The Operatic Impulse in Film. New York, London: Continuum.
Film Bibliography
The Girl Can’t Help It. 1956. [DVD] United States: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Pink Flamingos. 1972. [DVD] United States: Castle Pictures.
Music Bibliography
The Girl Can’t Help It. 1956, Little Richard. Written by Bobby Troup: Specialty Records.
I Ain't Gonna Cry No More, Johnny Olenn (Unknown Information)
Ready, Ready, Little Richard (Unknown Information)
She’s Got It, Little Richard (Unknown Information)
Cry Me A River. 1953, Julie London. Written By (Unknown Information)
Lollipop Lies. The Three Chuckles, featuring Teddy Randazzo. (Unknown Information)
Rock Love, Eddie Fontaine. (Unknown Information)
Spread the Word, Abby Lincon. (Unknown Information)
Word Count Excluding Bibliography: 2,154
