Pythias.
True friend.
Strange bit with the cop.
Pretty good film.
-PD
Category Archives: Jerry
The Geisha Boy [1958)
I couldn’t get through this one the first time I tried.
Too corny.
The whole rabbit thing.
And the carrots.
But I made it through this time.
And it’s a pretty good flick.
Great Technicolor footage of Japan.
There are some truly hilarious scenes.
But this film only holds together due to the lovely Suzanne Pleshette.
Jerry Lewis wasn’t ready yet.
He wasn’t yet in full-on “genius mode”.
And so Pleshette’s lovely visage makes this thing go (to a certain extent).
However, this footage along the Korean border is riotous! 🙂
In short, this is a cute film.
Worth a watch if you’re a big Jerry Lewis fan like me.
-PD
The Stooge [1952)
After watching Boeing Boeing, I needed this!
As bad as that film is this film charming.
No lame Tony Curtis.
Instead, we get the underrated Dean Martin.
And THE comedy team of the ’50s: Martin and Lewis.
Jerry Lewis is great in this.
This is Jerry around the age of 25.
He looks like a kid!
Perhaps Iggy Pop and company had this flick in mind when they named their band The Stooges.
Come to think of it, there is a weird parallel between Jerry Lewis and Iggy Pop.
Each with their own brand of spastic expressionism.
At any rate, I highly recommend this black and white picture.
It is well worth your time.
It is a quality production which stands up till this very day.
-PD
Boeing Boeing [1965)
This one is pretty lame.
Maybe I will rewatch it someday and extol its hidden splendor.
But it’s not bloody likely.
Tony Curtis drags this film down with his horrible performance.
[like a photocopy of a fax of a teletype of his turn in Some Like It Hot]
Curtis is positively not funny in this film.
Or charming.
Or anything redeeming whatsoever.
He sucks.
Which isn’t much help for Jerry Lewis.
And as uber-talented as Lewis is, Jerry can’t salvage this last picture he made for producer Hal B. Wallis.
And perhaps Jerry didn’t really care to anyway.
Fuck it.
Just get the contract over with.
Suffice it to say, this film is fairly godawful in just about every way.
Even character actor Thelma Ritter [Rear Window] has one of her final performances ruined by this vacuous vehicle.
Bad film.
Not recommended.
-PD
The Errand Boy [1961)
Yesterday I lost a good friend.
On the job.
Yes, that’s right: she died at work.
And though she may not have known that she was my friend, she was.
She was a wonderful, sweet lady.
She had lived a long life.
And yet, she was taken from us too soon.
She was loved by many.
I do not know exactly what happened to her.
Only that one minute she had trouble catching her breath (from what I’m told) and the next she was being wheeled out dead…as we continued to work.
Dead.
High volume.
Busy workplace.
Sweatshop.
More or less.
Me, sweating by the ovens.
Slave to time.
Tempo.
Rush rush rush.
And there, a compatriot is being rolled away on a stretcher.
No white sheet.
Just an obvious lack of consciousness.
Perhaps she has been sedated?
And then the rumors trickled down.
“They couldn’t find a pulse.”
“Now it looks like they DID find a pulse.”
At the hospital…
But I have little doubt that she was already dead when I saw her for the last time.
That dear, sweet, old lady.
When I finally learned of her fate, I broke down.
I couldn’t help it.
Most of the shift I suspected the worst.
It was hard to be chipper.
Hard to interact with holiday customers in a rush.
But the finality of the news was like a left hook.
I cried.
Openly.
Cried as I clocked out.
Cried in my car for a good 20 minutes.
Cried on the way home.
Cried as I entered my house.
All in a day’s work.
Which brings us to our film.
The Errand Boy.
One of at least three Jerry Lewis films which outlines the rigors of working.
All these of which share “boy” in the title.
The Bellboy, The Geisha Boy, and The Errand Boy.
Lewis plays another immortal character: Morty S. Tashman.
The S is important, mind you.
Morty starts out doing the kind of work which typified Norman Phiffier’s existence in Who’s Minding the Store?.
Lewis again essentially plays a stooge–a patsy…a retard.
The Errand Boy certainly has its moments, but I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece on the order of The Nutty Professor, Cinderfella, or The Ladies Man.
Nor is it really of that next tier including The Patsy, Who’s Minding the Store?, and The Disorderly Orderly.
Indeed, The Errand Boy is really like a more mature (in terms of artistic development) version of The Bellboy.
It is certainly worth seeing.
And if it isn’t painfully apparent, the substance which greases the wheels of this comedy is work.
Another day, another opportunity.
R.I.P. my friend.
-PD
The Patsy [1964)
So this is the next in installment in the bellboy saga.
Stanley.
Now Stanley Belt.
Formerly The Bellboy.
Which was the first film Jerry Lewis directed.
But this picture is much more sophisticated.
A real masterpiece.
I knew it had potential, but I didn’t get it at first.
Took me awhile.
[as with most of Jerry’s movies]
The highpoint might be Stanley’s studio backing singers.
Like the mother from The Ladies Man.
Jerry in drag.
Thrice.
Kinda like when the Stones did this:
Dut i bigress…
The real star of this film (other than the obvious one [Lewis]) is the wonderful Ina Balin.
Wow () ()
What a sweet gal.
Sad story.
Short life.
Big heart.
And she really shines here along with Jerry Lewis.
So there you have it.
This is another damn fine film from a true genius.
Really.
Watch and learn.
And don’t underestimate Lee Harvey Oswald’s comment from the year prior…
-PD
Who’s Minding the Store? [1963)
Here’s a great movie.
And a great chance to take stock.
To assess.
Work.
And money.
I got engaged.
Recently.
Yay me!
It’s a very big thing.
I’ve never been engaged before.
But today I’m scared.
Because I’m poor.
Money fluctuates.
And I worry I won’t be able to provide for my love the way I would want.
Kinda like Jerry Lewis in this film.
A schmuck.
Hard-working, but still entry-level.
That’s me.
Whaddle-it-be, man?
And yet, I’m rich in love.
I love.
And my love loves me.
This I know.
And so.
I will take that knowledge forth.
My love doesn’t love me for my money.
Because I haven’t got much.
But what if I had less?
And what if what if???
Money troubles.
Many bad things happen in money troubles.
But I am just over-excited.
I tip too much.
I go a little overboard.
If I could only write like Mozart…
But I do.
In my own way.
These strains you haven’t heard in a long while.
Because they have been buried.
We have to suffer.
And so I suffer now in this moment.
Fear.
Oh, the ignominy!
Of picking up trash.
Of licking the boots of bourgeoisie.
Those who fancy themselves to be above their position.
Like me.
Fair enough.
To kiss ass.
With a master’s degree.
Obviously I’m in the wrong line of work.
But I press on.
Dumb, but steady.
Trying to be honest.
Trying to make an honest living.
Learning hard lessons.
If someone would abandon me for over-loving, then to hell with them.
YOLO.
YOLT.
JOLT.
That thunderbolt looms large.
I am flawed.
Pressed on all sides.
Said Saint Paul.
Like the Star Wars trash compactor.
So I make this a prayer.
Knowing my love believes in God.
I pray to you, Lord, that you will give me a chance.
That you will help me with my mistakes.
That you will not make others suffer because of my ignorance.
I pray, Lord, that you will put opportunities before me.
And that you will help me to be a better person.
I am not used to all of this.
Can I pull it back and win?
It is to God that I pray.
Beg, knowing I am blessed.
Blessed simply by the same grace which is available to every man and woman.
All creations of God.
I ask God help with my health.
My peace of mind.
Please help with my striving to be healthy.
Please give me strength and grace to overcome the obstacles now before me.
And I ask you, Lord, to give me guidance in my career.
In work.
How to spend my time.
Where to spend it.
And how to spend my money.
How to save it.
Give me wisdom, dear Lord.
I have nerves.
But I am an artist.
And God is my parachute.
Do not tempt the Lord your God.
Who helps those who help themselves.
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Jesus.
God’s got this.
-PD
The Disorderly Orderly [1964)
So here’s another movie I was wrong about.
Kinda like how I was wrong about Stan Laurel appearing in The Bellboy.
At least I think I was wrong.
Did I say that?
Because it turns out it was an impersonator.
But back to this here movie.
I couldn’t appreciate it on first viewing (all couple minutes I lasted) because Jerry’s style was so pungent.
Jerry Lewis.
A new star in my firmament.
Peter Sellers still reigns supreme in my pantheon.
And Sacha Baron Cohen still takes the cake for living comedians.
But Jerry Lewis is breathing down Peter’s neck.
And so this film ranks up there.
The Nutty Professor is still probably the best.
And Cinderfella holds a dear spot in my heart because it was the film which proved to me that Lewis was not merely a one-hit-wonder.
And The Ladies Man is really one of the artful, top Lewis films.
And so The Disorderly Orderly is in this rarefied air.
It’s better than The Bellboy.
It’s better than The Family Jewels.
Hell… Maybe I should watch those again!
But really.
Jerry Lewis was super-talented.
Indeed, let’s delineate a bit.
Lewis directed (and starred in) The Nutty Professor.
But Cinderfella, an earlier film, was directed by the great Frank Tashlin.
Why great?
Lewis deftly directed The Ladies Man while starring in it as well.
But Tashlin was back as director for this film (The Disorderly Orderly).
And so Tash was integral to the career of Jerry Lewis.
I really can’t imagine Jerry’s oeuvre without a Cinderfella.
It is indispensable.
While The Disorderly Orderly might be slightly less timeless, it is still quite an achievement.
Verily, it is a strange film (truth be told).
Indeed, about 3/4ths the way through, our film takes a turn towards dark, psychological energy.
Dreams.
Nightmares, really.
Shame.
Transgression.
Jerry Lewis as a peeping tom is bizarre.
As a stalker.
[especially considering that the real-life Lewis would be stalked in the ’90s by a man named Gary Benson (who subsequently spent four years in prison…ostensibly for stalking Lewis {according to the infallible Wikipedia})]
Humiliation.
Let’s dissect.
There should be some comparison to Mel Brooks’s’s High Anxiety.
“neurotic identification empathy”
Amen, brother!!!
Let’s list the timeless characters:
Julius Kelp
Fella (!)
Herbert H. Heebert [whose moniker bears a striking resemblance to Nabokov’s world-class pervert Humbert Humbert]
and Jerome Littlefield.
This list will grow.
Soon.
But for now, we can consider the timelessness of dear, squeamish Jerome Littlefield.
Too sensitive for this world.
Definitely too sensitive to be an MD!
The whole drama with psych patient Susan Oliver is thoroughly bizarre.
The film language dips from a rollercoaster zenith to a stomach-bottom nadir.
WTF, Jerry Lewis? WTF?!?
But remember, this is a Frank Tashlin film.
Or is it???
Every Jerry Lewis film is THOROUGHLY DOMINATED BY HIM.
It is obvious that improvisation plays a large part in the final product.
Not to mention silent gestures which loom larger than any script ever could.
Suffice it to say, The Disorderly Orderly is a sort of “flawed masterpiece”.
No, it’s not on the level of La Règle du jeu, but Frank Tashlin was no Jean Renoir.
And yet…Jerry Lewis was.
In his own way.
Which brings us to a perfect non-ending.
Jerry Lewis is an essential part of French cinema.
Put that in your ceci-n’est-pas-une-pipe and smoke it!
-PD
The Ladies Man [1961)
Here’s a nearly-perfect film.
Which didn’t do it for me at first.
Never had I seen Jerry Lewis be SO ANNOYING as he was in the start of this movie.
But I was wrong.
And so I gave it another chance.
All said, The Ladies Man ranks up there (for me) with The Nutty Professor and Cinderfella in the Lewis pantheon.
This is a real work of art.
This must be where Godard got the idea for the mise-en-scène of Tout va bien.
Doll house.
Two sound stages.
A huge production.
And so, in retrospect, I highly recommend this film.
You just have to adapt to Lewis’s singular style.
It can be a bit grating–a bit jarring from film to film.
But it is worth the work.
Jerry Lewis was a true comedic and artistic genius.
Give him a chance.
Go deeper into the films.
You won’t be sorry.
-PD
The Bellboy [1960)
This one is pretty good.
I didn’t give it much of a chance at first.
Sometimes black and white movies are hard to watch.
[if you grew up on color]
Kinda like silent films are hard to watch.
[if you grew up on sound]
And sorta how Shakespeare is hard to read.
[if you grew up on comic books]
This one doesn’t rival the top dog [The Nutty Professor].
It doesn’t begin to touch the neck-and-neck silver medalist Cinderfella.
But it’s a whole lot better than The Family Jewels.
Which is to say, black and white sometimes trumps color.
The Family Jewels had everything it needed.
Except that it’s a mediocre film.
The Bellboy has nothing it needed.
Kinda like Psycho.
But it OVERACHIEVES for its resource level.
What is most significant about The Bellboy is that it truly has NO PLOT.
It does, however, have characters.
[particularly Stanley (Jerry Lewis)]
So then, taking the French love of Jerry Lewis into account, one might say that The Bellboy is a rather intellectual (!) series of situations after the manner of Debord.
Or further, that The Bellboy is a long-form work of nonsense in the mold of Finnegans Wake.
Whichever comparison is most fitting, The Bellboy stands up as a watchable, enjoyable movie.
One more thing…
There ARE true (true!) flashes of genius in this film.
The sequence with Milton Berle.
Bits with Stan Laurel (and Stanley [Lewis]).
Prefiguring Peter Sellers by way of multiple characters (Lewis playing himself as well as the bellboy Stanley).
The Jerry Lewis oeuvre is very interesting indeed.
-PD
paulydeathwish 