The Trouble With Jerry Lewis

 

Recently it was my birthday.  My wife's present to me was for me to go to our nearest video store (some do still exist) and pick out any number of DVDs which she would pay for.  The image down below was my haul:

Pretty decent I'd say.  Since that time, I have watched and enjoyed all of these titles.  Although, only my wife watched Heavy Metal with me of course.  Out of all the movies from this batch that we watched, the one that I found got the most interesting reaction was from the Jerry Lewis collection.

For any curious fans of cinephiles out there, I'll provide the list of films here:

The Stooge

The Delicate Delinquent

The Bellboy

Cinderfella 

The Errand Boy

The Ladies Man

The Nutty Professor

The Disorderly Orderly

The Patsy

The Family Jewels

My daughter did laugh out loud at more than a few instances in these films.  But, my wife's response to all of what she saw Jerry do was "I don't think so".  Aw well, you can't please everybody.

As much as my daughter and I enjoyed these movies, we both agreed that not every scene was a winner.  Maybe for every one scene that was good there were about 3 or 4 that were okay followed by some scenes that fell absolutely into a flat pile of nothing.  Also, as a result of this, some of the movies as a whole left us feeling relatively satisfied while some flopped for us as a whole.  At first, we couldn't quite pin point what the issue was.  Then, after watching the fourth or fifth movie, we figured it out.  Or, the very least, we both came to a conclusion that satisfied us.  That's why this blog post is called "...the trouble with...", because we feel we found Mr. Lewis' biggest flaw in the movies he made.

Yes, I'm quite aware that we're not the first people to analyze Jerry's work.  Over the decades, Jerry Lewis has amassed a huge fan base full of people who insist he can do no wrong (most of these people live in France as you may know) along with a long line of detractors who feel he's never been good.  In my and my daughter's opinion, the answer is in the middle of those two extremes.  We feel he's an excellent performer along with being a capable writer/director, but that there's one big flaw that mars his work and keeps him from being great.  No, that flaw has nothing to do with any ego clashes that Jerry had with....... well pretty much everybody he ever met in his whole life.  It also has nothing to do with any routines of his that may or may not have aged well.

It has nothing to do with "ol' Deano" being with him or not (that of course is Dean Martin, for anyone under the age of 75 who may be reading this).  It definitely has nothing to do with the NOOOOOISES he makes with his MOOOOOOUUUUUUTH AND THE TONSILS AND THE... HEEEEEYYYYYY! LAAAAAAAAAADYYYYYYYY! I LOVE YO - WOOOOOAAAVIN I FELL DOWN! OY GLAVIN!! OW.... my larynx is sore now...... where's..... the lozenge? Mmh whay! 

It has nothing to do with any of that.  The one big flaw that we discovered is so simple and basic.  The one (of many) examples of this flaw of his I'll use to demonstrate it is in one of his films called The Errand Boy.  

It's in this particular sequence that I'll show with pictures (because I didn't feel like copying it and uploading it to Youtube.  Take me to court. I don't care).  Watch below:

Jerry Lewis walks onto a movie set with a pool of water in it.

A man in SCUBA gear jumps into that water.

Jerry walks to the edge of that water and thinks, "Hey, what's down there?" 

Jerry then jumps into the water with his clothes on and joins the SCUBA man.

The SCUBA man sees him and is noticeably confused.

The man manages to write on bristol board under water and uses this unique skill to ask Jerry a pointed question.

Jerry also has the unique ability to write on paper submerged in water and uses this skill to inform that man that he is now drowning.

That is the conclusion of that sequence.  Two things annoyed me with this part.

1. If he knew he'd have trouble in that water then why did he jump in?

Oh, maybe his character is incredibly impulsive always acting on a whim you might ask?  Well, ok that's all well and good except for one other question...

2. What does this have to do with the plot?

The initiating action that starts this movie off is that a Hollywood studio is facing bankruptcy because they haven't had a successful movie in too long a time.  Their solution is to hire a know-nothing dupe to do some spying for them to find out what other studios are doing.

So, I put the question to you: What does him jumping in the water have to do with anything and how does it advance to story in any way?  Sure, it might be a good idea to turn off my brain so that I can maybe better relax and enjoy the antics, but a coherent story or even just a coherent sequence of events would help with the relaxation so much more.

But, anyway, like I said, this is the part where we noticed Jerry Lewis' biggest flaw.  Here it is:

Jerry Lewis concentrates more on finding an instant belly laugh than he does in telling a coherent story.

That's it.  That's the reason some of his stuff works and some of it doesn't.  In his pursuit of an instant laugh, he'll too often end up sabotaging the plot, the story or even his character.  When you look at it that way, the sequence above makes that much more sense, or at least it makes sense as to why Jerry would've constructed the sequence this way.  When he first walks onto the set and sees the man jump in, his first thought is "it would be funny if I jumped in too".  Then while he's swimming in there, his thought is "it would be funny if the man was confused about why I don't have scuba gear".  The once the man asks that question via signage, his immediate thought is "it would be funny if it turned out I was just drowning".  I think the appropriate phrase is "not seeing the forest for the trees" or something like that.
 Well, anyway, he's too preoccupied with the immediate interactions that he has trouble seeing the movie as a whole.

At least Jerry was more honest about this point in another movie of his called The Bellboy.

It starts with a very silly guy at his desk telling us that "this movie has no story and no plot" thus freeing Jerry up to do whatever bits he wants without the burden of adhering to any story.

It does make the movie that much more easily consumable, but it does also keep it from being among Jerry's best in my opinion.

When Mr Lewis' last film Hardly Working came out, Siskel and Ebert kind of almost stumbled onto that flaw that I mentioned but never quite articulate it.  I found that review on Youtube and I'm embedding it below:

Ebert mentions that the sequences are inconsistent and make no sense, but merely attributes that to Jerry being "washed up and pathetic". 

This is also the reason that Jerry's best movies were directed by the great Frank Tashlin.

Frank Tashlin was a consumate genius when it came to writing and directing.  Whether his film project was animated or live action, Frank could be counted on to make something great every time.  I briefly mentioned Dean Martin at the top and Siskel & Ebert mentioned him as someone who would've improved Jerry's movies.  But really the true "dynamic duo", the true "dream team" was Jerry and Frank.  Those two together was the true formula to creating movie magic.  While Jerry was milling about thinking of that immediate gag or that funny face or that LOUD NOISE he could make, Frank Tashlin would be in charge of keeping everything consistent.  He'd write the screenplay and made sure that Jerry would adhere to that screenplay while still give him room to do his crazy antics.  They were a great team.  It's been said that the ONLY Jerry Lewis films even worth watching are the ones under the guidance of Frank Tashlin.  While I do think that's not entirely true (I find The Nutty Professor quite brilliant for instance), I do agree that when looking for a Jerry Lewis movie to watch you will never go wrong if you see Frank Tashlin in the credits as well.  If you enjoy comedy, you will not be disappointed.

While that flaw of Jerry's does tend to make many of his films a trifle tedious at times, there are other times when it tragically sinks what could've been a great movie.  The movie in question I'm referring to is on this set: The Family Jewels.  

In my opinion, the plot of this movie is brilliant and ripe for so much great comedy.  It's about a little girl whose rich father has just died.  There is no mention of her mother so I'm guessing she was out of the picture years ago.  Anyway, this means that the handlers of her father's estate insist that she go to live with one of her six uncles.  This could have been a "tour de force" for Jerry since he plays seven parts:

Uncle #1: the sea captain

Uncle #2: the clown

Uncle #3: the photographer

Uncle #4: the airline pilot

Uncle #5: some british guy

Uncle #6: the gangster

The chauffeur that's been taking care of her for most of her life whom the girl has considered to be like a true father figure 

That's the premise in a nutshell.  The possibilities are immense could easily have made for something great.  Buuuuuuuut, because of Jerry's flaw, this movie sadly falls flat.  Because Jerry spends most of his energy making all of his characters do very silly things, he doesn't allow any of them to develop in any way meaningful and thus robs the ending of the pathos it could've had.  I could go on about all the ways that this movie disappoints, but the blog post is quite long as it is.  I'll just say that you should seek out this movie The Family Jewels and watch it for yourself in you haven't done so already.  Watch it to the very end.  You'll see what I mean.

In the spirit of this blog post, I drew this picture:

Hello there, little goil. *huff puff* It is soytenly awkward and... oof... sweatifying to carry all of these boxes and OOOOOOY GLAVIN! I'M FALLING NOW! OOOOH THERE GO..... the boxes.  Your foot got.... um.... and then.... BOOM! Ow my face.

It's of Jerry and my daughter doing some funny funny hijinks together.  I'm sure they'd have made a good team.

I'll bring this post to an end with one of Jerry's best scenes, a scenes he should be most remembered for.  I dare anybody to enter your workplace doing this exact thing and TRY to be as smooth as Jerry is here.  If you're too chicken to try my dare, then just sit back and enjoy this scene anyway.