Enough of politics for today. Every once in awhile, well to be honest, many times a day I get overwhelmed with political news on MSNBC and try to find old movies to watch. I also sometimes get tired of finding serious subjects to write a diary about. Hey, if Salon can have a section on culture why not a few articles like this on Daily Kos?
I was watching the 1955 musical comedy Artists and Models (Artisti e Modelle in illustration in French (correction) Italian ) starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, and Anita Ekberg and came across what is the best example of a choreographed physical comedy duet I’ve ever seen.
The first half is cute though nothing special. Dean Martin crones his way through the song "Innamorata" while rubbing suntan oil on Dorothy Malone’s back. The classic comedy scene is in the second half of this video. Shirley McClaine’s character, Bessie Sparrowbush, has a crush on the hapless Eugene Fullstack played by Jerry Lewis.
I won’t spoil it. Just watch it. If you don’t enjoy it I will eat my hats.
The French are right. Jerry Lewis was a genius.
By the way, the reference to That’s Amore, in case you didn’t catch the meaning, it was a real Dean Martin hit.
Here’s another Jerry Lewis scene of physical comedy from the movie.