The DVD of the French version from Amazon
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?
“In this film, former Warner Bros. animator Frank Tashlin helmed the first of eight couplings with Lewis. As co-writer and director of this splashy musical-comedy, his cartoon-like gags begin in the opening scene and are extra-appropriate since the boys are propelled into the world of comic book publishing. Warm and giggly, this film gets strong support from Eddie Mayehoff and Shirley MacLaine in her second film.” Liveabout.com McLaine’s first movie role was in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble With Harry” where she played Jennifer Rogers, Harry's estranged wife, who believed she killed Harry because she hit him hard with a milk bottle. A year later in Around the World in 80 Days she played Princess Aouda and had dozens of hit films after that.
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.
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Obviously not everyone appreciates the comedy of Jerry Lewis. How would you rank him as a comedian? 10 = One of the greats, to 0 = On or near the bottom of my list
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Obviously not everyone appreciates the comedy of Jerry Lewis. How would you rank him as a comedian? 10 = One of the greats, to 0 = On or near the bottom of my list
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