Mill Creek Entertainment goes above and beyond in its mission to celebrate the best of vintage entertainment regarding the January 16, 2018 "Comedy Triple Feature" release that includes three Jerry Lewis films from his post Dean Martin period. A particularly awesome aspect of this film festival is that it honors the '70s-era Sunday afternoon programming strategy of independent stations. These local wonders would run a triple feature of movies that often had a leitmotif.
Other awesomeness relates to these films being from an era in which Lewis (mostly) abandons his high-pitched hyperactive tween persona for that of an adult. He still has the wonderfully goofy charm that makes him an icon in France but tones things down.
"Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River" (1968) has Lewis playing American entrepreneur in London George Lester. This fast-talker convinces sophisticated British beauty Pamela to marry him but drives her away by devoting most of his time to his perpetual chain of get-rich-quick schemes. The most shagadelic enterprise has Lester turning his English manor marital home into a mod Chinese restaurant/swinging night club.
The central two-birds-one-stone scheme that Lester hopes will get his spousal bird to return home to roost involves an elaborate plot to steal a valuable innovation that the current significant other of Pamela owns. British national treasure Terry-Thomas (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World") plays the dirty rotten scoundrel who is the partner-in-crime of Lester.
This Lester's Two heist requires a hilarious break-in, torturing a dupe who serves as an unknowing mule, obtaining the purloined plans on the other side, and completing the sale to the chic buyer without literally or figurative losing their heads.
This being a Lewis movie requires that things fully go comically awry and have the tables turn a few times before Lester gets the girl and otherwise comes out as well as possible.
"Hook, Line & Sinker" (1969) is notable for many reasons that include the film using several sets from the classic sitcom "Bewitched" and for being a PERFECT example of a 60s-era screwball comedy. Much of this vibe is attributable to '60s TV god Rod Amateau of series such as "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and the (unfairly maligned) "My Mother the Car" being the writer. One aspect of this is the narrative beginning at the effective end of the story and the tale being told in the form of the Lewis character narrating the experiences that lead to the present.
Lewis plays burned-out mid-level insurance company drone Peter J. Ingersoll, who escapes the pressures of work, family, and home ownership by fishing most Sundays. His chaotic life is fully turned upside down when his physician/best friend Scott Carter tells him that he has a terminal disease for which Carter lacks a pill.
Ingersoll initially is elated when wife Nancy (Anne Francis of "Forbidden Planet" and "Honey West") convinces him to live his remaining days to the fullest courtesy of misuse of purloined corporate credit cards. The true motivation of Nancy that is revealed roughly halfway through the film will ring familiar to the scads of real-life spouses who experience the same situation.
Ingersoll goes on to live his personal bachelor's paradise of wine, women, and fish until he discovers that his life expectancy is much longer than believed when his journey begin. This leads to an effective next year in Tel Aviv scheme that goes awry in a manner that produces other change.
"3 On a Couch" (1966) is the one of this trilogy that best reflects the transition from the Martin and Lewis films to the solo career of our star. Lewis plays artist Christopher Pride who is the very recent recipient of a commission for a high-profile work in Paris. The wrinkle is that fiancee Elizabeth Acord, Ph.D., M.D. (Janet Leigh) is hesitant to abandon three women whom she counsels. The concern is that these patients are highly despondent on Acord regarding their prospects for meeting the man of their dreams.
The very Lewisesque solution of Pride is to transform himself into the ideal suitors for these desperate women. These personas are a ranch owner/rodeo champ cowboy, a jock, and a studious scientist. This ruse also requires adopting another character who is a real drag for Pride.
Even folks who have seen a sitcom episode that revolves around a main character juggling two simultaneous dates knows that Pride must increasingly alternate between his alter egos in an ultimately futile effort to avoid detection. The only question is whether Acord will go psycho on him or will follow him to the City of Lights.
As illustrated above, this marathon of Lewis films provides good reminders both that that successful comedian literally and figurative wears many hats in his movies and that the Silver Age of Hollywood is marked with comedies that do not always earn classic statues but that never fail to amuse and entertain. It is nice to be reminded that movies did not always rely on crude humor and/or outrageous personas of the stars to fill theater seats; creating an interesting situation and putting someone who knows his or her craft in the spotlight often was adequate.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Comedy" is strongly encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvddvdguy.
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