I loved Jerry Lewis movies as a kid, but naturally lost interest as I grew older and it seemed the movies simultaneously declined in quality while Jerry became increasingly annoying as a pontificating pseudo-intellectual. However his early work was interesting as he tried different things (silence in The Bellboy for example) and he made a couple of fine comedies early on. I have always found parts of It's Only Money and The Ladies Man hilarious. Many feel The Nutty Professor to be his best, and it has some good stuff, but I have always been partial to the all-out, anything-goes assault of gags in The Ladies Man, one of his best efforts. Also the shmaltz and sentimentality that marred so much of his later films is, for the most part, thankfully absent here.
Comedy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, and you cannot fake a laugh. You either find a non-sequiter throw-away joke like the bit with the door cited above funny, or you don't. Likewise many of the non-stop gag setups and deliveries here will crack you up or they won't. Of course it's silly. It was meant to be silly. Silly done well, is just fine.
There are some great bits here: the opening "heartbreak" scene (hilariously exaggerated); the butterflies; the other "pain" jokes (the toaster); "baby"; the dance with George Raft; the surreal encounter with Miss Cartilage; the "sound test" with Doodles Weaver; the intrusions into Mrs. Wellonmellon's TV show and so on. And if none of the above make you laugh, there is the one certified classic routine of the "hat bit" with Jerry Lester doing his patented "slow-burn".
Jerry made good use of the elaborate set and his direction here is as concise and appropriate as possible. As to the DVD, unfortunately, on the Commentary Jerry offers a few useful insights, but Steve Lawrence seems to be there just to say "Great Jer" after every bit. Egregious, but I suppose they don't watch many DVD's, and fail to understand what a Commentary is about. Take the 5 stars in context.
Jerry Lewis | Herbert H. Heebert/Mama Heebert |
Helen Traubel | Miss Helen N. Wellenmellon |
Kathleen Freeman | Katie |
Hope Holiday | Miss Anxious |
Gretchen Houser | Dancer #3 |
George Raft | Himself |
Lillian Briggs | Lillian |
Harry James | Himself |
Mary LaRoche | Miss Society (as Mary La Roche) |
Marty Ingels | Himself |
Madlyn Rhue | Miss Intellect |
Buddy Lester | Willard C. Gainsborough |
Alex Gerry | Mr. Zaussman, TV Show Producer |
Gloria Jean | Gloria |
Jack Kruschen | Graduation Emcee Professor |
Vicki Benet | Frenchie |
Jack LaLanne | Himself |
Pat Stanley | Fay |
Westbrook Van Voorhis | Himself - TV Person to Person |
Dee Arlen | Miss Liar |
Sylvia Lewis | Miss Cartilage |
Leoda Richards | Onstage Faculty at Graduation |
Francesca Bellini | Dancer |
Eddie Quillan | Wolf Man (scenes deleted) |
Patricia Blair | Working Girl #1 |
Walter Scharf | Composer |
William Wellman Jr. | Soda Jerk |
W. Wallace Kelley | Cinematographer |
Darlene Tompkins | Working Girl #17 |
Lynn Ross | Miss Vitality |
Roscoe Ates | Pet Shop Owner |
Doodles Weaver | Soundman |
Bonnie Evans | Dancer #2 |
Jacqueline Fontaine | Working Girl #2 |
Marianne Gaba | Working Girl #3 |
Karyn Kupcinet | Working Girl #4 |
Paula Lane | Working Girl #5 |
Shary Marshall | Faith (as Shary Layne) |
Shary Layne | Faith |
Mary LeBow | French maid |
Ann McCrea | Miss Sexy Pot |
Daria Massey | Working Girl #6 |
Caroline Richter | Miss Southern Accent |
Sheila Rogers | Miss Reed |
Nancy Root | Script Girl |
Joan Staley | Working Girl #7 |
Kay Tapscott | Working Girl #8 |
Patty Thomas | Working Girl #9 |
Gloria Tracy | Gloria Glands |
Meri Welles | Working Girl #10 |
Beverly Wills | Miss Hypochondriac |
Murray Alper | Butcher |
Bobby Barber | Man on Date #1 |
Tim Meadows | Leon Phelps |
Milton Berle | |
Karyn Parsons | Julie Simmons |
Nicky Blair | Man on Date #2 |
Billy Dee Williams | Lester |
Peggy Cass | |
John Witherspoon | Scrap Iron |
Joe Gray | Man on Date #3 |
Jill Talley | Candy |
Paul Lees | Man on Date #4 |
Lee Evans | Barney |
Mike Mahoney | Man on Date #5 |
Will Ferrell | Lance DeLune |
William Meader | Light Man |
Sofia Milos | Cheryl |
Snub Pollard | TV Man |
Eugene Levy | Bucky Kent |
Sid Tomack | Druggist |
David Huband | Frank |
'Snub' Pollard | TV Man (scenes deleted) |
Dick Whittinghill | Man on Date #6 |
Ken Hudson Campbell | Hal |
Art Aragon | Bit Role #1 |
Kevin McDonald | Mail man |
Roger Bacon | TV Cableman #1 |
Tamala Jones | Theresa |
Dick Bernie | Second Floor Man |
Julianne Moore | Audrey |
James Bradley | TV Cableman #2 |
Tiffani Thiessen | Honey Delune |
Don Brodie | Makeup Man |
Rocky Carroll | Cyrus Cunningham |
Sue Casey | Bit Role #2 |
Brett Heard | V.S.A. Member |
Charles Cirillo | TV Cableman #3 |
Arnold Pinnock | V.S.A. Member |
Ira Cook | Man on Date #7 |
Shaun Majumder | V.S.A. Member |
Dolores Erickson | Working Girl #11 |
Diego Fuentes | V.S.A. Member |
Fritz Feld | Mrs. Wellenmellon's Hairdresser |
Sean Thibodeau | Hugh Hefner |
Mickey Finn | Man on Date #8 |
Mark McKinney | Mr. White |
Jack Fisher | Man on Date #9 |
Chris Parnell | Phil Swanson |
Jerry Gordet | Speedy Armature |