The Bellboy/Smorgasbord

The Bellboy (1960)

Runtime: 72 minutes

Directed by: Jerry Lewis

Starring: Jerry Lewis, Alex Gerry, Bob Clayton, Sonny Sands, Eddie Shaeffer

From: Paramount

Smorgasbord (i.e. Cracking Up) (1983)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Jerry Lewis

Starring: Jerry--- Who Else? (that's how he was billed), Herb Edelman, Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr., Zane Busby

From: Warner Bros.

I saw these two movies last night on TCM, as that's when Jerry's 90th birthday was. Read both those reviews below, The Bellboy first:

Yesterday was the 90th birthday of the legendary Jerry Lewis. Now, I haven't seen too much of his work in my life aside from a few films-such as The King of Comedy, which I'll review here one day once I finally see it again-but I am willing to see some of his work, no matter what I think of him personally. The telethon stuff is great and all... the way I've seen him act, though, he came across as a real boor and real obnoxious in real life, and that's not even taking into account his attitudes on the opposite sex, mainly that women shouldn't be in comedy for a variety of reasons, and it deals with them being “would-be mothers”, and to me it sounded so Neanderthal. It did not exactly give me a lot of motivation to delve deep into his work. Still, I'll try to ignore those prejudices when I talk about the movies I see him in. I saw a pair of them last night when they showed on TCM; I went with two that can't easily be seen by streaming means.

The movie starts off with an executive explaining that this is a plotless film that is basically a series of sketches, probably because that was a novel thing at the time. From what I know of the sort of movies that he starred in and directed, it is not hard for me to understand why there is the joke (which I understand used to be a thing but that hasn't been a thing for years; at least that's what someone from the country said on a messageboard) that the French love Jerry Lewis, what with the different plot, characters and the way it's shot. Certainly, I can imagine them needing a change of underwear at the very thought of doing a movie without a plot!

Anyhow, Old Jerry plays a bellboy named Stanley who works at the fancy Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach; except for one instance he is a mute, which is part of the gag. Like I said there's no plot but it is like a silent movie in that a good number of the comedic bits involve physical humor, and as I enjoy silent comedies, it was a reason why I did enjoy watching this. Jerry also plays himself and while annoying at times, at least there were some nice satiric barbs about what is known now as a star's entourage.

The movie is hit or miss, although it does help that there are so many gags, if you don't like one, it won't be long before you get to one that you like better. Personally, even at only 72 minutes I realized there was a reason why most films have some sort of a plot, as it started to feel longer than that. Still, with what was present this was a pretty entertaining picture.

Now, onto the movie sometimes known as Cracking Up:

This was the second and last Jerry Lewis movie I watched on TCM last night. It was one of his movies which aren't easily found via streaming means so I figured I should watch it... besides, several people here on Letterboxd rated it real highly, and that got my attention. I can only rate it at 3 stars but that is nothing to be ashamed of. It is noteworthy that this is the last film directed by Lewis and as he liked to direct, write and produce movies this is really the final time we get unfiltered Jerry, for better or for worse.

The plot is ostensibly about a klutzy man named Warren Nefron (Jerry--- Who Else? That's how he was billed in the credits. Another good gag in the credits is saying that the title song is by Marcel Marceau) who fails in an attempt to kill himself-a scene that thankfully is amusing instead of tasteless-and he visits a psychiatrist to try and fix his problems. However, it's really a series of sketches involving not only Nefron and the psychiatrist but also a bunch of different characters, many of whom are played by Lewis. You get to see him be everything from an old Yogi and a Frenchman from a few centuries ago to a 1930's gangster and a version of Buford T. Justice, which was definitely something else. I am not sure why at the last minute Warner Brothers changed the title to Cracking Up, as the original title is a word that factors into the film; I don't get it.

As you might expect from a series of sketches that usually don't have anything to do with one another aside from the main story and a character or two popping up a few times later (for example, if legendary American football player Dick Butkus tells you not to smoke, you better listen to him), it's a real mixed bag... at least the movie lives up to its original title. I can say that it has enough solid laughs to where it's a 3 star picture.

This was on the shelf for awhile so Jerry was in his mid 50's when he did all those pratfalls here. Before this movie showed on TCM, they showed an interview clip from a few weeks ago where Lewis said that there wasn't a day he did not wake up in pain for the past FIFTY years. I do feel bad for him there as that is pretty crappy, to say the very least. Ignoring the toll it took on his body, the pratfalls he did here were pretty amusing, the highlight being him finding an office floor as slippery as ice, and his ways of combating that. This apparently barely got released in the United States; maybe the audiences then didn't care for Old Jerry; me, I say that this anarchic picture gave me some good chuckles.