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64 years ago...
Artists and Models (1955)
Director: Frank Tashlin
Country: United States
Length: 102 minutes
Type: Comedy, Musical
Apart from his serious role in Martin Scorsese's 1982 film 'The King of Comedy', where he was great, this was my first time seeing US comedy superstar Jerry Lewis in his prime and doing what he is famous for. It must just be me but I think he is a spectacularly unfunny guy, over playing every moment, mugging for the camera and shrieking in this grating high-pitched voice. His character is too stupid to live and made me think of a 1950s Jar Jar Binks. Since twenty years had past and with no access to home video, I guess Lewis felt comfortable in ripping off a few of Harpo Marx's best routines verbatim without the public noticing. The writing has some nice touches, satirising hysterical establishment reactions to the perceived bad influence of comic books, a neat spoof of 'Rear Window' (I reckon they shot on the same sets) and a risque running gag about a publisher's mistress. Dean Martin is charming and the farcical energy of the plotting just about sustained my interest.
Marlon Brando doing a Musical next.
Artists and Models (1955)
Director: Frank Tashlin
Country: United States
Length: 102 minutes
Type: Comedy, Musical
Apart from his serious role in Martin Scorsese's 1982 film 'The King of Comedy', where he was great, this was my first time seeing US comedy superstar Jerry Lewis in his prime and doing what he is famous for. It must just be me but I think he is a spectacularly unfunny guy, over playing every moment, mugging for the camera and shrieking in this grating high-pitched voice. His character is too stupid to live and made me think of a 1950s Jar Jar Binks. Since twenty years had past and with no access to home video, I guess Lewis felt comfortable in ripping off a few of Harpo Marx's best routines verbatim without the public noticing. The writing has some nice touches, satirising hysterical establishment reactions to the perceived bad influence of comic books, a neat spoof of 'Rear Window' (I reckon they shot on the same sets) and a risque running gag about a publisher's mistress. Dean Martin is charming and the farcical energy of the plotting just about sustained my interest.
Marlon Brando doing a Musical next.