THE GEISHA BOY , thanks to writer-director Frank Tashlin’s good eye for sight-gags, is a 1958 Jerry Lewis entry that’s often amusing, a fitful entertainment to half-watch while you’re doing something else. Lewis is as doltish and mawkish as ever, but since a lot of the control this time is in other hands, bits he might have flattened manage to come off funny.

A USO troupe goes to Japan and Korea, with manic magician in tow: all the info you need. Co-stars are Marie MacDonald, Barton MacLane, Sessue Hayakawa and Suzanne Pleshette, all of 21, in her first feature. Her look and delivery in this launching would be thankfully left behind.

Though the film’s lapses into sentiment venture into ulcer territory, it’s worth catching for some very cute gags involving Lewis’ hat rabbit.

With Nobu McCarthy, Teru Shimada and Douglas Fowley, the 99 minute silliness did well, coming in on #22 for the year at the boxoffice.