You’ll scream out loud

HOLLYWOOD OR BUST was the last straw for the 50s reigning comedy team of Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin. Sidelined & soured, Dino had enough (we venture a good 95% of the world would see his point) and their 16th and final picture bowed late in 1956. That was five months after they split up, ten years to the day since they started working together in clubs, seven since they first assaulted the screen in My Friend Irma. Though their popularity had faded some since their string of Top-10 moneymakers, the pair’a brash brand of boy-jinks still commanded enough audience for this coup de grace to take spot #27, grossing $9,400,000. Their other ’56 entree, Pardners, fared two notches up. *

Dogged by the failure of success

Gambler & scammer ‘Steve Wiley’ (Martin) counterfeits a lottery ticket in order to erase a debt to hoods. He ‘wins’ a car that should actually go to ‘zany’ movie fan ‘Malcolm Smith’ (Lewis). Forced to split the prize, they take off from New York in their shared red convertible 1956 Chrysler New Yorker. They’re California-bound, because moronic (but ‘decent’, of course) Malcolm is gaga to meet Anita Ekberg. Steve means to sell the car and dump the geek. En route they pick up dancer ‘Terry Roberts’ (Pat Crowley), headed to work in Vegas. Also aboard is Malcolm’s pet Great Dane, ‘Mr. Bascomb’. Will the dog do goofy stuff? Will Steve be a heel to Terry? Will Anita Ekberg show up for added curve appeal? Can Dean not even try to disguise his contempt for the material and disgust with his ego-maniacal, attention-suck of a partner?

T & A tyro Tashlin makes sure to get as much ogling in as possible.

Despite the visual flair director Frank Tashlin adds to the gags concocted by Erna Lazurus’ script, this one’s yet another litmus test for those who have a tough time with one half of the 1950s most outrageously popular comedy team. The year before Tashlin had steered what we consider their best outing, Artists And Models. Here, Jerry’s infantile antics make for a horsepill just too big to swallow. Tension having been stewing for a while, things got so bad on the set that Tashlin reportedly ejected the man-child from the premises for a couple of days, his obnoxious behavior a Jerry-built bridge too far. Plus in this opus, Martin’s character is a real jerk: the ‘moves’ he ‘puts’ (as in ‘forces’) on Crowley are hard to stomach. And the dog? Woof. 

With Maxie Rosenbloom, Willard Waterman, Adele August. 95 minutes.

The real star of the show: that ’56 Chrysler New Yorker

* Dino & Jerr’s predecessors, Abbott & Costello, called it quits as a team that same year, with Dance With Me, Henry, their 36th picture. Hope & Crosby’s ‘Road’ romps had ceased in ’53; they’d make sure they were done for good in 1962’s lame The Road To Hong Kong. The 3 Stooges valiantly farced on, even if in half-hearted fashion, with the wan replacements for Moe’s deceased brothers Curly and Shemp.

Busted: nothing says Hollywood like objectifying: Pat Crowley gets a leg up

Whoa–didn’t see that comin’!