YOU’RE NEVER TOO YOUNG, 14th 0f the 16 Martin & Lewis comedies, released in 1955, was a remake of 1942’s The Major And The Minor, doing a gender switch on the original. The earlier show was a financial and critical hit, with Ginger Rogers disguising herself as a 12-year-old girl and carrying the ruse into a military academy. This time it’s Lewis pretending to be a 12-year-old boy, the pretense extending to a girl’s school (where Dean is a teacher) and involves a stolen jewel subplot. A minor similarity is that co-star Diana Lynn, 28, had also been in the first one, 15 at the time. Major differences—the original was directed by Billy Wilder (his first), who co-wrote with ace Charles Brackett; the remake was steered by Norman Taurog, proficient but hardly in Wilder’s class, and written by Sidney Sheldon, who was, to be nice, prolific. Plus you didn’t want to strangle Ginger Rogers.

Jewel thief ‘Noonan’ (Raymond Burr) hides a stolen diamond in a jacket belonging to ‘Bob Miles’ (Dean Martin) but after it ends up in a coat owned by moronic barber’s apprentice ‘Wilbur Hoolick’ (Jerry Lewis) he tracks crooner & clod to ‘Blitzen, Washington’ and ‘Mrs. Brendan’s School for Girls’, where Bob teaches (sure) as does ‘Nancy Collins’ (Lynn), the lady he wants to play recess with. ‘Gretchen Brendan’ is done by Nina Foch. This is not a gallant observation, but could they have gotten two less appealing actresses? One of the ad tag lines: “Dino’s the singing dean of a girl’s school, Jerry – a wolf in kid’s clothing – in a class by himself with 503 coeds.”  Barf.

A few chuckles, some nice views of California’s Lake Arrowhead and Jerry’s manic dance moves are undeniably impressive. Every time I man up to watch one of the Martin & Lewis flicks (fully realizing they were enormously popular—then again, so is the Single Biggest Fraud in History) I try to sink into a receptive state, only to be defeated time and again. That holds for almost all of Lewis’s movies, The Nutty Professor a notable exception. Martin made his share of stinkers, too, but while I pan the choice of material, I can’t dislike Dean. Box offices counted $9,700,000, 30th place in 1955. **

Familiar faces in the cast: Hans Conreid, Nancy Kulp, Veda Ann Borg, Emory Parnell, Milton Frome, Tor Johnson. 102 minutes that will please fans of the team—some people love this movie; others with a Jerr allergy are advised to take a pass.

I guess it’s in the genes. My parents always liked Dean (who didn’t?) and could not abide Jerry.

* Tact on line 2 —give Norman Taurog credit for patience on The Saint Scale: he directed the duo in five other frolics (The Stooge, Jumping Jacks, The Caddy, Living It Up and Pardners. Then he handled Lewis in Don’t Give Up The Ship and Visit To A Small Planet. Masochist?

** Shelf-life—Their movies all made money, but the trend line followed the comedy teams that preceded them. Their final four—this one, Artists and Models, Pardners and Hollywood Or Bust—were the lowest grossers of the pack, with You’re Never Too Young placing last.

No, one of the six lame songs is not about the awful hats women wore in the 50’s