Jerry Lewis: The Total Film-Maker

https://instagram.com/p/95JbisqbVF/

NYC MoMA 90TH BIRTHDAY RETRO, mostly w/ 35mm prints and outtakes plus... basically similar to the 1988 Astoria retro that opened the Moving Image Museum:

http://www.moma.org/calendar/film/1621?locale=en

Jerry recorded an intro of a minute-plus for the retro; gracious and uneventful (he thinks it's "terriFICK").

There were color home movies shot by a M&L associate of Dean and Jerry hobnobbing around Broadway in their first big "presentation house" bill at the Capitol Theater ('47?), ie they shared the marquee with the Tex Beneke orchestra and the hit movie Naked City in a 4600-seat house, doing 4 shows a day. Assorted showbiz luminaries ambled by or mugged for the camera, including a 26-year-old Jack Roy (Rodney Dangerfield)! Young Dean was crazy handsome, the movies really don't do him justice.

They also screened about 45 minutes of Dean & Jerry guest shots on Milton Berle's show -- VERY funny, cuz Berle was best at down n' dirty slapstick and rapid-fire insults, and Lewis was practically tossing him around the stage at a few points.

Then there was a preview cut of The Ladies Man (which I'd seen in Astoria in 1988); my God, I'd forgotten about that whole "Miss Cartilage" dominatrixish musical number, WTF.

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/assets/Image/2012/cannes_classics/Dean%20Martin_Jerry%20Lewis.JPG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLDbHYFga28/U-ps8v-GfqI/AAAAAAAAGz0/91Jmifc3xNY/s1600/misscartilage.jpg

to be precise, Capitol engagement was spring '48

my God, I'd forgotten about that whole "Miss Cartilage" dominatrixish musical number, WTF.

Yeah, always thought that bit was completely fucking bizarre. Not unlike the little clown puppet in The Errand Boy, but at least the clown was trying to (clumsily) teach Jer something about himself.

i'd say Sylvia Lewis (the dancer who was Miss Cartilage) was too

lengthy excerpts of October's dialogue with Scorsese; great stuff

MS: The thing about The Ladies Man and The Bellboy and The Family Jewels and all these films is, we didn’t learn in the sense that we went to the theater to learn. What I was fascinated by was that the structure of the story was so loose that you can open a door and can get into an orchestra with Les Baxter. You can get the house cut in half. There’s Helen Traubel, she’s doing her routine. I mean, there’s a story, but is there a plot? I don’t know! And so, with these pictures, it opened out heads to say, you know, you don’t have to be stuck to a three-act structure in terms of narrative. You can make a film about a guy trying to get into a building. But this really freed us in terms of thinking about what cinema is. So in terms of the timing within the frame, he does that masterfully, of course. But then in terms of the editing, how does one deal with that, if you come in for a tighter shot? When, as you set the time in The Colgate Comedy Hour, you put your foot in the turkey dinner? You remember? I saw that live.

JL: “Take your filthy hands off that bird!”

MS: The timing was impeccable. And you told me there was a slave camera, another camera that picked it up immediately. Have you had some very interesting relationships to these kinds of situations in the editing room? In terms of pacing.

JL: Well, you know how many times you plan something for a wide shot with a lot of animation and then all of a sudden you come to it and it’s not what you really want to do. And you start trimming and taking a piece from here and a piece from there… And I’ll play that back when I sit in the editing room, and I’ll do what I used to call “death march” footage—you I going to get killed unless you fix this!—and you talk to yourself once in awhile.

MS: It’s true, because the pacing is like music. And you do music. You know, as a recording artist, you conduct an orchestra. Comedy is music that way. Cinema is music. That timing carries through. It’s impeccable. I’d seen some of the Chaplin films earlier, but they are not the way your stuff was presented at that time in the late ‘50s/early ‘60s. To be able to respond to a visual image that had such fluidity to it in terms of pacing and comic timing. We’d never really seen anything like it. And the scripted scenes and improvised scenes… The improvisation that you would do physically would fit within the scripted scene. That’s another issue, I think: you had more control of it because you were doing it.

JL: I had holes to fall in all over the set. No, really. You never know when I’m going to use one! [Laughter] I gave of myself completely. I’ve got so many more scars on my body, you’d think I’d played NFL football! I came out of a three-story window into cardboard boxes, which were supposed to save me, and I landed on the corner of them. I’ll show that to you later. [Laughter] No, I won’t.

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/jerry-lewis-and-martin-scorsese/

tonight's post-screening fare of Hollywood or Bust promises footage of multiple Dean & Jerry reunions -- there's more than just the mid-'70s telethon, beats me.

i def think Living It Up is the most underrated of the Dean & Jerry films i've seen

http://www.bkmag.com/2016/03/02/the-best-old-movies-on-a-big-screen-this-week-nyc-repertory-cinema-picks-march-2-8/4/

Never saw that one. Haven't seen a ton of D&J, for that matter...just Hollywood or Bust, Artists and Models (my favorite of these three), and You're Never Too Young. The latter was my introduction to Prime Jerry/Jerry The Genius, and it completely turned me around -- prior to seeing that, I was the typical anti-Jerry snob, only thinking of him as the telethon guy. As soon as he started to move, it was, "Ah, so THAT'S where Pee-Wee Herman got about 70% of his schtick!" (among other realizations)

Violet Lucca on work, wealth and self-made men in JL's films....

Being the utterly wonderful noveau riche narcissist he is, Lewis would always portray these man-children while wearing a large gold pinky ring, giant wedding ring, and, sometimes, a gold watch, giving more than a touch of cognitive dissonance to his performances. (As I have posited elsewhere, the wedding ring might’ve diffused any guilt he experienced about his rampant infidelities at the time.)...

Despite their anarchic goofiness, this cycle of films embody some readily identifiable long-standing myths about class and class mobility in America. In The Errand Boy (61) and The Patsy (64, which effectively blends The Errand Boy with The Bellboy), delivery boys achieve fame through their clumsiness, and rise to become comedians of Lewis’s stature—even though, in fact, pratfalls and rubber faces require greater-than-average muscular control. (Myth: exceptional talent alone will get you ahead; it’s only a matter of time before you’re noticed.) In It’s Only Money (62), Lewis’s idiot private eye turns out to be the long-lost nephew of a wealthy heiress; in The Family Jewels (65), Lewis’s lovable idiot chauffeur gets to be Donna Butterworth’s daddy and inherits the millions. (Myth: you only need that one dead relative you didn’t know existed to cash in. This one is pervasive judging from the number of inheritance scams and unclaimed money services.)

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/jerry-lewis-wealth/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbpYq2TA0U

rewatch of his (theatrical) directorial swan song tonight

pitless watermelon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klg0R9wQSaM

They had what I assume to be a 1st ed. hardcover copy of the book this thread took its name from in the collectibles case at my local Half-Price for $100.

I saw that book for cheap once and inexplicably didn't buy it. A new printing is rumored.

Jerry has a "pointless cameo" as Nic Cage's dad in a new thriller.

http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/the-trust-review-nicolas-cage-elijah-wood-sxsw-1201729052/

90!

http://m.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2016/mar/15/jerry-lewis-at-90-its-a-monster-number/

Happy birthday, Jerry!

not sure i've posted the 'turkey dinner' sketch, recently discussed by JL with Scorsese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLJdTPa2i4

Max Rose to be distributed this summer, finally

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-lewis-max-rose-lands-876217

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208938637327723&set=a.1603159283429.2080924.1369518799&type=3

OK, so a documentary about The Day the Clown Cried has just come on my TV screen...

... ugh, Terry Wogan

Was just watching that too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZIyXNRxos

We've got ten years to wait.

thx guys for staying on form

party time

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/friars-club-hosts-90th-birthday-tribute-jerry-lewis-38268340

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1UHm8DcRAo

Max Rose is nothing special, tho Old Jerry has a nice gravitas. (The most kinetic performance in the film is a one-scene climactic spin by Dean Stockwell.)

JL entered the packed MoMA theater (assisted by his people) for it, got a standing ovation, and loudly asked "When do we eat?" The he did his usual passive / aggressive japery in the postscreening interview and Q&A. Someone asked him what growing up in Newark was like in the '30s. "Do you want to know about my bris? Jesus Christ. NEXT!"

and here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm9v8yFrQic

the only thing that survives of Jerry's animated TV show from '70 (to which he did not actually contribute; Squiggy from LaVerne and Shirley played Jerry). looks like about 99% racial stereotype stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0g6-vEDTLw

i vaaaaguely remember the existence of that

RIP Bill Richmond, co-writer on 7 Lewis films

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bill-richmond-dead-jerry-lewis-904166

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ulADfytmQ

Mel (Brooks) and I only worked together on the script for THE LADIES' MAN for about two weeks. Mel and I would pitch ideas back and forth to each other. Once we had a good idea Mel would say, "Let's run it by Jerry and see if he likes it." So we'd call Jerry, and Jerry would say, "I can't talk right now, but let me get back to you." Now if anybody had a bigger ego than Jerry Lewis, it was Mel Brooks. Jerry did this to Mel about four times, so finally Mel literally just said, "Fuck this, I quit." So that left me to write the movie.

http://blog.tvstoreonline.com/2015/05/part-one-three-time-emmy-winner-and.html

Oh man, had totally forgotten about the animated show! I could still recall parts of that great bubblegummy theme song, but not a thing about the cartoon itself.

A pretty good Egyptian tomb sketch from JL's '67-69 NBC show, with a very game and funny Janet Leigh, with Jer as the nutty professor (who he recycled frequently in this series). There's a DVD if you'd like to see it w/out soup and subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioy920ZAnj8

DECONSTRUCTING JERRY: LEWIS AS DIRECTOR
A special dossier to accompany the Jerry Lewis program of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

The comedian went on to discuss the duality in his own mind between his screen personality and the man who plays him, he spoke of the person on the screen as “him”. “Sometimes I write a memo in the morning”, he explained, “and then later, on the set when it’s carried out, I rebel against it – I’ve forgotten that it was me that asked for it.”

The only trouble with my doing my own screen writing is that I get so involved with the character I play that the perspective gets distorted and I begin to send out messages which have nothing to do with what I started out to create.

http://sensesofcinema.com/2016/jerry-lewis/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GutZv_D7DKk

love the Ren & Stimpy style intro music. also fun to see him tear into his former employer, "A network that would fire a father of five 3 days before Christmas".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv_4dIj5q_I

this full episode features a really cool Gary Lewis performance followed by silly Nazis followed by Lassi!

there u go LA

http://americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/jerry-lewis-to-the-max

The star explores unusually rich dramatic territory in the title role of soon-to-be-released MAX ROSE.

Wasn't this completed over two years ago? Did it finally find a distributor?

yes. apparently the cut that was shown in Cannes some years ago was rushed and premature. (it's still not good)

“So just being alive is love?”

“Of course it is,” he says. Then there is a beat....

“Just being alive?” he says. “Think about what you just said. Just being alive. If God heard you right now, Oliver, he’d smack you. He would smack you all over this joint.”

http://observer.com/2016/08/what-jerry-lewis-talks-about-when-he-talks-about-love/

So just why is Jerry Lewis known for being difficult?

“Because I am,” he said with firm declaration. “I expect people that come to the studio to work to come with the same energy I come with. If I see less than that, I get very strong about, if you want to do this, come with a sense of pride, come with eagerness and anxiety.

“And those people that think you’re difficult, respect you tremendously. Because the creative aspect of film will never change,” he added. “They may not like it, but they respect it.”

...A question about the notorious unreleased, unseen film “The Day the Clown Cried,” which writer-director Lewis made in Europe in the early 1970s and in which he starred as a Jewish clown who leads children to the Nazi gas chambers during WWII, invokes a third and final Jerry Lewis death stare.

“Can’t talk about it. I won’t,” Lewis said. “You can ask me anything you want, that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer you.”

It was reported in 2015 that Lewis’ archives were going to the Library of Congress and that “The Day the Clown Cried” may at last be available for public view in 10 years’ time. Lewis has other thoughts on the matter.

“Never,” he said as to whether the film would finally be shown publicly. “After I’m dead 30 years you won’t see it. I’ve got it worked out so there’s nothing to show.”

And with that, a wink. Playful, inviting and mischievous, it is the exact opposite of the door-slam death stare. ...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-max-rose-jerry-lewis-profile-20160823-snap-story.html

I think Morbs would dig this:
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/wtf-uncovered-3-jerry-lewis

will try later

really is too bad it was cut short! seemed like it was going pretty well...

@NickPinkerton
It can at one and the same time be true that a) Jerry Lewis is a prick and a holy terror and b) That's great and hilarious, good for him.

Funny how Maron complained that he only got 30 minutes out of Jerry Lewis, not realizing that in fact he had rode the mechanical bull longer than anyone.

Strikes me that Jerry is like Lou, inasmuch as "Make your questions be about what they are doing now, and let *them* make reference to the past, and they more than likely will.

Jerry Lewis and the Gender of Work

During his mature solo period, Lewis plays a working-class character in eight out of nine of the films directed by himself or Tashlin, which makes it safe to say that this is the basic solo Lewis persona. It is interesting, however, that in his most famous and critically respected film, The Nutty Professor, he does not play that character. Critics have seemingly warmed more easily to The Nutty Professor in part because it has a plot and a conventional narrative structure, however glaringly odd that may appear in the era of late David Lynch. The Nutty Professor, The Patsy, and all of the Tashlin-directed Lewis films struggle to find a compromise between conventional narrative structure and a comedic style based on visual/conceptual gags and sketches, sometimes grouped together as themed montages. In what I’m calling a “work film,” the subject of the sketches and montages is work....

http://brightlightsfilm.com/jerry-lewis-work-gender-rock-a-bye-baby-disorderly-orderly/#

Lol just saw his Batman cameo