Hobson’s Choice is a very enjoyable comedy. A successful businessman and widower doesn’t want his daughters to marry …. Since he would have to pay their dowry. But the oldest daughter is both intelligent and determined …
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Sailor Beware – Martin & Lewis chase pretty girls, blow up a liferaft inside a submarine, virtually every sailor gag ever thought of, singing
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Cracking Up is a crazy quilt of sight gags, one-liners, caricatures, slapstick and quirky vocal mannerisms. In short, it’s marvelous mayhem of the kind which has gained Jerry Lewis admirers the world over. Lewis plays a hapless misfit who seeks psychiatric help after bumbling a suicide attempt. His shrink sessions reveal a flashback history about a klutzy childhood and a family history of (what else?) ineptitude, affording Lewis to play a smorgasbord of roles, including a 6-year-old boy, a 15th-century coachman, a good-ol’-boy sheriff and a bearded guru. The wackiness soars to new heights when our nutcase patient takes a transcontinental flight on the cheapest airline he can find. But there’s no scrimping on the laughter. Cracking Up is zany proof that nobody does funnymaking filmmaking better than Lewis.
The Caddy is an above-average Lewis and Martin comedy. It features singing by Dean Martin (including the Academy Award-nominated “That’s Amore” ). Also slapstick antics, and pathos, from Jerry Lewis.
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In That’s My Boy, Jerry Lewis plays the part of “Junior” Jackson, a non-athlete who lives in the shadow of his father’s college football days — and his father plans to relive his glory days through his son, Junior, whether Junior wants to or not. Dean Martin plays the part of Bill Baker, a natural athlete who would likely be All-American. If he could only afford to attend college.
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In Cinderfella, Jerry Lewis plays Fella. He’s a good-natured klutz left to take care of his stepmother and her two spoiled sons in a fabulous mansion. Fantasy provides Fella with a way of coping with his life …. Until the day his fairy godmother (Ed Wynn) appears and helps him win the heart of a beautiful princess.
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In Jumping Jacks, Hap Smith (Jerry Lewis), nightclub entertainer, has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen (Dean Martin) joined the army: with lovely new partner Betsy Carter (Mona Freeman), Hap plays a clownish parody of a soldier. Meanwhile, Chick is organizing a soldier show at Fort Benning and finds he needs his old partner’s help. To get onto the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, Dogface Dolan (Richard Erdman); but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, creating an increasingly tangled Army-sized snafu.
The Time of Your Life (1948) starring James Cagney, William Bendix, Wayne MorrisThe Time of Your Life is a very interesting, very different movie. It involves a small central cast who sit and watch, and occasionally comment, on the various people who come in and out of a bar. Some people have compared it to the television series Cheers but other than the setting, the two really don’t have anything in common. The Time of Your Life is frankly more like Seinfeld — the comedy that seemingly doesn’t have a plot, and simply showcases the lives of the various characters. If anything, The Time of Your Life is better, because we actually get to see glimpses of the stories of the various secondary characters, which are compelling. And for other characters — we don’t.
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A quiet bird watching magazine is about to go bankrupt. Rescue comes unexpectedly in the form of … a pornographer! His new “partner” needs the magazine’s printing permit, and makes the bird watcher the figurehead for his porn empire. And, incidentally, a crusader for the first amendment?
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When Andy, brother of a Yugoslavian soccer hero, brings Gus, a field goal-kicking mule, to the United States as halftime entertainment for a losing Atoms football team, laughs and lasting fame follow. Gus’s intelligent, almost human interactions with his Yugoslavian ball holder and the devious duo intent on stifling Andy and Gus’s success are amusing and entertaining. An extended mule chase through a busy supermarket and Gus’s drunken acceptance of an award on “Gus Day” are only two examples of the slapstick comedy that pervades this 97-minute film. Talents Edward Asner, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Gary Grimes, Dick Enberg, and Tom Bosley enliven the somewhat predictable plot of this 1976 Disney film. Other notable appearances include real-life football players Dick Butkus and Johnny Unitas. This is fun, wholesome entertainment for children ages 3 and older. —Tami Horiuchi
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