Post
by odinthor » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:10 pm
A few months ago, I began a visit or revisit to quite a good chunk of Jerry Lewis’s total œuvre (not that he’s done yet!) with the idea of providing eventually a “scorecard” of the kind I did for whom I'm sure everyone considers his soul-mate in cinema, Ingmar Bergman. I still have quite a way to go, and, what’s more, I want to re-watch two or three times the ones which were new to me before venturing overall commentary. However, after viewings of The Patsy separated by 50 years, I’d like to solicit your comments on that film, and make just a few of my own.
In the early and mid-1960s, I was a big Lewis fan. I then found such shows—still considered his classics—as The Bellboy, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor to be hilariously unsurpassable. I can recall my zestful anticipation when The Patsy came out . . . and equally recall being at the time sharply disappointed as I walked out of the theater after having seen it. Something in its atmosphere seemed different . . . unpleasant . . . dark . . . Things seemed on-track again with The Disorderly Orderly and, eventually, The Big Mouth; but something about The Patsy nagged at me.
It was thus with mixed feelings that I began to watch The Patsy again after half a century. Yes, it was still “different,” with a somber undertone to the frenzy . . . and yet now, with the hilarity, it had, I realized, a sophistication and worldliness which, as a youth, I had no way of tapping into; and this sophistication and worldliness disappeared from the Lewis movies which followed. At this point, without declaring it perfect, I can say that I think it is by far his richest movie, with some genuinely touching moments, top-notch lunacy, wry commentary on the ways of Hollywood, dedicated support from his cast (even though, as I understand, Peter Lorre, soon to die, didn’t like his experience on this movie, and I have the feeling that a larger participation by his character in the proceedings was cut at some point, it’s still clear that, in at least one scene, he’s giving his all), good camera work, and clever writing. Lewis’s nightclub scene will remind some of something similar in the much later Funny Bones.
I find this an engaging, impressive film. After seeing it cheek-to-jowl recently with others considered his classics, and others definitely not considered his classics, I’d rate this as his best. You who do not automatically loathe Lewis: What are your thoughts on this show? In my opinion, it deserves a general—and more favorable!—reassessment by filmdom.
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"She confessed subsequently to Cottard that she found me remarkably enthusiastic; he replied that I was too emotional, that I needed sedatives, and that I ought to take up knitting." —Marcel Proust (Cities of the Plain).
