Martin And Lewis Vol. 2 on 6/6/07 (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I am a huuuuge Jerry Lewis fan. HUGE! I am so happy that
Paramount has released most of his solo titles (though I am
still waiting for Three On A Couch). I am also hoping that Sony
gets around to releasing The Big Mouth

....but I must admit right here and now, I have never seen a
Martin and Lewis film.

I did go out and buy the two boxed sets solely based on my
love for Lewis, but haven't gotten around to watching any of
the titles yet.

My question is, what would you rank as the best titles to watch
first amongst the two sets? If I really want to do Martin & Lewis
right, it would be wise to start with the BEST films on down.

Look forward to your replies.

 

[soop.spoon]

"I am a huuuuge Jerry Lewis fan. HUGE!"
+
"I have never seen a Martin and Lewis film"
= huh?!

something does not compute!

 

[William Miller]

What!! A huge Jerry Lewis fan and have never watched any Martin & Lewis films? You have missed his best work. Ron, you are in for a real treat.

Here is my list of the films to watch going from the best to the worst. (Actually, there is not a huge swing from top to bottom. They never made any great films nor did they make any truly bad ones. I did not include the 2 Irma films because they were not the stars. Also not listed is the public domain At War with the Army which was not in the two sets. I will include Money From Home and 3 Ring Circus just for some perspective.)

1. Sailor Beware
2. Scared Stiff
3. You're Never Too Young
4. Hollywood or Bust
5. Jumping Jacks
6. Living It Up
7. Artists and Models
8. The Caddy
9. That's My Boy
10. Pardners
11. Money from Home
12. The Stooge
13. 3 Ring Circus

 

[CineKarine]

As a fan of musicals and of Martin & Lewis (but not solo Lewis), I would suggest watching Artists and Models, Living It Up, Scared Stiff, The Stooge and My Friend Irma first - they all are wonderfully entertaining, have great plots (often recycled from earlier films) and show different sides of M&L's humor and how it evolved on the screen. Of course, we all have our favorites, these just happen to be mine.

 

[Jari K]

Does this "public domain"-status mean, that there´s no use of "remastering" the film? I mean if Paramount is remastering the film and is creating a new print, I guess that print has "copyright" then?

Or is it just that since there are already zillion budget-releases available, Paramount doesn´t bother to release this title?

I love "The Rat Pack", but these box sets are basically my first opportunity to see Martin & Lewis-films. "Vol.1" still in progress. Great stuff.

 

[Charles H]

I would watch the films chronologically because that will tell you their historical evolution--as well as the rise and fall of their relationship (MY FRIEND IRMA to HOLLYWOOD OR BUST. Lewis's personal favorite was THE STOOGE, which was made in 1951 but not released until 1953. Paramount felt it was too radical a departure for the team with Martin playing a very unsympathetic character. THE STOOGE also appears in THE JERRY LEWIS COLLECTION: Volume I, and it was what LITTLE GIANT was to Abbott and Costello. THAT'S MY BOY is not well liked by modern audiences, but it was hugely successful at the time and it could be argued that TMB was their breakthrough film. They were not exactly a "team" in the film, and the central focus was on Eddie Mayehoff as Lewis's dad. There was even a tv series with Mayehoff recreating his role and Gil Stratton, Jr. as his dad.
My favorite is ARTISTS AND MODELS for the Technicolor, Tashlin's direction, and Shirley MacLaine's film debut. Hitchcock's great THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY--made with MacLaine at the same time--had the dubious distinction of being the lower half of the same double bill. Hey! Not a bad idea to play them together. It sure demonstrates MacLaine's range in 1955!

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Well, I meant to imply that the Runyon estate might think those movies are more about Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis shtick than the real Runyon atmosphere such as you find in "Little Miss Marker" or "Guys and Dolls." That's my suspicion as to why they might not agree to home video releases, more than any monetary considerations.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Every reference I've seen says THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY was MacLaine's film debut. These two movies may have played together at some time, but they certainly did NOT premiere that way. HARRY opened first, and ARTISTS AND MODELS was Paramount's big Christmas release for 1955.

 

[Thomas T]

Ronald, I second Charles' idea of watching them chronologically. That way you can see their growth as a comic team and get a historical perspective on their work.

 

[booklover]

I read an interview with one of Jerry's sons (I think it was Chris) who said that Jerry has a beautiful 35 millimter print of "War With the Army" that was suppose to be released on dvd. Don't know what happened.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I'd never seen a Jerry Lewis film before recently- and never had seen any of the Maritn & Lewis material-but when I found out that Shirley MacLaine was directed by Frank Tashlin in A&M, I couldn't wait to see it.
I basically bought the set blind just for that film.
I knew going in that Lewis's comedy was probably not going to be up my alley (I'm not a Jim Carrey fan either), but I was expecting him to grate on me much more than he did. In fact, a lot of it was much more amusing than I expected.
I can now see where Eddie Deezen was getting most of his schtick from.
I gotta admit, I was a bit disappointed with A&M. The only other one I watched so far was Hollywood or Bust. PQ was a step down, but I was actually expecting all of them to be more at that level. And it wasn't unwatchable by any means.

while neither of these have exactly set my world on fire, I am finding them an interesting pop archeological project. I was exepcting to ebay off the set after finally getting to see A&M (Netflix isn't carrying any of these), but my interest is piqued sufficently to take my time going thru the rest of the set.

And yeah, from the few minutes I saw of Pardners, the PQ looks to be very impressive on that one.

At $24 from Amazon, that's less than $5 a piece for 16:9 enhanced transfers. These are below what Alpha was charging just several years back for fuzzy public domain transfers. Hard for me to see any cause for complaint as far as these are concerned.

 

[Todd_Z]

Money From Home is a definitely a Runyon problem ala A&C's It Ain't Hay. Three Ring Circus was held up due to a rights problem. Wasn't able to find out the exact issue but something could not be cleared for it's release. Let's hope for a Volume 3 in the future with Money, Circus and a newly remastered rescued print of At War With The Army. Many studios have been reclaiming pd prints (Snows Of Kilimanjaro, Little Princess, Royal Wedding to name a few). Here's hoping Paramount will reclaim Army or borrow Mr. Lewis's pristine print

 

[Richard N]

Anyone here know which disc Artists and Models is on? I want to rent it online, but I am not sure which of the three discs its on. Thanks!

-Richard