Movie Details
| Title: | The Bellboy | |
| Director: | Jerry Lewis | |
| Year: | 1960 | |
| Genre: | Comedy | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.09.05 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.09.05 | DVR | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2005 Next up is the celebrated Jerry Lewis movie The Bellboy. Although I haven't seen a lot of his work, I never really liked him enough to look into him more. I will say that my respect for him and his body of work grew like 5 or 10 times after reading the extended interview with him in Bogdanovich's book Who The Hell's In It. Take this movie for instance, which I only really watched because Tarantino mentioned it in Four Rooms. He wrote it, produced it, directed it, and starred in it (both as himself and as Stanley the titular bellboy) all while also doing his nightly act at the hotel where this movie takes place. Not only that, but he did the entire thing in just a few months because he felt the movie he'd just finished with Frank Tashlin should come out in the winter instead of the summer and Paramount needed a Jerry Lewis movie to fill the slot. Pretty crazy but I guess Classics sometimes come from those kinds of circumstances. Lewis invented video assist too so... a certain amount of respect has to be given just for that. The movie really has no story or plotline of any kind. It's very close to sketch comedy almost, with just one gag after another and no real continuity between them. Some of them are funnier than others and yes I did chuckle at a few (most notable the bit he does with the ringing bank of phones). I still am not A-#1 Jerry Lewis Superfan but I can see why fans really love this movie. |
