People make fun of the French for 'worshipping' Jerry Lewis, but there's no denying he is a talented man and certainly this was a remarkable directing debut - he wrote, produced, directed and acted in this within a six month period in order to fill a gap in Paramount's schedule; he also financed it! No real story (it sort of builds towards a possible bell boy strike), just gags - which makes it a bit tiring at times, even at only a little over 70 minutes. It would have helped also if the film had been in colour. Some of the gags are very funny, though, and the film is consistently inventive and "far out" and actually filming it in Miami helps. Lewis was obviously inspired by Frank Tashlin but its still a bold debut.
(The DVD has some top extras with a handsome and confident Lewis looking confident on the set, and Jerry doing with DVD commentary for some reason with singer Steve Lawrence.)
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