For a star whose main audience was kids, Jerry Lewis didn’t often act opposite kids on screen – of course his persona was that of a big kid himself. He did in The Geisha Boy and also in this one, where he plays the devoted chauffeur of an orphaned girl. The girl has inherited millions and Jerry has to take her around to a number of her uncles to trial them out –they are all played by Jerry Lewis in a touch of the Kind Hearts and Coronets.
It is fun to see Jerry play a variety of characters: an old sea captain (who looks like a dog), bitter clown, silly British pilot, gangster, professor (“Julius” – same character as The Nutty Professor?), old stuffy type. There are some hilarious bits such as a gangster taking off a mask to reveal his real face being almost as bad, and Jerry the pilot opening the door on a plane to reveal his son’s band playing.
On a more negative note, the support cast isn’t much. The little girl has a similar haircut to Jackie Cooper in The Kid (surely not coincidental) and is completely bland. There are two big comic set pieces – shenanigans with a plane and the final bit involving a military marching band – which fall flat. And the relationship between the kid and the chauffeur – the emotional heart of the film – feels undeveloped. Not one of Jerry’s best.
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