Jerry Lewis’ last released feature film for over a decade and to be blunt it’s no wonder. He plays a millionaire who is bored with life so is almost pleased to be drafted – why have him bored? Why not interested? It would make what happens next easier to understand – he’s so insulted about being ruled 4F that he decides to form his own private army to fight Hitler with some fellow 4-F’ers. That’s actually not a bad idea for a film, but the movie suffers for being too true – he waltzes over and breaks through US lines in Italy to impersonate General Kesselring, a real general, causing the Germans to retreat and taking part in the plot to assassinate Hitler. It feels vaguely insulting that it's so easy for Lewis' character and his mates when you're aware that this was a real battle with real deaths.
There's a really long pre-credit sequence; Lewis' team wear some groovy blue skivvies which feel like they've been left over from Gerry Anderson science fiction shows; among his team is a black soldier - who we're meant to accept the Germans believe as a German driver (maybe there were some black soldiers fighting for the Axis in Europe... but as a driver for Kesselring?); some of the Germans are funny (eg the stupid U-boat captain, and a wisecracking Hitler... "Max who? Max no difference!"); a racist final section with Jerry impersonating a Japanese general (Lewis donned buckteeth and glasses to depict orientals a fair few times in his career); a supporting actor who looks like George W Bush.
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