Janet Leigh Top Ten

 1) Psycho (1960) - famous scene but also a genuinely nuanced performance as a frustrated woman who makes a bad decision - Vera Miles doesn't have what Leigh had

2) Touch of Evil (1958) - passive (kidnapped) but she has an inner steel

3) Living It Up (1954) - really fun Martin and Lewis movie and Leigh matches well with Dean 

4) Scaramouche (1952) - honestly her character is a ninny and not in Eleanor Parker's league I just love this flm 

5) Little Women (1949) - the most nothing role in the story but she's ideal - she fitted in well at MGM

6) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) a sex positive woman chasing after Frank, from Leigh's hot streak of classic movies

7) The Fog (1980) - she's fine rather than great I just love the movie

8) The Vikings (1958) - lovely and warm in a movie that needs it

9) Houdini (1953) - perhaps the best film she made with Tony Curtis, very winning

10) Harper (1966) - one of many stars.

Movie review - "Absolute Beginners" (1986) *** (re-watching)

 A mess. So much good stuff. So much bad stuff. Patsy Kensit is fine. Gorgeous, full of energy. Eddie O'Connell sinks the film. He's a rebel but also sells out. Not good looking. Can't sing, dance or act. This, in Britain in the 80s, with film stars falling from every tree. The movie stuffs the love story.

Needed to simplify - not that they're going out but that he adores her from afar, has a crush, she has to do what she does for money, she realises he's the perfect guy etc.

So much good stuff, though, like I say. The title track, Bowie's dance number, the tracking shot, the riot, the colours, Ray Davies' Frank Tashlin/Jerry Lewis style number. Temple was allowed to spend too much money.

The film needed a male lead who could act or at least have presence and to be made for a quarter of the price.

Book review - "Even This I Get to Experience" by Norman Lear (2014)

 Norman Lear shows never quite had the impact in Oz they did in Australia. Mostly because they weren't as prominent in syndication. I mean Diffrent Strokes was the exception, we all loved that; I recall Good Times and One Day at a Time playing during the say. But Maude was shunted at 3am and I don't recall The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Sanford and Son. Maybe their British originals were too better known. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong (this was the 80s-90s). Maybe the tone of Lear comedies was too aggressive and loud.

I'm so mixed on Lear. I respect and admire him - who could not? The battles he fought, the way he dominated'the culture in the 70s, investing in interesting films like Spinal Tab and Princess Bride, genuine war service in a bomber crew. All those fights with censors. He seemed to lose his TV touch from the 80s onwards but that happens. Tenacious. Taking on those terrible evangelists.

I enjoyed hearing about the actor conflics on Good Times and All the Family. And Jerry Lewis being a pain.

As a person... ah, I dunno. He whines about his shonky dad, and complaining mother. (Would he have been as good a salesman without his dad). Hard worker. Clearly very good writer and producer. Worked for Martin and Lewis on TV in the 50s and people like Martha Raye, Indifferent movie record - films no one gets too excited about like Come Blow Your Horn and Cold Turkey. Earned lots of money but always seemed to be about to lose it (even in the late 80s) then bounced back. two bad marriages. Third to a younger woman - he became a father later in life and had a surrogate. Lot of chat about how people love him, how he saved someone's life.

I stress, I have a lot of admiration and respect for Lear I just didn't dig this book. Maybe I just wanted more about his shows.

Book review - "Dean and Me A Love Story" by Jerry Lewis and Jerry Kaplan (2007)

 I enjoyed it. I also wondered how much it was true. Lewis sticks to a consistent line - Dean was an adored elder brother figure, very talented, Jerry worshipped him, no one appreciated Dean, Jerry admits to some faults but it came from love.

Entertaining. I took it with a grain of salt. Maybe that's unfair.

Movie review - "Absolute Beginners" (1986) ***

My memories of this film are strong and remain so. It was a big deal in the pages of Smash Hits though its cinema release was short. Patsy Kensit was an It Girl of the time - and she's gorgeous here, totally suits the part. Her acting wasn't much chop - she had a very high pitched voice - but it doesn't matter since she's the object of desire.

More troublesome is the casting of Eddie O'Connell - a bloke who can't sing, dance or act and isn't even that good looking. I guess he's got an everyman quality... and I did hope that he and Kensit would get back together. Still, this must have annoyed every leading man in Britain when this was made.

There's fantastic stuff - the title track by David Bowie, the black and white photos of the opening credits creating a sense of time past, a colourful support cast including Bowie, Ray Davies, Steven Berkoff and Mandy Rhys Davies, consistently interesting visuals, a long opening tracking shot, a visually stunning race riot at the end.

Interesting music, lots of colours. It doesn't always work, the gags aren't terribly funny and it's not that emotionally involving (the dilemma is about "selling out" and the villains are property developers). But it's stimulating.

I should say though that I think it was madness Goldcrest sunk so much money into it. I mean the book was known but not that known. Could not this have been done cheaper? You didn't need that big house set a la The Ladies Man. You could have done a lot of it less expensively, surely?

Dorothy Malone RIP - And a Top Ten

1) The Big Sleep (1946) - Malone is only in this for two scenes but does them with Humphrey Bogart and is sensational (aspiring actresses could do worse than to study these scenes of how to make a big impact in a short space of time).

2)The Fast and the Furious (1955) - not the Vin Diesel classic but a 1955 car chase flick which was the first feature Roger Corman ever produced - Malone is v likekable (Malone also appeared in Corman's directorial debut, Five Guns West).

3) Battle Cry (1955) - a melodrama about WW2 based on a best seller which New Zealand audiences will especially find interesting (part of the film is set there) - Malone has a surprisingly sexually frank fling with a young soldier played by Tab Hunter.

4) Sincerely Yours (1955) - Liberace's attempt at big screen stardom with Malone as his love interest (in the space of three years Malone steamed up the screen opposite Liberace, Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson...) - a fairly terrible movie but fascinating to see Liberace act in a melodrama (he took the blame for this film's failure but the script was as much at fault).

5) Artists and Models (1955) - for me the best Martin and Lewis film a really terrific fun comedy with Malone well matched with Martin and Shirley MacLaine perfect for Lewis.

6) Written on the Wind (1956) - Malone won the Oscar for this but I rewatched it recently and felt her performance did not hold up that well - check out her stroking the oil rig at the end (the same team then made The Tarnished Angels)

7) Too Much Too Soon (1958) - Malone mostly played "the girl" in films but her Oscar saw her get a real chance here, as Diana Barrymore, in what I feel is a pretty decent film - stolen by Errol Flynn as John Barrymore.

8) The Last Voyage (1960) - Malone's role isn't much (something you could say about a lot of her career) but they actually sunk a real ship for this film which is cool.

9) Fate is the Hunter (1964) - a Rod Taylor film where Malone has a one scene unbilled cameo - for years I thought it was a mirage but then later on confirmed it that yes it was her - this is a pretty good movie.

10) Beach Party (1963) - most film fans remember Frankie and Annette and forget or don't realise Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone had quite big parts in this film, the first in the series.
Oh and she's in Basic Instinct (1992) too

My Jerry Lewis Top Ten

1) Boeing Boeing (1965) - a not typical Jerry Lewis film but very funny
2) The Nutty Professor (1963) - excellent comedy, maybe Lewis' best
3) Who's Minding the Store? (1963) - Jerry runs riot in a store, with ensuing funny results
4) You're Never Too Young (1954) - top notch remake of The Major and the Minor with Lewis and Martin in strong form
5) Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958) - Lewis scores in another remake, this time of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - strong comedy
6) Sailor Beware (1954)
7) Living It Up (1954)
8) Artists and Models (1956)
9) Pardners (1956)
10) Hollywood or Bust (1956)

Book review - "Elvis' Favorite Director: The Career of Norman Taurog" by Michael Hoey

A book on Norman Taurog? Well, when you think about it, why not? There was a period there when he seemed to have directed every second film that screened on Saturday afternoon TV - MGM musicals, Martin and Lewis, Elvis flicks, AIP comedies - in part because he specialised in easy-to-watch fare: colourful comedies with musical numbers. His career went back even further than that: he won an Oscar in 1931 for Skippy, and he made his name directing comic silents.

Taurog started out as a child actor, went into props, and in the wild and woolly days of early silent cinema found himself a director, working with some dude called Larry Sermon. He worked his way up to longer movies and from then on was never out of work: a man who worked hard, wore his authority easily, and thrived in the studio system; who was particularly good with comics and children.

Taurog was a fatty, which no doubt contributed to the diabetes which led to him losing sight in one eye for the latter part of his career; eventually the other eye went to, and he became completely blind - this was the only thing that stopped him making movies. (I imagine he would have kept going into the 70s otherwise, maybe for TV.)

His personal life wasn't without incident: he had a messy divorce, remarried one of Louis B. Mayer's secretaries, who was a big noise in the Republican Party, and who encouraged Taurog's own political involvement: he was part of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals or whatever it was caused, the right wing group at the time of McCarthyism. He was the uncle by marriage to Jackie Cooper, who accused him of being abusive on set (though Hoey casts doubt on this, in a convincing way, pointing out Taurog often helped him later in life).

This book benefits considerably from the fact that Hoey knew Taurog well - he produced Palm Springs Weekend, which Taurog directed, then went to work for him as an assistant on several of his Elvis movies.  So there's lots of little personal touches and insights, such as giving a full account of the death on the set of Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the antics of the Elvis mafia on his movies, the fact Taurog liked Elvis but grew to loathe Jerry Lewis. Hoey has done his research too on other movies although at times I felt he got sidetracked giving mini-bios of other people Taurog worked with.

But it's a very easy read, which consistently surprised me (Taurog was pall bearer for Virginia Rappe, of Fatty Arbuckle fame, the sheer cheapness of Colonel Tom Parker) and I liked this a lot.

Movie review – “Which Way to the Front?” (1970) **

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.

Movie review – “Hook Line and Sinker” (1969) **

Jerry Lewis rarely played a family man – this may have been the first time he did – so it gives this otherwise undistinguished comedy some novelty. But he’s not much of a family man: he’s an insurance worker who is told he has a terminal illness, so he goes off on a fishing trip, racking up major bills on his credit cards. Then his doctor (Peter Lawford) tells him he’s not going to die, but should fake his death to get out of debt.
There’s a decent film lurking inside here somewhere, but the current plot is riddled with holes – he doesn’t seem to care about his kids, or his wife (Anne Francis), so when he finds out the doctor and wife are in cahoots, you don’t really care. Also we find out about the betrayal too late. There's some funny bits like Jerry pretending to be an Australian sheep farmer, and some decent slapstick, but generally this is poor, and throws away ideas and opportunities wholesale.

Movie review – “Don’t Raise the Bridge Lower the River” (1968) *1/2

Jerry Lewis tries to revive his career with a move to swinging London and a new director (Jerry Paris) but the result is one of the dumbest movies of his career. He plays a man hooked on get rich quick schemes much to the annoyance of his wife (Jacqueline Pearce) – although he’s got enough money to run around the world. She gets annoyed so leaves him – he tries to get her back and make money at the same time. Patchy, idiotic, slow paced, not logical – not even Terry Thomas’ appearance in the cast can help.

Movie review – “The Big Mouth” (1967) **

This has a decent central idea – mild mannered accountant Jerry Lewis is a dead ringer for a gangster – but they make some errors i.e. having the gangster dead at the beginning, thereby robbing the plot of possible complications, and denying Jerry the chance to do some comedy. As if to compensate they get him to go into hiding by donning disguises, one as a nutty professor type scientist (good to see again but no real point in the story) and a Japanese kabuki. The macguffin is some diamonds.

There’s one or two laughs, such as gangsters having a break down when they see their former dead boss. But on the whole this is poor – it’s an ugly looking film, not very well thought out, the female lead is dull. Not appalling, just very mediocre - a waste of a strong concept.

Movie review – “Way… Way Out” (1967) **1/2

Jerry Lewis once played a Visitor from a Small Planet – here he’s an astronaut from Earth headed to the moon thirty years in the future. For most of this running time it’s a sort of sex comedy – he is sent up there as an experiment to have a married couple live up there in order to replace two male astronauts who’ve gone crazy. Only problem is, he doesn’t have a girlfriend – he eventually hooks up with Connie Stevens, who agrees to go along to with it so she can go on a mission but won’t sleep with him. While they are up on the moon they encounter some sex mad Russians (including Anita Ekberg) who sleep together even though they’re not married; Stevens gets jealous over Ekberg, etc, etc.

 

Stevens and Ekberg had been in Jerry Lewis films before to great effect so it’s good to see them again; Ekberg is sexy as ever and Stevens quite funny – even if she doesn’t have as distinct a character to play as in Rock a Bye Baby, she’s got a batty quality which works well with Lewis.

 

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought. It’s a bit of a mess and the humour tends to smut more than sexiness but always throws up something different: Jerry’s son sings the title song, Robert Morley is head of the space program, Brian Keith making a cameo as a general, the fact half of it is set on a space station on the moon gives it a different sort of atmosphere (more isolated). Some very funny bits like the two astronauts going mad, all the astronauts getting drunk on vodka, the pot shots at the military (who are sent up mercilessly), the race for the “moon baby”.

Movie review – “Three on a Couch” (1966) **

Jerry Lewis’ first ever movie outside Paramount – he signed a deal with Columbia – and his first one in a while where he’s not credited on the screenplay, although he is the director. This has one of the most idiotic set ups Jerry ever had: he’s engaged to a shrink (Janet Leigh) and wants to move to Paris for a a (he’s an artist who won a competition) but she can’t because she’s afraid of leaving her patients – especially three women who all have trouble relating to men. So Jerry pretends to be each woman’s ideal man, have them fall in love with him, “cure them”… so Janet can go.

The amount of ways this is a dud plot is amazing – Janet Leigh breaches confidentiality, it has low stakes (he’s only going to France temporarily), it involves him cheating on Janet Leigh (basically), it’s not vaguely believable the problems of her patients are the same. There’s nothing wrong with the idea of Jerry playing multiple roles and trying to get women to fall in love with him – that’s funny. It’s got good complication and logically builds up to a finale with Jerry running around trying not to get busted. It worked in Boeing Boeing. But the set up to get there is lousy.

They don’t help by giving this big role to James Best as a friend of Leigh and Lewis’ who tells Leigh she’s not a whole woman if she’s obsessed with work, and who suggests the plan to Jerry. It’s a real shame because there’s some hilarious stuff here - Jerry in drag being a southern lady is brilliant. And Gila Golan, Leslie Parish and Mary Ann Mobley are pretty as the girls. But script does matter, even for Jerry Lewis.

Movie review – “Boeing Boeing” (1965) ***1/2

An attempt to vary the Jerry Lewis formula, by teaming him with another big star for the first time since Hollywood or Bust (Tony Curtis), and basing it on a hit source material (a play) for the first time since Visit to a Small Planet. Producer Hal Wallis also threw in a top writer (Edward Anhalt) and support cast (Thelma Ritter) although the director (Jack Rich) was a newby, mostly with TV credits.

It wasn’t a hit, for two reasons, I think: firstly Americans have never been as partial to farces as the British or French (Boeing Boeing has been a hit on stage pretty much everywhere but flopped on Broadway in the 60s). Secondly Lewis was probably playing too different a role from his persona. His character is a confident, womanising newspaper reporter, who double crosses Curtis in an attempt to take over his lifestyle. This is probably close to real life Lewis, a notorious womaniser and very smart, but miles from the bumbling idiots he usually played. It’s a Dean Martin part – or, failing him, Jack Lemmon or someone like that. Having said that, Lewis’ performance is spot on – totally appropriate, full of energy and confidence. He’s only miscast in star terms.

Out of the three girls, Christiane Schmidtmer comes across best as Gretchen – she’s the sexiest and funniest. Suzanna Leigh (Briton) is pretty but dim; Dany Saval (Air France) isn’t that pretty and is a real bitch. Actually all three girls treat the housekeeper, Thelma Ritter, really badly, always demanding she get them milk and stuff like that.

But the piece is done with a lot of energy. Curtis and Lewis really throw themselves into it, and it builds like all good farces do. I’m surprised Rich didn’t have more of a feature career, I felt he did a good job. Colourful sets and costumes, too.

Movie review – “The Family Jewels” (1965) **

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.

Movie review – “The Patsy” (1964) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I think I’ve mentioned this before but Joe Dante once commented the 50s really ended in America when JFK was shot – it’s a great observation because the careers of so many 50s stars kept strong in the early 60s but never regained the same heights after around 1963: Glenn Ford, Sandra Dee, Debbie Reynolds, Yul Brynner, Susan Hayward, Rock Hudson… and Jerry Lewis. Lewis was at his peak in 63 with The Nutty Professor but the failure of his TV show can in hindsight be seen to be the beginning of the end. Part of the reason he was starting to look a little old for the character he played. Part of it was simply a decline in material, but there is still some good stuff here.

 

The plot has the entourage of a recently-deceased comic star try to build a new one out of a bellboy (this was originally meant to be a sequel to The Bellboy). Most of the entourage are elderly character actors – Keenan Wynn, Peter Lorre (in his last movie and looking awful), John Carradine. The one girl is the pretty Ina Balin goes through the film making wistful, sweet comments all the time – even at the beginning she suggests the entourage want to create a star because they cant bear to be separate as a family.

 

This has some of Jerry’s best ever sequences. Two of the funniest are a singing lesson where Jerry keeps stuffing up, and where he lip synchs his dreadful pop song on a TV show. Less effective are an extended silent (well, dialogue-less) flashback to Jerry at a school dance and a similar long sequence at the end which is meant to launch Jerry’s character to worldwide fame, but actually isn’t that funny. There’s also a really different ending – Jerry’s character falls off a balcony, but then reveals he couldn’t die because he’s played by Jerry Lewis, and goes off to have lunch with members of the crew!

 

The cast also includes Scatman Crothers (looking like an old man already) and a bunch of Hollywood types making cameos, including George Raft, Hedda Hopper, Ed Wynn and Rhoda Fleming.

Movie review – “Disorderly Orderly” (1964) **1/2

The last Jerry Lewis film directed by Frank Tashlin, the end of what had been a highly profitable association for both men. It’s bright, colourful and satirical as you would expect; the hospital setting allows scope for Tashlin to poke fun at doctors, nurses, patients, administrators… as well as engage in plenty of slapstick involving plaster casts, bandages and the like.

 

The problem is there are two films here. One is a completely bizarre comedy which consistently breaks the fourth wall and is extremely cartoon like – Jerry clicks his fingers and a flame lights up; TV snow turns into real snow; patients dressed up like a mummy unravel going down a hill, etc. The second one is more serious – Jerry falls for a patient, an old flame of his from school who has tried to kill herself and is going to be kicked out of the hospital because she can’t pay her bills. Those are serious issues (even if they’re not particularly well done – that long monologue from the suicide girl to a shrink is painfully OTT) and don’t quite mesh with the other stuff. And besides, Jerry running riot in a hospital isn’t that funny – it’s not like a department store or navy, he’s hurting patients who are sick and trying to get better.

 

Tashlin repeats himself from Rock a Bye Baby by having Lewis be masochistically in love with a girl who doesn’t deserve him, even offering to work additional shifts to pay her bills – ignoring the hot girl (a nurse) who loves him for himself. Chaplin’s disease had hit him well and truly by this time. Some of it is hilarious, though, such as the patient who can’t resist talking in excruciating detail about her ailments. And the slapstick chase at the end is well done.

Movie review – “Who’s Minding the Store?” (1963) ***

A Jerry Lewis “institution comedy” in the vein of The Bellboy, Disorderly Orderly and The Errand Boy – to wit, Jerry is placed in an institution and allowed to run riot. The set up is decent enough – he’s given various horrible jobs in a department store by owner Agnes Moorehead, who is keen to embarrass him in the eyes of his girlfriend (and Moorehead’s daughter) Jill St John. Jerry keeps plugging away, destroying everything about him but not giving up on his soul. Or something.

 

The structure is repetitive – it’s a series of set pieces really – but it’s very colourful and there’s some classic moments: Jerry “polishing the top of the nob” of the flag pole (and someone actually comments on him polishing a nob) Jerry taking on the onslaught of female shoppers during the sales (a classic set piece, one of his all time greats), Jerry battling a vacuum cleaner, Jerry being shown around the office by Moorehead’s husband (John McGiver) who explains the department store has always been run by women who are married to powerless men.

 

The support cast is excellent, including Moorehead, McGiver, Ray Walston and Jill St John, who is totally hot for Jerry, constantly pashing him and holding his hand. In the absence of Dean Martin he was really keen to step up to the plate when it came to romance scenes. 

 

There is a slightly off scene where McGiver and Jerry are in a lift with St John and both try to hold her hand – I get the gag (St John trying to keep the two apart and both trying to be affectionate with her), but daddy is a bit old to hold his daughter’s hand. One of Jerry's best solo films.

Movie review – “Don’t Give Up the Ship” (1959) **1/2

Enlistment must have gone up whenever Jerry Lewis made a service comedy – the US army and navy were always co-operating with his films, even though they often depicted Jerry thriving despite his incompetence, and petty officers in authority.

Jerry Lewis plays a different sort of character here – a naval officer, from a family with a rich naval tradition (three’s an amusing montage at the beginning flashing back to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, etc). He’s still an idiot, though – accused of losing a destroyer, the navy present him with a five million dollar bill. The navy is convinced he might be a spy and send in an officer from naval intelligence (Dina Merrill) to investigate.

After a long set up, act two flash backs to Jerry’s war service in the Pacific, where he manages to get promoted despite being an idiot. He winds up on an island and is captured by the Japanese, who because the war is over are actually quite benign here. Instead of having a romance between Jerry and Dina Merrill, there’s also a major subplot about Jerry getting arrested on his wedding day and being unable to consummate his marriage for the duration of the film. (They do play a jealous angle from his new wife and there is a hot scene where Merrill and Jerry share a train sleep compartment, and she’s naked under a sheet. It would have been either hotter if either of them had been up for it.) There's this last sequence with Jerry and Mickey Shaughnessy prowling around under water. And it’s all resolved with a deux ex machina which reveals that the investigating senator (Gale Gordon) is the one responsible for the ship being destroyed. It's a very disjointed, ramshackle movie.

Which is not to say it isn't fun. Director Norman Taurog keeps everything bubbling along at a fair clip and there are some very funny moments including Jerry asking birds on an island to be quiet and they comply, Jerry interrogating Mickey Shaughnessy while the latter is in the middle of a wrestling match, and Jerry’s sexual frustration (the late 50s leer humour had taken hold).