I clearly remember being bereft at the age of about 10 when I read that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were splitting up. I think it was my first lesson in the world being cruel, I was truly shocked at that age as these were my comedy heroes. They'd had a string of hits finishing with Pardners and Hollywood or Bust and I just couldn't conceive of a world without Martin & Lewis. Jerry went on to make many comedies which got great acceptance as I remember in Europe, but not so much in the USA. He was regarded as a kind of modern day Chaplin and an acquired taste, mainly due to his obstinance in doing his own thing. This fortunately came to a head with the original Nutty Professor, a truly great comedy. I wish he'd left it there as Which Way To The Front, which I've just viewed is dreadful. An awful script, let down by amateur acting from the so called comedic actors supporting him, a ghastly performance by Jerry himself, screaming for most of it, and in this day and age, politically incorrect to the extreme. I smiled in two or three places and that was it. Best to avoid unless like me, you're a Jerry Lewis completist and just had to watch to the end. It seemed about as long as the second world war in which it was set.
Review of Which Way to the Front?
