Der Prügelknabe (1951)
25KDer Prügelknabe: Directed by Norman Taurog. With Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Polly Bergen, Marion Marshall. Egotistical vaudevillian Bill Miller basks in the limelight with his successful musical-comedy act, but his success is due to his unheralded second banana.
“With this, Martin u0026amp; Lewisu0026#39;s seventh feature together, theyu0026#39;re reunited with the following co-stars from previous movies: Polly Bergen-who was in At War with the Army and Thatu0026#39;s My Boy-playing Deanu0026#39;s wife who once again has a wonderful duet with him, Marion Marshall-who was also in TMB as well as Sailor Beware-playing Jerryu0026#39;s girlfriend, Eddie Mayehoff-previously Jerryu0026#39;s father in TMB is now Deanu0026#39;s and eventually Jerryu0026#39;s manager, Richard Erdman-previously the person Jerry passes himself off as in Jumping Jacks is Deanu0026#39;s previous performing partner here, and Mary Treen-previously the assistant of Corrine Calvet in SB is now the assistant of Jerryu0026#39;s boss before Jerryu0026#39;s teaming with Dean. In this one, Dean is an entertainer whou0026#39;s trying to make it as a single but his act sucks when he tries that so Jerry is picked to play a stooge for him. Iu0026#39;ll stop there and just say that while I liked the way the actors switched from comedy to drama during the transitional scenes, sometimes I think the screenplay or maybe the direction didnu0026#39;t make them seamless enough to be believable to me. In fact, I found Jerry and sometimes Dean more funny offstage than when they did their act on-stage. And I think it was a mistake to make it seem like Jerry didnu0026#39;t know what he was doing the whole time heu0026#39;s on stage especially whenever itu0026#39;s obviously not the case-such as when he has to go on by himself after Dean drinks too much to do so and does a great parody of Maurice Chevalier. Nevertheless, this is another enjoyable Martin u0026amp; Lewis picture that gets a recommendation from me. P.S. Frances Bavier, as Jerryu0026#39;s mom, was a nice surprise to me especially when she did his laugh. And what a coincidence that both her and Ms. Treen are in this picture since Ms. Bavier replaced Ms. Treen as the housekeeper in the first episode of u0026quot;The Andy Griffith Showu0026quot;!”
