The Bellboy

A Beginning
This film occurred when Jerry Lewis needed a summer movie, Paramount wanted to release "Cinderfella", but Lewis insisted that wait for the Christmas season. Therefore, on a shoe-string budget he created his first masterpiece as actor, director, producer, and writer all on one film (with "The Ladies' Man", "The Nutty Professor", and other notables to follow). The film promises--from the beginning--to be about "fun", no more, no less. Indeed, it is pretty much a romp through sketches involving Stanley, a bellboy. Nevertheless, Lewis couldn't help added some social commentary, and the scene where he plays himself is among one of cinema's finest moments. Certainly not his best work--overall--but a great start to what is a lavish solo career.

Funny for its time :-)
By today's standards, this may not be considered an outrageously funny movie - back in the day, I can see that this would have been hilarious. I really love Jerry Lewis and it's one of the better roles I've seen him in. He doesn't have too much of a dialogue in this - whenever he is playing the bellboy character Stanley, he only whistles and uses his facial expressions to emote his clumsiness.
The only scene where I truly laughed out loud, was when he was in charge of the bellboy desk for a short time and one of the four phones would ring. Do you think he knew which phone to answer? Of course not. Other than that, it was good throughout but just not as funny as I would have hoped. He is a genius for sure, but I prefer him doing his crazy voices. Even so, I'd recommed this to his fans, as I'm sure they'll definately enjoy it.

The Bellboy
The start of the funny parodies. Every scene is funny, Lewis has very different versatile roles in this movie.

Click to Editorial Reviews