Saturday, December 30, 2017

Comedy Triple Feature of Jerry Lewis Movies ~ #Review


Comedy Triple Feature of Jerry Lewis Movies ~ #Ad #Spon #Review 

Disclosure: I received free products from Mill Creek Entertainment in exchange for my honest opinion.



Image Credit: Mill Creek Entertainment



Don't Raise The Bridge
Hook, Line & Sinker
3 On A Couch



SYNOPSIS

From Mill Creek Entertainment:

The late, great comedy legend, Jerry Lewis, left behind a unparalleled career filled with outrageous characters, impeccable comedic timing and outright lunacy!  This hilarious triple feature boasts three beloved films from the height of his career! 
He's the original lord of lowbrow, the king of the pratfall, the last surviving link to the bedrock of American comedy—vaudeville, burlesque, slapstick.” – Amy Wallace, GQ
DON’T RAISE THE BRIDGE, LOWER THE RIVER – 1968 – Rated G
It’s one of Jerry Lewis’s zaniest films, filled with the hilarious antics for which he’s famous! Jerry (Boeing, Boeing) plays George Lester, an American in London, whose grandiose schemes constantly get him into trouble. His first outrageous plan turns his wife’s ancestral palace into a Chinese disco, an idea she hardly appreciates. Forced to raise money to restore the mansion, George unveils an even crazier scheme with the help of his friend, William Homer (Terry-Thomas, I’m All Right Jack), to sell stolen plans for an electronic oil drill. George smuggles the plans into Lisbon where he is supposed to make the big deal, but then learns the plans are phony! He promises his wife he'll finally settle down, but wait – he has just one more idea! 
HOOK, LINE AND SINKER – 1969 – Rated G
Peter Ingersoll (Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor) is living a humdrum existence as a family man and insurance salesman when he finds out from his doctor friend, Scott (Peter Lawford, Ocean’s Eleven), that he has a terminal illness. Thinking that his life is nearly over, he lives life to the fullest, building up insurmountable debt. When the debt becomes too much, Scott tells Peter that he is actually not sick. To remove the debt, Scott comes up with the idea to stage Peter’s death, allowing him to return after the statute of limitations is done. But when Peter finds out that his wife (Anne Francis, Funny Girl) and Scott are having an affair and that this was all a scheme to get rid of him, Peter has some work to do in this zany comedy. 
THREE ON A COUCH – 1966 – Not Rated
Christopher Pride (Jerry Lewis) has been offered an important commission in Paris but can't convince his girlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth Acord (Janet Leigh), to take some time off from her psychiatric practice. Elizabeth is worried about three of her female patients, all of whom are extremely hostile toward men and very needy. Christopher, anxious to leave for France, decides to impersonate the ideal man for each of Elizabeth's patients, in hopes of lessening their dependency on her.

My Thoughts:
DON’T RAISE THE BRIDGE, LOWER THE RIVER – 1968 – Rated G

This is a film I had never heard of before. It stars Jerry Lewis and Terry Thomas. The writing is not very good and the jokes are not funny.  Lewis portrays George Lester who is married and living in London. He makes his wife's house into a Chinese disco/restaurant while she is out of the country I assume.  She comes home, is furious and moves out, going out with other guys.

George then schemes to make 25,000 pounds and teams up with his friend Willie (Terry Thomas) with an idea to sell electric oil drills plans which he has stolen. In the meantime George gets the mumps and has to stay home to recover. He calls a dentist working on his friend Fred's tooth, to get the plans made on his teeth negatives while he is sedated, then sends him to go to Lisbon where the deal is supposed to be made with the oil drill plans. Let's just say, it doesn't work out. Crazy but not really funny.

I could hardly stand watching this movie to the end but it finally did end, thankfully. As you might think I didn't enjoy this film very much.


 HOOK, LINE AND SINKER - 1969 - Rated G

I liked this movie much better. It stars Jerry Lewis, Peter Lawford and Anne Francis. Jerry stars as Peter Ingersoll, who is a regular family man with a job, wife Nancy (Anne Francis), a couple of kids and a big dog . He has a regular doctor appointment with doctor Scott (Peter Lawford) and finds out that he has a heart problem which is not repairable and only has a month to live. He goes home to tell his wife the bad news and tells her he's glad she had earlier suggested to him to take out a $150,000 life insurance policy. You'll find out why she did this later.

Since he thought his life was ending Pete's wife decides that he should splurge and do everything he wants to do to enjoy the rest of his life.  She tells him to go to the Caribbean and Mediterranean to go fishing,  which he loves to do. This means charging lots of debt with all sorts of credit cards and his wife puts an ad in the paper that she is not responsible for any of his debt since he is going to die soon anyways.  He goes to the tropics to enjoy his last days - fishing and dancing with beautiful women every day and night. 

When the doctor comes to tell him he really is healthy and made a mistake, Pete doesn't know what to do because of all the money he has charged. Dr. Scott thinks of an idea to stage his death using a body from the morgue. Pete pretends to have a heart attack and die. He uses an alias name and moves to Austrailia. He has 7 years for the statute of limitations is up then he can come back to the US.

When Pete finds out his wife and the doctor are in this together because they are having an affair he he plans on getting some revenge. Hence, the reason his wife wanted him to take out a $150,000 life insurance policy on him.

I had never heard of this movie before but rather enjoyed it. It was more of the funny Jerry Lewis that I always liked. 


THREE ON A COUCH - 1966 - Not Rated

I had heard of this movie but have never viewed it until now. It stars Jerry Lewis as Christopher Pride and Janet Leigh as Dr. Elizabeth Accord. Mary Ann Mobley also stars as a patient. Christopher is Elizabeth's boyfriend and she is a psychiatrist who has 3 women clients who think of men as villains or just don't like men.

Christopher has been given a job offer in Paris but his girlfriend doesn't want to go along with him because of her needy female patients. Christopher and another doctor friend of Elizabeth decide to scheme a plan to get the patients have a more favorable attitude towards men, so she will go to Paris with him to get married.

He impersonates the perfect man for each of them. One as a Texas rancher who goes into a patient's store she works in and has a lot in common since she's a southerner. Another he starts jogging with as she is and they get along real well.  Then Christopher dresses up as a women who has a twin brother who loves zoology like the 3rd patient does. He continues to see each of the women as they start to like men again.

At the end, Christopher's girlfriend finds out he was the man who was impersonating her patient's man friends at a go away party for them on their voyage to Paris, as they are invited to the party. She is furious, but when she thinks he has fallen overboard on the ship all is well and it's a happy ending.

This movie was amusing and did hold my attention to the end. 













2 comments:

  1. That's good that most of his movies are rated G, that way anyone can watch them. I don't remember which of his movies I've watched, but like you, I've thought some are funny and some are not.

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    1. Yes, these days G rated movies are rather hard to find these days. That's one good thing about them. They wouldn't be any that I would watch again though.

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