Nutty Professor, The
Entry updated 2 February 2017. Tagged: Film.
Film (1963). Jerry Lewis Productions/Paramount. Directed by Jerry Lewis. Written by Lewis, Bill Richmond. Cast includes Kathleen Freeman, Lewis, Dell Moore, Howard Morris and Stella Stevens. 107 minutes. Colour.
Even those who do not normally enjoy the heavily overstated comedy of Lewis, which depends a lot on gesticulation and face-pulling, admit this to be one of his best films; it is a remake as a campus comedy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with Lewis playing both Professor Kelp, the nerd who takes the potion, and the revoltingly smooth, sexually charged lounge lizard and crooner, Buddy Love, whom he intermittently becomes; the film is an imaginative act of spite against Lewis's former partner and co-star Dean Martin, recognizable even in this broad Parody. Not only is it funny, it hits off the subtext of Robert Louis Stevenson's original rather well. [PN]
see also: Cinema.
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