The Errand Boy
The Errand Boy () • Senses of Cinema
Log in with Facebook. Don't have an account? By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Already have an account? Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Lewis's antics bring out his radically democratic politics: Jerry Lewis screwball comedy is tedious, lacks kid appeal.
The skeleton of Hollywood, half fakery and half magic. The film is a series of sight gags, with not too many hitting the mark. The self-reflectivity of The Errand Boy is so pervasive it truly becomes the content of the film. There are no featured reviews for The Errand Boy at this time.
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Movie Info The second of Jerry Lewis' directorial endeavors, The Errand Boy, like its predecessor The Bellboy, is essentially a series of "spot gags," some hilarious, others only moderately amusing. The gossamer-thin plot finds Morty Tashman Lewis being hired by the CEO of "Paramutuel Pictures" Brian Donlevy to spy on studio employees and report any incidents of wastefulness and sloth.
This gives Morty a chance to wander all over the Paramutuel Pictures lot, inadvertently interfering with work in progress, encountering strange characters and inexplicable events, and overall making as much of a nuisance of himself as possible. Some of the better gags include Morty's chaotic behavior at the "wrap party" for a vainglorious movie queen Iris Adrian ; his attempts to eat lunch while a noisy battle scene from a war picture rages all around him; his misguided effort to dub in the singing voice of a tone-deaf actress; the "Mr.
Baebrosenthal" bit; and Morty's tete-a-tete in the studio swimming pool with a scuba diver. The weakest scenes involve Morty's sugary encounters with the Ritts Puppets, and a smug curtain speech about the importance of laughmakers in this troubled world.
Even non-Jerry Lewis fans will come down with a case of loose chuckles while watching The Errand Boy. Jerry Lewis , Bill Richmond. Jerry Lewis as Morty S. Brian Donlevy as Tom 'T. Dick Wesson as The A. Howard McNear as Dexter Sneak. Felicia Atkins as Serina. Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. Mary Ritts as Herself.
The Errand Boy
Paul Ritts as Himself. Isobel Elsom as Irma Paramutual. Fritz Feld as Foreign Director. Iris Adrian as Great Actress. Stanley Adams as Grumpy. Sig Rumann as Baron Elston Carteblanche. Review by Jon M. Jerry, deciding at the outset that every…. Even though I consider myself a film buff I have to admit that I had never seen a Jerry Lewis movie Lewis was 35 when he played the "kid" in the movie.
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Not really a movie but a series of set pieces where Lewis causes chaos on a movie set. I guess movies like The Errand Boy are why the French say he is a genius Lewis is set loose in a bustling movie studio and the results are pretty extraordinary - moving from a sort of Bad and the Beautiful-esque look at backstage movie-making in the Golden era, and then veering into increasingly absurd and surreal adventures with Lewis by himself. Highlights including the famous, genius orchestra miming skit lifted completely for a Family Guy homage , an underwater swim and a touching par of encounters with live puppets.
There's a real creative imagination at work here beyond just the usual Lewis slapstick. The "plot" that sets the film in motion is forgotten for the most part ala The Bellboy, though that film didn't even have a pretence of narrative and sort of weakly brought back…. Review by Josh Kirkland. Some interesting critiques of the old Hollywood studio system, some references to Bonananza , and some truly absurd moments, but also a general lack of plot or any real story. Are they commentary on how in growing up, man loses something?
Some pure sense of creativity or magic? This is an oddball comedy, but not a totally stupid one. Absurd cartoon surreal slapstick from Lewis, where he brings his nervy chaos to a series of sketches interspersed with earnest heart to hearts with a puppet. A really funny send-up of Hollywood egos, arrogance, and anger. Ironically, these are the exact qualities that the public often associates with Jerry Lewis - or, maybe this irony was intentional, considering that, like in The Bellboy , Jerry Lewis exists within the universe of the film.
I think the sequence with the jelly beans is my favorite. In a way, it defines one of the worst qualities of Lewis' comedy, which is that his characters are so unrealistically foolish that watching them be clumsy and make bad decisions is more annoying and frustrating than it is actually funny.