9/10
End of an era
30 May 2011
This is the last of the 16 movies which Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together, and by this point they weren't even speaking to each other off-camera, but this time the screen is filled with even more inventiveness than usual. That's because the director is master satirist Frank Tashlin, who, having already taken on rock and roll (The Girl Can't Help It) and comic books (Artists and Models, also with Dean and Jerry), now turns his attention to movie fandom.

Dean plays Steve, a down-on-his-luck gambler who wants to pay off his debts by cheating in a raffle to win an expensive car, but the legal winner (Malcolm, played by Jerry) also turns up, and the contest holder rules that they have to share the car. Malcolm (a movie fan who's obsessed with Anita Ekberg) wants to drive the car to Hollywood to meet her, and Steve goes along for the ride, planning to ditch him somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, Malcolm is also bringing his gigantic dog "Mr. Bascom," who manages to thwart a few of Steve's plans.

Besides the numerous references to movies real and fictional (i.e., "Chloroform and Old Calico"), we also get romance, great musical numbers, beautiful Technicolor, Jerry doing a bullfighting routine a la Rudolph Valentino, a hilarious gambling sequence in a Vegas casino, and much more. Dean and Jerry part ways after this, but at least they leave on a high note.
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