Starring Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Donna Reed, and Barbara Bates
Directed by Norman Taurog
Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Jack Brooks
We're joining up with Hollywood's favorite comic duo of the 1950's this week. Martin and Lewis started out in nightclubs after World War II, usually doing a routine with Martin singing and Lewis heckling him, ending with the two of them chasing each other. They had their own radio show, and were two of the headliners on the first episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. By 1953, they were two of the top stars in the world, and among Paramount's biggest money-makers.
This wound up being not only one of their most popular films, but it produced one of the standards Martin is most associated with as well. How does the story of a golf teacher and the man he's determined to make into a champion look today? Let's begin on the golf course with Harvey Miller, Jr (Lewis) and his fiancee Lisa (Barbara Bates) and find out....
The Story: Harvey is the son of one of the most famous champion golfers in the world. He did inherit his talent, but he's terrified of playing in front of crowds. After he loses his job in a department store, Lisa suggests he become a golf instructor instead. She encourages her layabout brother Joe (Martin) to become his first client.
With Harvey's help, Joe starts winning tournament after tournament. He even attracts the attention of lovely socialite Kathy Taylor (Reed). All the attention gives Joe a big head, and he starts to push Harvey away and ignore his orders to go to bed early and meet him for practice. Harvey even follows him to Kathy's house and passes himself off as rich, but ends up being a waiter. Joe's reluctant to get into the last tournament, but it turns out his father bet his Italian restaurant on it. It takes a riot at the tournament to show the guys where their talents truly lay...
The Song and Dance: Martin and Lewis are really the thing here, whether they're chasing each other around a nightclub or a golf course. Their nightclub routine comes up in the sequence where Joe tries to sing "You're the Right One" and Harvey keeps disrupting him, trying to get him back home and to bed. Lewis has some nice solo bits, too, including the opening sequence when he stumbles around the department store, breaking every conceivable breakable object within a mile's distance and infuriating his boss (Fred Clark). The Anthony parents can be pretty funny too, especially Joseph Calleia as excitable Papa. Look for cameos by real champion golfers of the time, including Sam Snead and Julius Boros.
Favorite Number: We open and close with the boys' nightclub act to "What Wouldcha Do Without Me?" They also get "(It Takes a Lot of Little Likes to Make) One Big Love)" together. The crowd at the nightclub eats up the ballad Joe tries to sing that Harvey disrupts, "You're the Right One," thinking Harvey's attempts to get him off the stage are part of the act. Joe thinks "It's a Whistlin' Kind of Mornin'" when he's on the course. Harvey's big solos is "The Gay Continental," as he sports a smoking jacket while spoofing wealthy dilettantes around the pool.
"That's Amore" became one of Martin's biggest hits, and by far the biggest hit song to come from any of the Martin-Lewis movies. Not only does it have a number worthy of it, it's the sole chorus number. Joe starts the number as they serve dinner at the family restaurant, Everyone else eventually joins in, including Harvey, to sing a tribute to romance and pizza.
What I Don't Like: No wonder Martin in particular had started to become a wee bit disinterested by this point. The story is of so little consequence, the boys don't even finish that big tournament or stay with golf in the end. Sports angle aside, it's not that much different from either their other movies or the films of their comic duo predecessors Abbot and Costello. None of the other songs get close to "That's Amore" in the charm or ear worm department, either. Reed and Bates are there as love interests and have little to do other than Lisa being the one who suggests Harvey become a golf instructor to begin with.
The Big Finale: If you love Martin and/or Lewis, this is recommended as one of their better films. Not a bad place to start for newcomers to their nutty, ballad-filled world, too.
Home Media: Can be found solo on streaming. Paramount Plus currently has it with a subscription. In the US, it's only on disc bundled with other Martin-Lewis films.
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