Here's an entire Martin and Lewis movie for those of you who have close to two hours to watch online videos. It's the 1955 Artists and Models, directed by Frank Tashlin. Mr. Tashlin was a very fine comedy director who started directing Porky Pig cartoons and who later stepped up to Big Pay directing for Dino, Jerry, Bob Hope and others.
Apart from his presence as director, the film has several things to recommend it. First off, it's all about comic books and with the then-current belief that comic books encouraged social maladjustment among their readers. If they really had caused all American children to turn out like Jerry Lewis then the industry probably should have been closed down.
Secondly, there are some nice brief appearances by Anita Ekberg and Eva Gabor, and the longer presence of Shirley MacLaine, who was so good in everything she did back then and almost everything later.
Also, there's Eddie Mayehoff, a very funny character actor some of you may remember from another comic-themed movie, How to Murder Your Wife with Jack Lemmon. Mayehoff was a pioneer in radio and early television, as well as being an occasional star on Broadway. He was in three Dean/Jerry films, starting with That's My Boy in which he upstaged everyone else in every scene he had — a difficult thing to do since Jerry was in all those scenes. It was briefly made into a TV series of the same name starring Mayehoff in the same role, Gil Stratton (later a TV sportscaster in Los Angeles) in Jerry's role and nobody in Dean's role. That was one of the reasons Dean quit working with Jerry. He kept finding himself in the kind of roles you could readily eliminate.
I always thought Mr. Mayehoff was the best thing in most of the films in which he appeared but apparently, work in entertainment did not come with enough steadiness for him. Perhaps that's why around 1970 or so, he gave up acting and began declining whatever offers he received. He worked for (or maybe co-owned) a company that made commercials and apart from appearing in some of those, wouldn't go back in front of a camera. He also at one point was selling cars out at a dealership in Santa Monica before he retired totally and spent his remaining years entertaining at retirement homes and nursing facilities. He passed away in 1992.
So anyway, it you like Martin and Lewis movies…
What's that? You've never seen a Martin and Lewis movie? Well, you may find they're not as wonderful (or as enduring) as their success at the time would indicate. This one is about as good as they ever got. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, just watch the opening titles. They're pretty snazzy in a camp/fifties way…
