I really enjoyed the original version of The Nutty Professor by the star and director I first saw in The King of Comedy, and I was looking forward to another film of his, especially if it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically Herbert H. Heebert (Jerry Lewis, also directing) is a young man has suffered severe heartbreak when his girlfriend has left him for someone else, and he becomes depressed swearing he will never want romance again. With nothing much else to hope for he finds himself a job working in a large house doing such things as cleaning, delivering mail and other general responsibilities, but he has no idea until they all come out that it is a womens' boarding house. The genteel house is run by Miss Helen N. Wellenmellon (Helen Traubel) who irritates him with the nickname "Herby", he is treated by all of the girls as a helpless servant, and of course his fear of women is getting him down, he tries to escape a couple of time. Young and beautiful Fay (Pat Stanley) is the only one he can really confide in, and she helps him to overcome his fear of women, and after many chaotic and slapstick disasters, including an important woman appearing on television in the house, the girls accept that he may want to leave, but of course Herbert cannot bring himself to do it, being in love as well. Also starring Kathleen Freeman as Katie, George Raft, Harry James, Marty Ingels, Buddy Lester as Willard C. Gainsborough, Hope Holiday as Miss Anxious and Lillian Briggs as Lillian. Lewis is fantastic being the highly nerdy, overly nervous and physically infantile character, it reminds you of the style Jim Carrey would bring in his career, the story is simple enough, but it is for the inventive jokes that the film works so well, all timed well, even the simplest thing like a broken bed is really funny, a great comedy classic. Very good!
Review of The Ladies Man
