Review of Who's Minding the Store?

Jerry Lewis slapstick vehicle has the star playing a dog-sitter/poodle-walker who wants to marry department store elevator operator Jill St. John--but she's working incognito (she's really the boss's daughter). Lewis is hired by the store president's domineering wife to show St. John what an incompetent Jerry is...and he's doesn't exactly prove her wrong. Jerry Lewis loose in a department store and it's not a laugh riot? Surely this scenario should have resulted in some great sight-gags and satire, but all we seem to get are product advertisements and bungling Lewis making faces. Director Frank Tashlin, who also co-scripted with Harry Tugend from Tugend's original treatment, wastes a lot of first-class comedic talent such as Agnes Moorehead, John McGiver, Nancy Kulp and Kathleen Freeman, all on dumb, misfired episodes. Ray Walston's prissy, irate flunky is a constant nuisance, although St. John is a nice addition to the mix and there are admittedly some big laughs with the overzealous vacuum cleaner. *1/2 from ****