Review of The Delicate Delinquent

Apprentice maintenance worker is mentored by a good-hearted neighborhood cop who wants to get one kid from the streets on the right path in life. Writer-director Don McGuire apparently fashioned this comedy vehicle for the team of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, but when Martin dropped out (and ended the partnership), Lewis took center stage--and appeared very comfortable in doing so. Unfortunately, McGuire's script (which shows evidence of tampering) allows Lewis too much room to do his act: self-pitying pathos, dumb/smart retorts, goofy faces and voices. The plot doesn't make much sense, anyway: officer Darren McGavin apparently thinks Lewis is a member of a street gang--but Lewis has a job and his own apartment, and there are no scenes to show McGavin realizing his subject isn't a delinquent at all (he just goes right on helping him...into the police academy!). Slick and well-produced in black-and-white, the picture mixes in 'funny' scenes for the kids (Lewis helping an eccentric tenant with his experiments, being picked in a self-defense demonstration by a Sumo wrestler) and also adds convenient ladies for both Lewis and McGavin. The narrative is lumpy (it's just a bunch of episodes strung together), but McGavin is surprisingly paternal with Lewis, which eventually leads to a curiously sober conclusion, one that won't please fans hoping for another wild Jerry Lewis outing. ** from ****