Artists and Models (1955)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Frank Tashlin

Writers:

Herbert Baker (writer)
Michael Davidson (story)

Release Date:

7 November 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Rick Todd uses the dreams of his roommate Eugene as the basis fir a successful comic book.

Plot Keywords:

Comic Book | Dream | Artist | Nightmare | Roommate

Cast

Dean Martin	...	Rick Todd
Jerry Lewis	...	Eugene Fullstack
Shirley MacLaine	...	Bessie Sparrowbrush
Dorothy Malone	...	Abigail 'Abby' Parker
Eddie Mayehoff	...	Mr. Murdock
Eva Gabor	...	Sonia / Mrs. Curtis
Anita Ekberg	...	Anita
George Winslow	...	Richard Stilton (as George 'Foghorn' Winslow')
Jack Elam	...	Ivan
Herbert Rudley	...	Secret Service Chief Samuels
Richard Shannon	...	Secret Service Agent Rogers
Richard Webb	...	Secret Service Agent Peters
Alan Lee	...	Otto
Otto Waldis	...	Kurt

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Unrated | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Rick Todd's home town is mentioned as Steubendale. Dean Martin's real life birthplace is Steubenville, Ohio.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Rick is painting the lips on the billboard, he looks down to answer his boss, and when he looks back the lips are fully painted.

Quotes:

Eugene Fullstack: No, I'm not cute. They wanted to have me drowned when I was born, but the SPCA stopped them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Colgate Comedy Hour: (#6.11)" (1955)

Soundtrack:

Artists and Models

Very funny, if you can stand Jerry Lewis

I had never seen a Jerry Lewis vehicle before this one (not counting Scorsese's King of Comedy), and I was annoyed as hell for the first fifteen minutes. I even considered walking out, that's how irate I was getting at Lewis' mugging. But then there was a scene in which he was hilarious, so I hung onto it a bit. And it got funnier and funnier. Jerry Lewis isn't getting a clean bill of health from me; he still annoyed me once in a while. But in at least an equal amount of scenes, and probably a bit more, he was very funny. He and Dean Martin play "roommates" who met each other way back when they were Boy Scouts, sleep in separate twin beds in the same room, take baths with the door open, and at one point talk about getting a divorce. At one point the semi-retarded Lewis (and he admits as much himself) says to Martin: "I can't keep my dickie down, Ricky." Um, he's putting on a tuxedo I think. Similarly, Dorothy Malone lives in the apartment directly above them, unmarried with thick, black glasses and earning a good living on her own. She spends her time dressing the barely adult Shirley MacLaine, who has a cute little butch cut, up as the Bat Lady. The homosexual content seems to me almost too obvious to be meant. It's usually much subtler in Hollywood movies of the era. Then again, it's impossible to miss it, even you're a 1950s housewife. Eventually, the two gay couples meet and change partners, Martin getting Malone and Lewis MacLaine. MacLaine, in her second (or maybe third) role, is probably the film's standout, but Eddie Mayehoff, playing a comic book publisher who wants ever more violent comic books to sell, lands the highest percentage of the laughs. Eva Gabor has a decent part as a Soviet spy (a Cold War plotline appears out of thin air in the latter half of the film), and Anita Ekberg, later to co-star in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, also has a tiny role as a model. The non-Lewis related comedy is frivolous but excellent. The film also contains several great musical numbers. Dean Martin at one point starts dancing with a little girl on the street in a scene stolen from An American in Paris. The girl, though, is an excellent back-up singer and the song itself - I believe it's called "The Lucky Song" - is quite entertaining. 8/10.