Who's Minding the Store? (1963)

Norman Phiffier works as a store clerk in a large department store. Clumsy and inept, he can't do anything right. Boy are they in trouble!

Director:

Frank Tashlin

Writers:

Frank Tashlin (screenplay), Harry Tugend (screenplay),

Stars:

Jerry Lewis, Jill St. John, Ray Walston

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Lewis	...	Norman Phiffier
Jill St. John	...	Barbara Tuttle
Ray Walston	...	Mr. Quimby
John McGiver	...	Mr. John P. Tuttle
Agnes Moorehead	...	Mrs. Phoebe Tuttle
Francesca Bellini	...	Shirley Lott
Peggy Mondo	...	Lady wrestler
Nancy Kulp	...	Emily Rothgraber
John Abbott	...	Mr. Orlandos
Isobel Elsom	...	Hazel, a Dowager
Kathleen Freeman	...	Mrs. Glucksman
Fritz Feld	...	Irving Cahastrophe, the Gourmet Manager
Milton Frome	...	Francois, the Driver
Mary Treen	...	Mattress Customer
Dick Wessel	...	Traffic Cop (as Richard Wessel)

Storyline

Barbara is a very rich girl who falls in love with Norman Phiffier, a poor young man. She doesn't tell him who she really is and prepares to marry him. But, Mrs. Tuttle (Barbara's mother) doesn't want her daughter to mary such a poor man. So, she hires Norman at one of her big stores, and gives him the most difficult and disgusting works. She hopes that seeing Norman humiliated, Barbara will finally leave him. But things don't work exactly this way...

---

Plot Keywords:

department store | dog | clumsiness | obesity | mother daughter relationship | 

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 December 1963 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Der Ladenhüter

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jerry Lewis Pictures, Paramount Pictures, York Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Norman Phiffier's previous jobs include that of caddy, TV repairman, and Paramount Theater usher. Jerry Lewis played a caddy in The Caddy and a TV repairman in both Rock-a-Bye Baby and It's Only Money. He also made a number of movies for Paramount, including Who's Minding the Store?

---

Goofs

When a large shelf of supposedly full shoe boxes crashes through a store window, it empties its contents onto the street below. But as they hit the pavement, it's obvious that most of the boxes are actually empty.

---

Quotes

Norman Phiffier: What are you, crazy, lady?

---

Connections

Featured in De wereld draait door: Episode #4.70 (2008)

---

Soundtracks

"The Typewriter"
By Leroy Anderson

User Reviews

Clumsy errand boy tries to make good only to make matters worse!

I saw this movie at a Sunday matinee in 1963. The movie was so funny that the mere memory of that movie was enough to get me laughing. And I got sent to the principal's office as a result. So you can say that Jerry Lewis got me in trouble in school!

Jerry Lewis is an incompetant errand boy who is engaged to the store owner's daughter. But to get him out of the daughter's life, the store owner turns the screws on the engagement by assigning him the worst jobs. The store owner then moves him from one department to another, leaving massive chaos and destruction everywhere he goes.

The results are hilarious enough. But the aftermath of his time in the appliance department, alone, is worth watching the movie alone. It left me laughing so hard that I had stomach cramps!

I saw the movie again many years later and it was second childhood all over again.