In the mid-'60's, Walter Shenson scored at the box office with the Richard Lester directed Beatles films 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help!' and was keen to do other films in a similar madcap vein. One was the underrated '30 Is A Dangerous Age Cynthia' starring Dudley Moore. Another was this - 'Don't Raise The Bridge, Lower The River'.
Jerry Lewis plays 'George Lester', a smooth American con man based in London. He is married to lovely 'Pamela' ( Jacqueline Pearce, the future 'Servalan' of the B.B.C.'s 'Blake's Seven' ), but she grows tired of his constantly travelling around the world trying to make a fast buck, and wants a divorce. The final straw comes when he turns her family home into a discotheque and ( it is implied ) knocking shop.
To raise the money needed to restore the house, he embarks on his biggest caper yet - making illicit copies of the blueprints for a new kind of electronic drill, which he hopes to sell to the Arabs. He smuggles half of the plans out of the country in the dental work of an airline steward called Fred Davies ( Bernard Cribbins ). To help him out, he enlists the aid of fellow crook - H.William Horner ( Terry-Thomas )...
Unlike the majority of Jerry's Sixties films, this was not written by him ( it was by Max Wilk, adapting his own novel ) and directed instead by Jerry Paris, whose other credits include the 'Happy Days' television series and a couple of the 'Police Academy' sequels.
The fact that Jerry was at large in Swinging London was the film's main selling point. Unfortunately, the ludicrous story leaves little room for the kind of satire the film badly needs. Perhaps it would have been funnier if Lester had been manager of a rock band or something. Lewis himself seems more restrained than usual. Some might think that a good thing, but the 'Jerry' of 'The Disorderly Orderly' and 'The Family Jewels' would, had he been injected into the proceedings, have gone some way to making the film fun.
As it stands, it is mainly down to the supporting cast ( Bernard Cribbins, Michael Bates, John Bluthal, Nicholas Parsons, Patricia Routledge - very good as the head of a girl guide troupe - and, of course, Terry-Thomas ), to try and salvage something out of the almost joke-free script. Cribbins having an attack of toothache while serving drinks on a plane is very funny indeed. Sally Gesson of 'Bless This House' can be glimpsed as one of the girl guides.
Pearce is rather wasted as Lester's wife. Apparently she did not get on with Lewis during the film's making, and it shows.
Jerry Paris' direction breezes the inane story along to a not very amusing conclusion.
Two other reasons to see the film - Margaret Nolan and Sandra Caron ( sister of Alma Cogan ), both of whom play dental nurses. They can extract my molars any time!
Jerry Lewis plays 'George Lester', a smooth American con man based in London. He is married to lovely 'Pamela' ( Jacqueline Pearce, the future 'Servalan' of the B.B.C.'s 'Blake's Seven' ), but she grows tired of his constantly travelling around the world trying to make a fast buck, and wants a divorce. The final straw comes when he turns her family home into a discotheque and ( it is implied ) knocking shop.
To raise the money needed to restore the house, he embarks on his biggest caper yet - making illicit copies of the blueprints for a new kind of electronic drill, which he hopes to sell to the Arabs. He smuggles half of the plans out of the country in the dental work of an airline steward called Fred Davies ( Bernard Cribbins ). To help him out, he enlists the aid of fellow crook - H.William Horner ( Terry-Thomas )...
Unlike the majority of Jerry's Sixties films, this was not written by him ( it was by Max Wilk, adapting his own novel ) and directed instead by Jerry Paris, whose other credits include the 'Happy Days' television series and a couple of the 'Police Academy' sequels.
The fact that Jerry was at large in Swinging London was the film's main selling point. Unfortunately, the ludicrous story leaves little room for the kind of satire the film badly needs. Perhaps it would have been funnier if Lester had been manager of a rock band or something. Lewis himself seems more restrained than usual. Some might think that a good thing, but the 'Jerry' of 'The Disorderly Orderly' and 'The Family Jewels' would, had he been injected into the proceedings, have gone some way to making the film fun.
As it stands, it is mainly down to the supporting cast ( Bernard Cribbins, Michael Bates, John Bluthal, Nicholas Parsons, Patricia Routledge - very good as the head of a girl guide troupe - and, of course, Terry-Thomas ), to try and salvage something out of the almost joke-free script. Cribbins having an attack of toothache while serving drinks on a plane is very funny indeed. Sally Gesson of 'Bless This House' can be glimpsed as one of the girl guides.
Pearce is rather wasted as Lester's wife. Apparently she did not get on with Lewis during the film's making, and it shows.
Jerry Paris' direction breezes the inane story along to a not very amusing conclusion.
Two other reasons to see the film - Margaret Nolan and Sandra Caron ( sister of Alma Cogan ), both of whom play dental nurses. They can extract my molars any time!