"The Bellboy" was Jerry Lewis" baby. He not only wrote, produced, directed and starred in it (twice) but his company made it as well. I didn't like it.
For openers there is no story or plot no recognizable co-stars and no love interest. The whole thing is a series of incidents and/or sight gags that happen to clumsy inept bellboy Stanley (Lewis). Some are funny, most are not. A string of no brainer "comedic" moments gets a little tiring after a while.
For some reason Lewis has Jerry Lewis (Joe Levitch) arrive on the scene. This had several comedic possibilities such as the two Jerrys meeting and being confused with each other and being mistaken with each other. They never meet. There is a funny exchange with Milton Berle where he plays two identical characters, himself and an old looking bellboy. They meet the two Jerrys separately but the four do not interact. After the Berle sequence we do not see the celebrity Jerry again. Stanley gets involved in a poker game with a group of gangsters including B. S. Pully, Maxie Rosenbloom and Joe E. Ross but nothing much happens.
Lewis goes through his madcap routines until finally the end credit comes up. Yawwwwn!
The only supporting players of note are Alex Gerry as Hotel manager Novak and Bob Clayton as the Head Bellboy. Jack Kruschen as studio boss Jack E. Mulcher introduces the picture telling us that we are about to see a different sort of comedy. Boy was he right. Walter Winchell provides the opening narration.
Joe Levitch for those who do not know was Jerry Lewis' real name.
For openers there is no story or plot no recognizable co-stars and no love interest. The whole thing is a series of incidents and/or sight gags that happen to clumsy inept bellboy Stanley (Lewis). Some are funny, most are not. A string of no brainer "comedic" moments gets a little tiring after a while.
For some reason Lewis has Jerry Lewis (Joe Levitch) arrive on the scene. This had several comedic possibilities such as the two Jerrys meeting and being confused with each other and being mistaken with each other. They never meet. There is a funny exchange with Milton Berle where he plays two identical characters, himself and an old looking bellboy. They meet the two Jerrys separately but the four do not interact. After the Berle sequence we do not see the celebrity Jerry again. Stanley gets involved in a poker game with a group of gangsters including B. S. Pully, Maxie Rosenbloom and Joe E. Ross but nothing much happens.
Lewis goes through his madcap routines until finally the end credit comes up. Yawwwwn!
The only supporting players of note are Alex Gerry as Hotel manager Novak and Bob Clayton as the Head Bellboy. Jack Kruschen as studio boss Jack E. Mulcher introduces the picture telling us that we are about to see a different sort of comedy. Boy was he right. Walter Winchell provides the opening narration.
Joe Levitch for those who do not know was Jerry Lewis' real name.