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...

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick | farce | department store | goofball | gag humor | 

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Taglines:

Here is a Motion Picture That May Change Your Whole Way of Shopping!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 December 1963 (Japan)

Also Known As:

¿Quién controla la tienda?

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jerry Lewis 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

This was the seventh of eight Jerry Lewis films directed by former cartoon director Frank Tashlin.

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Goofs

When Jerry Lewis is painting the ball on the end of the flagpole it is gold. It was stated earlier in the film that there was only one flagpole. Later on in the movie when Quimby (Ray Walston) falls out of a window and hangs from the flagpole the ball is silver.

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Quotes

Norman Phiffier: Something you women would like? Ah, that is, um, could I show you something in shoes?
Lady wrestler: My feet, I hope.
Norman Phiffier: [Fake laughs] Oh, ho-ho-ho-ho-ho, that is good. Yes, the size and style?
Lady wrestler: Black Spring-O-Lators, size three.
Norman Phiffier: The...
[pause]
Norman Phiffier: size... three?
Lady wrestler: Three!
Norman Phiffier: SIZE three?
Lady wrestler: Something the matter with your hearing aid?
[...]

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Connections

References Death of a Salesman (1951)

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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.