The Jerk (1979)

A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy.

Director:

Carl Reiner

Writers:

Steve Martin (screenplay), Carl Gottlieb (screenplay)

Stars:

Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steve Martin	...	Navin / Cat Juggler (as Pig Eye Jackson also)
Bernadette Peters	...	Marie
Catlin Adams	...	Patty Bernstein
Mabel King	...	Mother
Richard Ward	...	Father
Dick Anthony Williams	...	Taj
Bill Macy	...	Stan Fox
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Madman
Dick O'Neill	...	Frosty
Maurice Evans	...	Hobart
Helena Carroll	...	Hester
Renn Woods	...	Elvira (as Ren Wood)
Pepe Serna	...	Punk #1
Sonny Terry	...	Blues Singer
Brownie McGhee	...	Blues Singer (as Brownie McGee)

Storyline

Navin is an idiot. He grew up in Mississippi as the adopted son of a black family, but on his 18th birthday he feels he wants to discover the rest of the world and sets out for St. Louis. There everyone exploits his naivete, until a simple invention brings him a fortune.

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Plot Keywords:

fish out of water | eyeglasses | mississippi | told in flashback | cat juggling | 

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Taglines:

He was a poor black sharecropper's son who never dreamed he was adopted.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to his book "Born Standing Up," Steve Martin's favorite line in the movie is ad libbed. When his character is hitchhiking, a man in a truck stops and asks "St. Louis?" - to which Martin replies, "No, Navin Johnson."

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Goofs

When Navin is being pursued by the sniper at the gas station, the sniper fills up the car's rear end with bullet holes. Later, after Navin escapes in the car without rear tires, there are no bullet holes visible on the car's rear end.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Navin R. Johnson: Huh? I am *not* a bum. I'm a jerk. I once had wealth, power, and the love of a beautiful woman. Now I only have two things: my friends, and... uh... my thermos. Huh? My story? Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi...

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Crazy Credits

Pig Eye Jackson - Cat Juggler (Steve Martin)

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Alternate Versions

Original TV network airings of The Jerk had a word of dialogue changed. When Navin is working at the carnival, he tells his boss Frosty that he only took in $15. Frosty says, "Navin, you have taken in $15, and given away 50 cents worth of crud." Navin excited over the "Profit Deal" changes his sales pitch to "Step right up, folks, step right up! Take a chance and win some crud." On subsequent commercial TV airings, the word "crud" has been replaced with the word "crap." as seen in all unedited airings of the movie.

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Connections

Referenced in Caddyshack II (1988)

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Soundtracks

Pick A Bale Of Cotton
Sung by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (as Brownie McGee)
Words and Music by Leadbelly (as Huddie Ledbetter)
Collected and Adapted by John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax

User Reviews

Martin In His Wild & Crazy Days

A very popular movie in its day, watching it a couple of years ago wasn't the same. Oh, it was still funny but just not the "hilarious" movie I always remembered it as. Maybe its reputation and memory exceeded its value, or maybe it's funnier when you are younger.

Whatever, there is still a lot of good laughs in year, subtle and slapstick variety. Now I laugh more at the subtle things. Almost all the characters in here, beginning with Steve Martin's "Navin R. Johnson," are wacky. Bernadette Peters, by the way, never looked prettier. This was in the earlier days of the ratings system and that PG rating would be at least PG-13 today. It still fun to see it after a long absence. Martin was on a roll back in those days, "a wild and crazy guy," and it's good that he's still entertaining us -- years later, although in a more subtle way. Hey, he's getting older, too.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 December 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Jerk

Filming Locations:

N Rosemead Blvd & N Halstead St, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,935,025, 16 December 1979

Gross USA:

$73,691,419

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$73,691,419

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Aspen Film Society

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 34 min (Super 8-version in 2 parts)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1