
The 50s top tandem in movies, TV and night clubs (and Dino had some hit records too), Martin and Lewis aren’t ranked up there with the Marx Brothers—for some, not with the Ritz Brothers. To me, though, they had the best mixture of foolery and character of all movie comedy teams: Dean, the happy-go-hunky paisan, and Jer, the goony kid (“Mel-vin!”) with a vast repertoire of gags, working in fabulous synch. Watch them in this service comedy, which has a couple of spiffy song-and-dance routines and lots of artful badinage—like the bit where Jer has been badgered into boxing a much bigger guy. Dean, the kid’s trainer, dispenses pre-fight advice (with many sly slaps to the gut and face) while Jer does such an acute impersonation of a punch-drunk veteran that the tough guy and his team (including James Dean in his first film role) are scared away. Here or on their TV shows, the team was slick, rowdy and funny funny funny.