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Webposted:
Nov 13, 2002
by: Kay Kellam
They say those who saw Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their nightclub performances never forgot it -- and after seeing Martin and Lewis you'll understand why!
Jerry Lewis hired someone to film their routines at the Sands Hotel and let the filmmakers view it, and while those exact "skits" may not be in the film, seeing the chemistry between the two in footage like that helped them to bring life once more to a team that has not performed together since the 1950s.
I saw Jerry Lewis perform last June and during that performance he said that he and Dean Martin never stopped caring about one another, they simply stopped seeing one another every day. This film does a beautiful job of showing how the two cared about one another (even when Dean is mad at Jerry he is by his side, supporting him) and yet in the end needed their space.
Both men started out solo, trying to make it on their own, and when they hit it huge as a duo neither man seemed to know how much he contributed, how much of the success was his, and how much was reflected glory from a partner they loved -- and yet on some basic level needed to outshine from time to time.
Dean Martin wanted to do it on his own, as did Jerry Lewis, but Jerry had another basic hurdle to overcome -- his father was a singer who seemed to have made it on his own. Dean was the singer in the group, and was making it -- and I have to wonder if Jerry didn't see in Dean the son he was afraid his father had always wanted.
It is these complexities of the individuals, and their relationship to one another and the world, that come to life in Martin & Lewis.
Martin is the cool confident cat that Lewis can only dream of being -- and Lewis has the connection with the audience that Martin can only dream of.
As down-to-earth and truly human as this piece is, with all the sides of Jerry Lewis from positive to negative, being portrayed, it is so truthful that Jerry Lewis called the producers to thank them for telling his story, for leaving this legacy for his daughter and others to know that this is how it was.
It is a brilliant chance to glimpse the past, to see good-old-fashioned routines brought back to life with such energy that even Jeremy Northam and Sean Hayes marvel at what they did. As Jeremy Northam said, "with the amount of work they did, I can see what he developed a taste for not rehearsing."
The whirlwind nightclub scenes are so awesome, in part because, as Sean Hayes says, "there was no ceiling to how high I could go." There was no top to the levels of humor, or the amount of energy they could bring to the show.
Jerry's advice for Sean in playing him, "Always keep the 9 year-old in you alive, in every scene, and in everything you do."
Jerry Lewis' 2 cents worth after seeing an advance copy of the movie? The producers quote him as saying "{Jeremy Northam} had every one of my partner's mannerisms down, he came back to life on that screen..." as for Sean's performance of Jerry? Jerry was so shaken up, and appreciative, he praised Sean's performance, and as Sean said, "when making a film like this, who else do you need approval from? Who else needs to say 'Job well done?'"
My 2 cents -- the 9 year old is alive, and well -- and a blast to watch for 2 hours in this wonderful TV Movie that walks a fine line between Biopic and traditional creative/fictional Drama telling an amazing story about two people who obviously loved one another, but just never figured out how to live well together.
(C) Kay
Kellam, 2001 for PopArtsPlace.com
Prior to having her first novel, A
Life to Di For, published author Kay
Kellam enjoyed a variety of jobs that helped to shape her outlook on the
world, and her profession. more...
