DVD Review: Two from Jerry Lewis released to blu ray
Both “Visit to a Small Planet” (1960) and “Funny Bones” (1995) are unusual Jerry Lewis movies, and also very different from each other. However, both are coming out at the same time from Kino Lorber’s classics division.
“Visit to a Small Planet” is a Paramount release based on a Gore Vidal play about a spaceman, fascinated with the Earth, who arrives to study it. There is a certain incongruity between the Jerry Lewis slapstick and the Gore Vidal satire, and Lewis told this writer that whenever he’d try to inject some of his noteworthy business into the proceedings, producer Hal Wallis nixed it as straying too far from the base material. So, Lewis essentially plays the character straight, as an actor, with only his typical cutting up occasionally appearing around the edges. It is perhaps most evident in a scene at a beatnik club where Lewis responds outrageously to a wacked-out musical number.
The reviewer must own up to a big of a conflict of interest regarding this blu ray release, as I provided its commentary track, discussing the film, its background, and its co-stars (Fred Clark, Joan Blackmon, Earl Holliman, and Gale Gordon among them). While offbeat for Lewis, “Visit to a Small Planet” is still a very funny movie that holds up well. Its blu ray release is a welcome one, especially now that Jerry has died and salutes to his work have been posted worldwide.
Oddly, despite achieving iconic status as a bombastic slapstick comedian, there are some misguided souls who are most impressed when Jerry Lewis goes dramatic. Lewis himself never found drama to be nearly as challenging as the slapstick for which he is best known, but in the 1990s, as he approached his 70th year, he couldn’t do the sort of comedy found in such earlier movies as “The Ladies Man” or “The Patsy.”
“Funny Bones” is a dramatic triumph for Lewis, who commands the role of a comedy legend whose conflicts with his son are the axis of the film’s narrative. The Kino blu ray offers commentary by the film’s director, Peter Chisolm, offering interesting insight on the movie and on Jerry Lewis.
The passing of a cinematic icon like Jerry Lewis reverberates throughout the world, and the significance of his work will continue to grow as time goes on. Lewis, as a filmmaker, made fascinating use of color, sound, editing, and his choice of shots; creating a tumultuous non-linear structure that enhanced his blatant slapstic for most of his best films. Extending beyond that base and observing when Jerry Lewis explored other avenues and ideas is important to best understand his importance to cinema and his talent as an actor. Both “Visit to a Small Planet” and “Funny Bones” allow for such an opportunity. I could not recommend these films more passionately.
“Visit to a Small Planet” can be ordered here.
“Funny Bones” can be ordered here.