Rock-a-Bye Baby

A touching yet hilarious tale of many mistakes and mistaken impressions and a great last minute rush to straighten things out. Best line in the show may be "White Virgin of the Nile?"

A famous movie star has triplets, but doesn't want the public to find out.So she leaves the babies to Clayton Poole (Lewis) to babysit.Bad mistake?I think not.I think he does a pretty good job if you ask me.Rock-a-Bye Baby is a great Jerry Lewis movie from 1958.It has that Jerry's well known slapstick comedy and it's also a warm and touching movie at the same time. It is beautiful to watch Jerry and Salvatore Baccaloni singing Dormi-Dormi-Dormi.This is a movie that makes you laugh and a movie that may make you cry.I didn't cry.I rather laugh when I'm watching a movie.Especially a Jerry Lewis movie.I'm funny that way. But anyway, watch Rock-a-Bye Baby if you want to see a funny and tender Jerry Lewis comedy.

I have to admit I've never been a rabid Jerry Lewis fan (even with a French last name, I can't join some of my relatives on the Continent in idolizing him), but, in looking back, I've seen more of his movies than I might have preferred. This one, though, was a lot of fun, possibly because it was a delightfully vulgar remake of a Preston Sturges classic.

The VistaVision/Technicolor production values are first-class; the supporting cast is able to withstand Jerry's frantic goofiness (especially Marilyn Maxwell, who gets to perform the wacked-out production number, "White Virgin of the Nile," and Ida Moore as Jerry's elderly landlady, avidly and simultaneously consuming every product being advertised on the TV she is constantly watching); and Frank Tashlin's direction pilots Jerry through the plot's crazy machinations with just the right touch of cartoon-like unreality.

If you're a Lewis fan, it's a must-see; if you aren't you may still find it an enjoyable way to spend a mindless 103 minutes.

Saw this film in its original release and later on some television re-runs. I like the film because it allows Jerry to face the situations that make for a movie that is a lot of fun. He is called upon to watch twin babies of a girl he thinks he is in love with who is a movie star, so while she goes all over the world filming he gets a crash course in baby rearing. Connie Stevens at her best is also along as a girl who really likes him. Some of the moves she put on him are quite risque for the 50's. Jerry does it all in this film. I like this period of his career after he broke up with Dean Martin. He made some great films until he transferred to Columbia. He seemed to get too much control of what he did and most of these films are quite unfunny. The wonderful Paramount's including this film, Who's Minding the Store, and his best in my opinion The Nutty Professor show him in his heyday. It's hard to imagine a theater full of families laughing so hard but I assure you they did, I was there.

I've read the preceding comments and they pretty much tell the story of why this is a classic Jerry Lewis film. However, I think one of the reasons I love this one so much is that it also captures a feel for what life was like growing up in the fifties (as I did). In many ways it typifies the fifties mindset, but also exemplifies the entertainment of the period. Things were so much more family-oriented. Sex wasn't non-existence in films, but it was more often handled tastefully. Language was wholesome and the humor didn't depend on "shock" (such as the name of Navin Johnson's dog in The Jerk).

I find the segment in Hill Valley of the fifties in Back to the Future especially enjoyable as Robert Zemeckis does a great job of re-creating the era. Watching Rock a Bye Baby, which is authentically of the era confirms that. (In fact, the court house and town square in both of these films appear to have a striking similarity to one another.)

Although the story owes a lot to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as inspiration (and even gives Preston Sturges credit), it really has its own unique flavor as well. Like a son who bears a resemblance to his father but also has his own personality. In many ways I think that Frank Tashlin has improved upon it. The subplot with the sister and its resolution are wonderful additions.

Over all I think it is a great film and can't wait till it's available on DVD (Is anybody listening?).