Living It Up

I saw this film in Albany, NY while taking a 40' yacht up the Hudson River from New York City. I thought it was very funny. coincidently, I was with the songwriter, Bob Hilliard and his wife Jackie, the night before I left New York. Also, Albany is mentioned in the movie and the Albany audience went wild. I had to take a boat and a bus to Albany to experience this. In the first comment about this film, the writer refers to Bob Hilliard as a "Brill Building Writer." Most writers and musicians worked out of that building in the forties and fifties. Bob wrote a number of hits, including; "Our Day Will Come" "Moonlight Gambler" "Be My Life's Companion" "Money Burns A hole In My Pocket" "In the Wee small Hours of the Morning", and many more. I don't think he should be dismissed as just a "Brill Building Song Writer." You can read more about Bob and see a list of all of his songs by running a search for "Bob Hilliard" in one of the major search engines. There is a website with stories and a list of all of his songs.

LIVING IT UP is a reworking of the Carole Lombard classic NOTHING SACRED now tailored to the talents of the 50's greatest movie team, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Lewis takes on the Lombard role as Homer Flagg, a small town schnook, who after exposure to radiation, believes he is dying and when word spreads all the way to Manhattan of his misfortune, a reporter for a big New York paper decides to treat Homer to a vacation in the Big Apple, sort of a final fling before Homer meets his maker. Martin plays Steve, Homer's doctor, who discovers before the arrival of the reporter, that Homer isn't really dying, but agrees to play along so that Homer can go to New York and is even more willing to play along when he meets the reporter, played by the lovely Janet Leigh. Growing up in the 60's, I had seen Jerry Lewis movies and I had seen Dean Martin movies, but I was almost an adult by the time I learned that they had made movies as a team. This laugh-a-minute comedy was my first exposure to them as a team and it is my favorite outing of theirs and is a part of my permanent video collection. Martin and Lewis are a well-oiled machine and Janet Leigh makes a lovely leading lady There's also a great comic turn by comic veteran Fred Clark as Leigh's boss, whose character name is Oliver Stone! Sheree North also makes a memorable cameo at a jitterbug contest. But this is a Martin and Lewis show all the way, highlights including Dino's crooning of a love song to a photo of Audrey Hepburn and the duo's now classic "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York." This is Martin and Lewis in their prime and a comedy classic that's still funny fifty years later.

Jerry Lewis plays a railroad worker Homer Flagg, who think he's dying on radioactive poisoning in three weeks.Dean Martin is his doctor Steve Harris, who tells him that's not the case.A beautiful New York reporter Wally Cook (Janet Leigh) comes to New Mexico wanting to write a series of articles about this "dying" young man.She takes both Homer and the doc to New York.Homer hasn't bothered the lady with the truth, that he's not actually going to die, because he's always wanted to go to NY.And of course the love sick doctor falls for the pretty reporter and so does Homer.The whole city of New York feels pity for the poor Homer. Norman Taurog's Living It Up (1954) is an extremely funny Jerry Lewis movie from the time he still made a team with Dean Martin.It's not only Jerry who makes you laugh hard, also Dean does that trick.Janet Leigh makes a perfect leading lady in the middle of the clown and the playboy.You can find awfully many funny scenes from the movie, like where Jerry pretends he's a doctor from Paris, Wienna and Hong Kong.He also pretends he's Dean's character while Dean is Jerry.Also the scene on the dance floor with Sheree North is pretty amazing.I saw this movie for the first time in seven years yesterday.It sure brought me back.

Homer Flagg is an inept stationmaster in New Mexico, he mistakenly believes he has contracted radium poisoning. A reporter for the New York Chronicle, Wally Cooper, heads out west to write his story, but before she arrives, Homer finds out that he in fact isn't dying, but along with his devious doctor they decide to accept Cooper's offer of an all expenses paid trip to the Big Apple. Here in New York everyone takes Homer to their hearts, so the guys have to keep up the pretence that Homer is not long for this world, something that will be hard to do in light of Homer's complete ineptitude.

As Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis vehicles go, this is one of the better offerings, it's basically a reworking of the 1937 William Wellman picture, Nothing Sacred. Lots of fun to be had as Martin & Lewis continue the formula that made them so appealing to the movie watching masses back in the 50s. A bonus here is the bright as a button performance from Janet Leigh, not only turning Dean Martin's { Dr Steve} head, but also the audience with an enjoyable slot into this comedy tale. As usual Jerry acts the goof whilst Dean sings and swaggers, and as usual a Martin & Lewis film is only as good as it's comedy set pieces, here they come up trumps with one sequence during a jitterbug contest particularly entertaining. It all comes together during a typically hilarious finale to leave us with a rewarding film from a very rewarding double act. 7/10

The strange appeal of the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis can perhaps best be understood in this movie, arguably the least off-putting (to scores of people who cannot abide Lewis) of the 17 films the guys made together. Almost all their films contained music, and Martin was a successful singer in his own right. Here he gets to sing "How Do You Speak to an Angel," and "Ev'ry Street's a Boulevard in Old New York" (with Lewis), songs that were already known from the Broadway show on which it is based, "Hazel Flagg." If you want to sample Martin and Lewis, this is arguably the team at its best.