The Big Mouth

I saw this film on first release and I remember being sickened by it...the early scene of jerry pulling his gangster double out of the beach (he's caught him in the back with fishing hooks), lots of blood...and this is supposed to be a family film?? ..later buddy lester is so shocked by seeing what he thinks is the dead gangster rejuvenated, that he ends up spitting out his own teeth, and spends the rest of the film going around with bloody gums, mumbling...kee-rist, what the hell was jerry lewis thinking??? ..the scenes with jerry as an Asian actor, spouting a lot of gibberish is just embarrassing. ..and is anyone else annoyed by the DVD releases of all these early lewis films?.. the narration is basically steve lawrence guffawing and praising jerry for every single frame, and asking him repeatedly for an explanation of the videotape camera system (which jerry gladly talks about over and over) ..anyway, I do like The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man, but this one is a disaster

This time, Jerry Lewis plays reporter Gerald Clamson, who just happens to be a dead ringer for Sid Valentine, wanted by a crime syndicate. The only thing is, Valentine is supposed to be dead, so when the thugs see Clamson, you can imagine what sorts of things they do! Mistaken identity seems to be a frequent source of comedy (or drama; see "North by Northwest"). So even though "The Big Mouth" is nothing special, it's good for a few laughs. Most of the laughs come from what happens with the thugs when they see Clamson. But one also gets the feeling that Lewis was sort of losing his ability to come up with anything new after this. And now that we know what sort of a person he is in real life, that weakens it. But overall, this one's pretty funny.

Why this Jerry Lewis comedy isn't better known or more widely available is a mystery since it's a classic and as consistently funny as anything he did. Here the slapstick verges on the surreal while its 'thriller' plot is virtually irrelevant. As well as starring, Jerry wrote, produced and directed and if it never amounts to anything more than a series of sketches they are, at least, very funny. It's certainly a movie ripe for rediscovery that, for now at least, will have to settle for ultimate cult status.

Smugglers have a falling out, and one of them high-tails it with the loot. When the gang finds out that Jerry unknowingly received the stones, they pull out all stops to get at him. That should have been easy, but the fools are more inept than Jerry. Of course, along the way Jerry falls in love. An amusing film.

A tepid, extremely mild, fairly tedious, slightly overlong comedy. The first half has some reasonably funny bits (like the one that takes place in a phone-booth), but in the second half things get pretty desperate. Jerry Lewis himself is appealing when he is playing the "straight man", but irritating when he appears disguised. And the direction has no comic timing whatsoever.