Der Agentenschreck

Well it looks like I will be the first reviewer to give Artists and Models a lukewarm opinion. Saw this on the big screen today at a downtown theater. With Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine,Dorothy Malone and Eva Gabor and the most fun I wind up having is with Eddie Mayehoff! Loved his portrayal of publisher Murdock. I don't know...to me, this movie just got more boring as it dragged on. While I do love all the vintage set designs, vintage wardrobe and remembrances of how things used to be-one pay phone in the hall for an apartment building, Dean scrubbing up in a bathtub before a shower became common and the historical fact that comic books were once decried as evil by the bastions of society, I still had to fight off massive amounts of sleepiness as this grinded to its conclusion. I don't know...maybe it was just the mood I was in. It WAS very colorful and Martin can't keep from smiling even when he's supposed to be mad which is amusing but, Gabor was a disappointment and Malone was kind of blah and Jerry, I was just kind of bored with his schtick today. But yes the highlight for me was Mr. Murdock played by Eddie Mayehoff.

This is probably the best of the films featuring Martin and Lewis. This film is also a fine parody due to the fact that this film was shot during the period when there it was being debated over how the comic books that were out during that time were affecting children (those arguments would lead to the "comics code"). The other highlight of this film was looking at Shirley MacLaine was chasing after Jerry (the girl must have needed glasses). These scenes provide much of the humor as Jerry's character Eugene is scared to death of the aggressive Betsy. Its also interesting to note that MacLaine's character Betsy is interested in astrology and MacLaine would later become known for her new age interests, including astrology.

A feast for the eyes. It's candy box Technicolor the whole way with lots of skimpy costumes and color loaded sets. Of course, director Tashlin specialized in cartoonish fare like A and M. Team him with the cartoonish comedian of the day, Lewis, and you've got the perfect visual counterpart. Then add impish Shirley MacLaine, the perfect loopy foil to Lewis, and you've got perhaps the best Martin and Lewis feature. Forget the plot, which is incidental anyway. Then too, Lewis's antics are much at times. Instead, catch that centerpiece with MacLaine and Lewis on the stairway. It's brilliantly done, a combination of mugging and acrobatics, showcasing their athletic skills. I don't know how they rehearsed since the timing and coordination are so precise. Besides, one misstep on the staircase and somebody's sporting a plaster cast. Probably shouldn't forget Martin's tuneful rendition of Innamorata (means "female sweetheart" in Italian). As I recall, it was a popular radio hit, as well. All in all, the crazy comedy manages bouncy entertainment the whole way. It also provides a chance to catch the scene-stealing MacLaine on her way up the show biz ladder.

(In passing— the grisly content of comic books was an object of national debate in 1954, which likely accounts for the movie's comic book theme. That debate ended with a self- imposed code of content governing the industry for years.)

One of the best of the Martin&Lewis films is Artists And Models where Dean and Jerry play a pair of roommates. Dino is a struggling artist and Jerry just struggles.

Jerry also dreams out loud and his wild imaginings in the arms of Morbeus give Dean an idea for comic strip characters which he draws. It makes them both quite successful. When they accidentally print the part of a secret rocket formula that is destined to launch a proposed space station into orbit, he arouses both the interest of our Secret Service and the Russians. They send a beautiful spy in the person of Eva Gabor and her scenes trying to vamp Jerry are a scream.

Two things struck me about Artists And Models. One was that Dino seemed less abusive of Jerry in the relationship. It was something different coming out of the pair. Secondly Paramount hired songwriters Harry Warren and Jack Brooks to write a really outstanding score for Dean to sing, one of the best in a Martin&Lewis film. In fact I'm surprised that such songs like Innamorata, When You Pretend, You Look So Familiar, and The Lucky Song, that not one of them merited an Oscar nomination. All are very big favorites with Dean Martin's legion of fans. The team of Warren and Brooks was responsible for Dino's biggest hit from a motion picture, That's Amore.

Jerry occasionally gets a girl as well in some of their films and in this one he got Shirley MacLaine who was doing just her second film, having made her debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry also done at Paramount. She also gets to vamp Jerry with a hysterical obbligato of Innamorata. She proves his equal in the mugging department, no mean feat.

In fact the film is populated with beautiful women besides MacLaine and Gabor, Anita Ekberg is also a model and Dorothy Malone is an artist who rooms with MacLaine and has a relationship roughly parallel. Malone looks a whole lot like Jeanne Martin in my humble opinion and in the Nick Tosches biography of Dean Martin, she speaks warmly about working with him in a couple of films, saying he was one of the easiest going people to work with and in fact on another film, helped her over a rough patch because Malone had just lost a brother.

Artists And Models shows Dean and Jerry at their best and musically it might just be the best of the scores Dean Martin ever got in any of his films.

Dean Martin plays an artist named Rick Todd and Jerry Lewis is his buddy Eugene Fullstack.Eugene happens to be obsessed with comic books and has very bad dreams because of those.Rick gets an idea to make a comic book from Eugene's dreams.In the same building there lives Abigail Parker (Dorothy Malone), who's the author of Eugene's favorite comic book The Bat Lady and the model Bessie Sparrowbrush (Shirley MacLaine).Rick likes Abby and Bessie likes Eugene.Eddie Mayehoff is a little weird publisher Mr Murdock.Frank Tashlin's Artists and Models (1955) is an awfully funny picture from Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.These two were magnificent together.Also other actors support the main clowns very well.Maclaine and Malone are very pretty and great actresses.Eddie Mayehoff is just hilarious as the publisher.There are also people like Eva Gabor (Zsa Zsa's sister), Anita Ekberg, Jack Elam and Kathleen Freeman.The movie is filled with great actors and funny scenes.There's one where Jerry has to keep running downstairs all the time for the telephone and Jerry on TV with many others.There are also some wonderful musical numbers, like where Shirley sings Innamorata very loud making Jerry freaked and Dean singing with the little girl.There are many scenes to remember.This movie is fifty years old (where did the time go), but it hasn't aged a bit as Jerry Lewis movies never will.Jerry never will.