Der verrückte Professor

I think that people can be divided into two groups: those that love Jerry Lewis movies, and those that hate them. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Having said that, I am a confirmed hater of Jerry Lewis films. I find them sophomoric and excruciatingly bad, and each one has the same basic plot: Jerry Lewis' character is introduced, then he proceeds to stumble through the rest of the movie.

I'll make an exception for this film; it is the one winner out of all of Lewis' losers. The plot has been described in detail here, but it's basically the Jekyll-Hyde plot placed in a college circa 1963, where nerdy chemistry professor Jerry yearns for the love of one of his students (Stella Stevens). Lewis' transformation from Dr. Kelp to ultracool lounge lizard Buddy Love manages to be both campy and fascinating.

Great cinematography and good acting, plus a warm message and the luscious Stella Stevens make for a fine movie experience. As far as I am concerned, you can throw away all of Lewis' other movies and keep this one...it's a winner.

In The Nutty Professor Jerry Lewis created one of his most endearing characters and the only one that another comic also adopted. Eddie Murphy who changed the last name from Kelp to Klump did not do an imitation of Lewis. He created his own milquetoast professor who starts experimenting with life altering potions. In fact Murphy created a whole family of characters for his two films.

Jerry did not have the computer graphics available to Murphy, but his Julius Kelp who morphs into Buddy Love does quite all right with just Paramount's makeup wizardry and his own talent. When you think about it Jerry has joined some pretty distinguished company with John Barrymore, Fredric March, Spencer Tracy, and Boris Karloff all who played Dr. Jekyll on the big screen.

Those guys weren't playing it for laughs though, Lewis did see the possibilities of humor in this deadly serious story. He also mined a lot of pathos from both Julius Kelp and Buddy Love.

It's a simple story, Jerry is the world's ultimate nerd in Professor Julius Kelp who gets bullied by all. After a bad session with the college football players he decides that Dupont had the right idea, better living through chemistry. He does his Jekyll thing and from the ultimate nerd, Lewis becomes a candidate for lounge lizard of the century, a man auditioning for admittance to Sinatra's rat pack.

One thing I have to say, that college seem to be caught in time warp. In 1963 kids were no longer listening to Les Brown and his Band of Renown. Yet that is their musical entertainment for the spring prom. Personally I think it would have registered better if say The Beach Boys would have been the entertainment, far more contemporary for 1963. But that would not have allowed Jerry a little chance to spoof the Rat Pack and his old partner Dean Martin.

Jerry's Professor Kelp is someone you really care about and that's the secret of The Nutty Professor's enduring popularity.

Jerry Lewis's comic mash-up of Jekyll and Hyde, a weakling turning into an alpha male ala those old Charles Atlas ads, and the obnoxious, egotistical behavior of the ultra-cool. The latter is commonly thought to be shading his old partner Dean Martin, but I saw it more as Frank Sinatra, or a pastiche of the worst behavior of the Rat Pack, than Martin in particular. Regardless, it's an unpleasant character to watch, and while that's the whole point, it took away from my enjoyment a bit, even with the nice sentiment at the end.

With that said, Lewis is a funny guy, and it made me smile to see the nerdy professor bumbling around, sinking into the sofa at the dean's office, fumbling the pocket watch that blares out the Marines' Hymn into a fish tank, and having his arms stretched out while lifting weights. Meanwhile Stella Stevens brightens up every scene she's in, and oozes sex appeal in the outfits the professor imagines her in during a happy little montage. She wears an elegant evening gown, a very short tennis skirt, a red dress with a high slit up the leg, and a bathing suit, all while giving him various come-hither looks that steam him up. The romances that have her somehow first attracted to Buddy Love and then later the professor don't make a lot of sense, but she brings a welcome bit of light into the film. Overall, worth seeing.

The original Jerry Lewis version of this movie is still the best one ever. Irregardless of the special effects employed in the Eddie Murphy version, or the novelty of him playing multiple characters at the same time, the original has something the copycat doesn't - Jerry Lewis, still one of the best comedians on the planet. Lewis doesn't need the power of special effects or multiple roles to fully convey the story here. How he transforms from a nerdy professor to a suave and sweet-talking singing/dancing/kissing Romeo is a sight to behold. He employs acting techiques which manage to convince us that these are 2 distinct people with distinct personalities and characters. No one can top Lewis in his prime, and this is one of better movies.

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963) **** Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Del Moore, Kathleen Freeman, Howard Morris. Jerry Lewis' comic masterpiece (which he also directed) adapts the Jekyll-Hyde story to tailor form-fitting to his loose frenetic talents and comes up with two memorable characters: feeble social outcast chemistry professor Dr. Julius Kelp all chipmunk-toothed geekiness and bad hair becomes lounge lizard, charming bully Buddy Love (some say he was inspired by Dean Martin, which Lewis steadfastedly denied). Funny, touching and out-there! Groovy, man, groovy!