Un pitre au pensionnat

I'll never get tired of watching this movie!

Jerry Lewis is everything in this movie, from a goofy barber assistant to a spoiled little brat to a suave and sophisticated young man.

All the funny bits will never be old to me, they still put me in stitches even after I've watched the film umpteen times.

My favorite part is the choir scene...

If you haven't seen it, don't be a ninny and get the movie for yourself! You won't regret it!

I'm glad I still have my good old copy of this wonderful classic.

The Paramount library was a good place for source material for the Martin& Lewis team while they were making big bucks for the studio. You're Never Too Young was a gender reversal remake of the Billy Wilder classic, The Major And The Minor. Not that anyone would confuse Ginger Rogers and Jerry Lewis.

Just as Ginger Rogers was pretending to be a juvenile in the Wilder film, Jerry is pretending to be a little boy because there's a killer after him. The killer is Raymond Burr and he's killed a man to obtain a very valuable diamond. In trying to escape the hotel where the crime happened Burr palms off the diamond and eventually it winds up with Lewis.

On the train to Blitzen, Washington (is there such a place) Jerry meets up with Dean Martin and Diana Lynn going back to a girl's school. Also on that train is Burr forcing Jerry to adopt that disguise. Jerry takes shelter with them and boards at the girl's school. Lucky dog.

Arthur Schwartz and Sammy Cahn teamed to write the score for You're Never Too Young of which the number Simpatico done in a nice Latin tempo by Dean is the best. There's Nina Foch in the cast playing a designing woman whose designs are on Dean and her mother runs the school. And we can never forget Veda Ann Borg who always adds something to any movie she's in. Watch her try to vamp the diamond out of Jerry.

Even missing some of the Billy Wilder bite, You're Never Too Young is a funny enough film that will please more than Martin&Lewis fans.

A few years back, I watched a Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis movie, "Artists and Models." I hadn't watched any of the 16 movies they made together in ages, and I thought that was one of their best and funniest. Since then, I've watched more of their movies, including "You're Never Too Young."

I think this may be one of their best pairings on film. And it struck me that most of the movies with plots in which they were not partners or friends in the story, but strangers, turned out to be much better and certainly much funnier films. In their movies, as with other comedy teams (e.g., Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy), when the duo starts off as acquaintances in the entertainment field, the plots are ho-hum and one has the sense that we're just audiences at a stage play, waiting for the next entertaining skit. Those plots don't seem to allow for the spontaneity of the actors that these films have when the stars are strangers.

In this one, Jerry is Wilbur Hoolick, a cleaning guy in a barber shop. Dean is Bob Miles, an athletic trainer and coach at an all-girl's college. How they wind up together at that school, with Jerry then playing an overgrown kid, is as far out as any plot can get. And, that's just part of the comedy. To me, comedy doesn't have to have a plot that makes a lot of sense.

This is a wonderful, funny, movie. Some of the individual scrapes and antics that Wilbur gets into are outlandishly hilarious. Paramount must have had a special barber chair made for one scene. There are some marvelous talent scenes in here as well. One is when the college marching team gives a welcoming performance and Wilbur joins them. Before long he is doing the crazy gyrations, jumps and twists of strange dance moves that the entire group of young women imitate to a T. It's one fine job of choreography and must have taken several practice sessions for them all to copy Jerry's lead in synch.

Another very hilarious scene is Wilbur mimicking a woman on a long-distance telephone call. This change in his voice is very funny. Later he conducts a chorus with many similar laughs.

An interesting look in this film is Raymond Burr as Noonan. This is in the days before he became "the" Perry Mason on the long running Perry Mason TV series. Burr is one of the Hollywood tough and bad guys from his early films, who wound up on the right side of the law. Here he keeps a straight face but cracks a couple of very funny lines.

While the general idea for this film borrows from Paramount's 1942 smash hit, "The Major and the Minor," the story is very different. This plot has many original angles and different scenes. A remake is mostly a new cast with the same or an updated setting.

This is one fine comedy that everyone should enjoy. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Nancy Collins, "What's the matter with you - you're trembling?" Wilbur Hoolick, "I have very loose bones."

Mrs. Brendan, "Wilber's a very remarkable boy. In this day and age, it's so difficult to rear a child properly." Noonan, posing as Wilbur's father, "Yes. I wouldn't give you 10 to 1 on a boy like Wilbur living to grow up." Mrs. Brendan, "Oh, well that's a little on the pessimistic side, Mr. Hoolick." Noonan, "All right, I'll make it 8 to 1."

Wilbur Hoolick, "I like it here. I wanna go to school here." Noonan, "This is a girl's school." Wilbur, "That's why I like it here."

Considered the best of the Martin and Lewis comedies, this remake of "The Major and The Minor" (with Lewis in the Ginger Rogers role as an adult disguised as a child to qualify for a half-fare train ticket) improves on the original with a never ending romp of slap-stick humor, musical comedy numbers, and color. Diana Lynn, who plays a teacher, played the teenage roommate to Ginger Rogers in the original. Diana Lynn also starred in Martin and Lewis' debut films "My Friend Irma" and "My Friend Irma Goes To New York." Lewis as a boy is never really believable, but that's okay, it's meant as a spoof of anyone who has tried to pass off an older child as younger for half fare tickets. Most important, the humor is very, very fast and funny. Despite some nice musical moments between Dean and Jerry, there is no mistaking this is Jerry's tour-de-farce, and the reason for their split up obvious. Enjoy the pinnacle of their partnership.

With a bit of James Bondesque finale, climax. This is one Jerry Lewis feature with many musicals, as Esther Williams' features were, but with comedy and gags galore. I feel that Frank Tashlin's movies with Lewis were a bit different though. It is efficient, funny, with I repeat more musicals as usual for Lewis, thanks to Dean Martin. Ray Burr as the heavy is an excellent choice.