Un pitre au pensionnat

This movie may not make the most sense, but it sure is funny. The dynamic between Martin and Lewis is delightful.

There are so many funny bits and the whole premise is just so ridiculous. I highly recommend watching if you are a fan of silliness. Even my children, who get bored of my old movies, enjoyed this one.

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.

The best Martin-Lewis collaboration is, to me, Hollywood OR BUST, but this one is not so far behind.

It has some hilarious spoofs of Chaplin's GREAT DICTATOR (the sequence where Mussolini and Hitler are on a barber's chair); NORTH BY NORTHWEST (the sequence in the train where Lewis is in Lynn's room), and of THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, but, above all, Lewis is in great form playing an 11-year-old kid on the run from murderer and diamond thief Raymond Burr (fresh from playing the evil Thorwald in Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW the previous year).

I reckon Martin was a better actor than Lewis, but his part is less eye-catching. He sings two or three songs, but they are not the best in his career repertoire - quite forgettable, in fact - which does not do him any favors. One sequence where he is supposed to conduct a choir and Lewis takes over pretty much symbolizes Lewis' upper hand throughout YOU ARE NEVER TOO YOUNG.

Diana Lynn is attractive enough in her part, Burr is quite good as the heavy, and the rest of the cast is hardly perceptible.

Taurog's direction is purely commercial with some great action sequences, especially the final ski and boat chase; color photography is quite good for a 1955 low budget movie; and the script is good enough to keep you interested.

A well deserved 7/10.

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.