Le Tombeur de ces dames

While I do not like this movie much, Helen Traubel's performance deserves all the stars. While she is a legend as one of the best sopranos, if not the best, she deserves much more acclaim regarding her performances as an actor too. What a shame that Rudolf Bing had not renewed her contract at the Met.

On the one hand this is a greatly entertaining, goofy, comedy but on the other its also a bit of a failure.

What the movie fails at is being a consistent one and maintaining a story throughout. It seems that about half way through the film-makers decided to throw the story overboard and to me the second half of the movie did not really felt in tone with its first half. But this might also very well be simply due to the fact that there wasn't much story to work with in the first place. It's an extremely simplistic story, that serves as an excuse to allow Jerry Lewis act crazy and incredibly immature.

And this is what makes the movie still some good lighthearted fun to watch. The comedy is real goofy and slapstick like and it shall most likely please the Jerry Lewis fans. The movie really has some good laughs in it, so as a comedy the movie still delivers, despite of its weaker second half.

Seriously, things don't even make sense anymore in its second half and a couple of different story lines and characters get thrown in, as if it all was a last minute decision. Things get really forced, such as for instance the 'love story' that really came out of nowhere and therefore just never worked out at all.

But no, I don't want to sound too negative about this movie, since it was one that I still enjoyed watching. The movie is a fun one to watch and a true pleasure to look at, due to its nice sets and Jerry Lewis, who was simply perfectly silly and provided the movie with much more fun and entertainment than its script could ever had.

Decent enough, simple entertainment.

6/10

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I enjoyed this movie and parts did make me laugh. Jerry Lewis is certainly an acquired taste however. When the movie started, I was worried and thought I would abhor the rest. It opens with a ridiculously over acted and unfunny scene where acts devastated to spot the girl with another guy. It was more cringe inducing than funny. This kind of slapstick might have caused a few laughs back in the 60s but it's almost unbearable to watch now.

That being said, there were parts in the movie I did find funny, as silly as they might have been. The bit with the method acting with the girl slapping him. The man and the hat. George raft. The butterflies flying out. Also, I do love the setting!

To summarise, humour is sometimes a bit forced, slightly outdated but still has its moments and charm.

Anyway, here Jerry is at something close to his (solo) best as a jilted man who finds himself inadvertently at the beck and call of a house full of movie actress wannabes, and misadventures abound. The house itself was a huge sound stage set with the fourth wall cut away so that the camera could zoom in and around, capturing Lewis' trademark ballets of catastrophe to excellent effect. He really was a marvel at comedic staging and there is some great stuff here. Unfortunately, you also have to take the rest of the Lewis formula too - the sappy romantic sentimentality, the awkward chemistry with his female co-stars and the contrived love sub-plots with girls who ought to have had the good sense to run screaming for the opposite coast as soon as the first catastrophe ended. Honestly are we really supposed to buy the belief that love conquers even Jerry's level of incompetence? Anyway, this movie should be enjoyed for its merits, which are considerable for any fan of comedy cinema, while discreetly closing one eye to its contrivances.

I think it´s time we recognize something that should be said a long time ago: Jerry Lewis is a genius and "Ladies´Man" is his most amazing production. The enormous doll´s house he has created serves perfectly for the development of a succesion of hilarious gags that will make the audience fall from their chairs. Using cranes to shoot the scenes, Lewis obtains beautiful scenes and perfectly timed humor. A band playing lively, walls that move, the partition of the main character in four and lots of beautiful girls complete the picture. Believe me when i say: this man knows what he is doing and it´s about time we accept that he is not just a silly clown; he is a talented and creative filmmaker who took movie techniques to its extremes and gave us both a comic and tragic view of the world we live in. Jerry Lewis is what Godard was to french cinema: an innovator. Let´s adore him.