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At age 10, I kept my fingers crossed en route to see this movie. I loved both Martin and Lewis, was shocked at their breakup and truly wished them both happiness and success.

The movie did not disappoint me and I sensed that Jerry would be OK. Jerry's next movie, " Sad Sack " was much funnier; I thought - although I do remember having a huge poster of Liliane Montevecchi hanging in my bedroom for at least two years after seeing the movie - and perhaps "that" had something to do with my preference LOL.

The rest is history of course. For those in my age bracket, I also think it is worthwhile to mention how many times Jerry Lewis chose Kathleen Freeman to co-star in his movies. She was, of course, one of the two actresses to portray the maid in the 1953 TV series " Topper " which starred Leo G Carroll.

Jerry proves in his first film outing after his infamous parting with his partner Dean Martin that his brand of comedy needs no specific straight man as the whole world is his straight man! Jerry plays a peripheral (read barely in) member of a gang who get into a rumble at his backdoor and he is subsequently arrested along with them. Seeing that he's different from the others, a sympathetic cop (Darren McGavin) takes him under his wing to guide him away from the other gang members and make an upstanding citizen of him. Which of course is a monumental task considering who he has as a charge. Speaking of which, you will get a 'charge' out of this movie.

(see my review on Amazon.com)

Just watched this, Jerry Lewis' first movie without Dean Martin, on YouTube. Meant to partially be a spoof of the "delinquent" films of the time, Jer does quite well in mixing his usual goofy persona with that of a more serious learner when he gets mentored by a friendly cop named Mike Damon (Darren McGavin). In fact, this was originally supposed to be Dean's role but either he balked at actually playing an authority figure or he simply just had enough of his former partner's ego to continue on with him. Anyway, whenever McGavin has fights with a female council member named Martha Henshaw (Martha Hyer) there's still some traces of the Martin-like attitude especially when he reveals to Sidney (Lewis' character) his feelings for her. Officer Mike not only has to deal with the punks that hang around Sidney like Monk (Robert Ivers) and Artie (Richard Bakalyan) but also his superior officer, Capt. Riley (Horace McMahon) who has plenty of doubts about Mike's methods. Like I said, this was a good mix of comedy and drama and also, Jerry has a nice number by himself in which he drops his usual whiny voice for his more normal one (which he also does in the more serious scenes). So on that note, I highly recommend The Delicate Delinquent.

In his first solo effort without partner Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis did a combination West Side Story and a police academy movie in The Delicate Delinquent. West Side Story was running on Broadway and its popularity and Jerry's would have guaranteed a built in audience.

Darren McGavin takes over from Dino and you can almost spot the places songs would have been dropped in. Lewis plays a bumbling young kid who gets accidentally in the middle of a gang rumble between the local Jets and Sharks and is caught in a police dragnet.

Personally I'm not sure how anyone could have mistaken Lewis for a juvenile delinquent, but McGavin is in charge of a mentoring program and he picks Lewis as his prototype test case. And monitoring the mentor is Martha Hyer who is from the City Council.

Jerry has surprisingly little in the way of raucous comedy routines and concentrates on developing his character. The film proceeds at a leisurely pace in telling the story.

Robert Ivers who plays one of Jerry's juvenile delinquent friends has a nice part himself. In the end he actually saves Lewis's career as a budding policeman.

The Delicate Delinquent was a nice solo debut for Lewis. He did much better for himself and Paramount Pictures than his old partner did with Ten Thousand Bedrooms.

Jerry Lewis's first movie without Dean Martin casts him as a juvenile delinquent hired by a cop (Darren McGavin) to become a cop. "The Delicate Delinquent" is the typical sort of movie that Lewis was making around that time. It's mostly an excuse for him to act silly, sometimes via facial expressions. There's nothing special about the movie, although it does provide a few laughs. Without a doubt, Lewis reached his apex with "The Nutty Professor".

Martha Hyer (who later got married to Lewis's producer Hal Wallis) provides a foil for both Lewis and McGavin. Watch for a young Frank Gorshin (best known as the Riddler on the 1960s "Batman" series) as a gang member.