Pardners

Pardners is the 15th of the 16 feature length pictures that Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis made together. It'a a reworking of the 1936 Bing Crosby film, Rhythm On The Range, which just like this remake was directed by Norman Taurog. Plot sees the comedy duo playing sons of one time wild west partners. Brought together by accident 25 years later, the boys head out west and get into all sorts of scrapes; with Jerry even becoming sheriff! It was inevitable that Martin & Lewis would end up out west playing cowboys since all the comedy duos do it. The timing here was perfect since the 50s was the most prolific decade for the genre. On the list of their collaborations Pardners probably sits some where in the middle, it's a safe mix of songs and buffoonery, with pretty girls represented by Jackie Loughery & Lori Nelson. It's a VistaVision/Technicolor production and songs featured are "Me 'n You 'n the Moon," "The Wind! The Wind!" "Buckskin Beauty" and "Pardners," (music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn).

Safe & colourful comedy fare for fans of the successful duo. 7/10

This is the second to last film starring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis--and so the title does seem a bit ironic! The film begins with Dean and Jerry's fathers (played by them with powdered hair) dying in a shoot out with baddies. However, both men had sons. One was a capable and manly cowboy (Martin) and the other a pampered mama's boy (Lewis) and they grow up not knowing each other. However, when Martin meets with his old partner's widow (Agnes Moorehead) to try to get money for a prize bull, she refuses but her son (Lewis) decides to go west with Martin and learn to be a real he-man. Plus, his mother has plans for him that include marriage to an amazon--and he wants no part of it. The rest of the film consists of Jerry acting wimpy and very goofy (perhaps too much so at times) and Martin being exasperated but loyal to his new friend who makes everyone (including Jerry) think he's a lot more rugged and brave than he really is.

If you think about it, this plot is basically "That's My Boy" (an earlier and better Martin & Lewis film) all over again. The locale is different, but the rest is basically the same formula. It's a pleasant formula, but also shows lazy writing as well and the film could have benefited from more originality. Plus, in a few scenes Jerry really does ham it up too much (even more than normal) and there are just too many "ooooo, oooohs" and "whoo-oooaa" moments in the otherwise pleasant but unremarkable film. And, as a result of so much screen time for Jerry, Martin is mostly relegated to the background--and you can see how films like this ultimately pushed them to their dissolving their pardner-ship.

By the way, this film also bears a strong similarity to the Bob Hope films "The Paleface" and "Son of Paleface". See them all and you'll probably agree.

"Pardners" is one of a slew of comedies that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together in the early 1950s. Most had two or more songs for which they get dubbed musicals as well. This one is also a Western. The two starts do quite well on horses, and obviously knew they way around Western lore. Of course, Jerry's the center of the comedy here. The two play Slim Mosely and Wade Kingsley - first as senior "pardners" in the West of 1885, and then as juniors of the former pardners.

And of course with these two there must always be one and sometimes two females in the picture. Here it's Lorri Nelson as Carol Kingsley and Jackie Loughery as Dolly Riley. Others in the supporting cast include Agnes Moorehead as Jerry's mom, Mrs. Matilda Kingsley, Lon Chaney Jr. as Whitey and Lee Van Cleef as Gus.

Watching this film these many years later, I could imagine that I might have enjoyed it more for entertainment as a young teenager when I saw it the first time in a theater. Today, it's just okay for an old-timer, but I think one that grandkids might yet enjoy for some of Jerry's slapstick.

I'd heard a lot of great things about the comedy pairing of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. I'd seen Jerry Lewis in some other films before this (such as "The Nutty Professor" and "Rock-A-Bye-Baby") where he didn't really stand out as being a comedy legend, if anything he just seemed really annoying at points.

However I wasn't going to let that get in the way of enjoying what I had heard was a great double act.

But... this movie kind of sucked.

The most important thing that a comedy needs is to be funny, and unfortunately this doesn't quite hit the right mark. Jerry Lewis screaming and whining in that voice of his gets irritating after a while, and pairing him with the rather subdued and (in my opinion anyway) boring Dean Martin doesn't help as there's no one around to rein him in.

The story of this film feels like it was thought up five minuted before shooting began. It's the standard "there's a new sheriff in town and some criminals are trying to get rid of him" state of affairs that we've all seen about one hundred times before. However I will give the writers some credit as they did try to add a little twist to it, but ultimately it doesn't work because you don't really care about what's happening.

There's also this weird thing about an inter-generational family war which means that Dean Martin's character (a cowboy) and Jerry Lewis' character (a spoiled socialite who has always dreamed of being a cowboy) have to team up to stop the bad guys who are... doing something bad.

However this just means that it takes about 40 minutes for the two main characters to team up which means the rest of the movie feels incredibly rushed, so I wish they'd structured the movie better in that regard.

Oh yeah, also it's a musical? That was something I only figured out about 30 minutes in, which is when the first musical number appears. I can't actually remember any other songs after that though, so maybe there was only one? Either way, it was unnecessary and pointless and only served to waste time.

Overall, this movie was a pretty big disappointment, but it wasn't completely awful. Hopefully my future attempts to watch some Lewis and Martin will yield greater results.

Here Martin and Lewis are descendants of previous ranch partners . Lewis raised by a wealthy mother : Agnes Morehead , who desires progressive wishes for her son, but the latter only wants to regain the familly , glory and and clean up the town from baddies . Lewis is especially a maladroit millionaire , who goes to the old West to learn to be a cowboy , there he meets the brave shooter Dean Martin - he produced uncredited the film as well - who wants to buy a prize cow. Meantime, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis shoot the works with laughter and ballets, ballads and beauties. Along the way, they confront a gang of bandits who currently take under siege the ranch and the town, and then , eventually , Lewis is appointed sheriff . The laughs are Louder! The songs are bigger ! They are at hands on the Trigger! .All hilarity breaks loose neath that old Western sky in the biggest fun round-up since Paleface ! . The biggest bestest funni3st most musical Western yet !

A nice spoof Western, it results to be a loose reboot of Norman Taurog's "Rhythm on the Range" made 20 years earlier with Bing Crosby. Stands out Jerry Lewis at his most worryingly infantile, giving overacting , mimic and lots of gesticulation , while Dean Martin singing catching songs in his usual style . However , the Martin and Lewis partnership was nearing breaking point on this ironical and fun Western . Here there is more singing than gunslinging but it turns out to be entertaining and amusing enough . Incredibly , this amiable enough romp was written by beststseller author Sidney Sheldon. Jerry Lewis at his best as a rich momma's boy , a millionaire son of a former rancher who's persuaded to go West once again by the saddle-happy of his father's old partner , Dean Martin, both of them giving very likable interpretations .There's also spectacular musical numbers with impressive choreography by prestigious chreographer Nick Castle , attractive musical score by Frank De Vol and colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Daniel L. Fapp

Great duo starring , Martin and Lewis , are well accompanied by a good cast , such as : two beautiful girls incarnated by Lori Nelson , Jackie Loughery , various familiar secondaries as Agnes Morehead, Jeff Morrow, Lon Chaney Jr , Lee Van Cleef , Bob Steele, Jack Elam, among others . The motion picture was decently directed by Norman Taurog . This craftsman was a fine Hollywood artisan with penchant for Musical and Comedy , though he also made other genres , such as : "Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Speedway , Toast of New Orleans, Presenting Lily Mars , Broadway Melody of 1940, Bundle of Joy, Girls Gils Girls , GI Blues , Blue Hawaii, Tickle me , Birds and the bees , Double Truble , Words and Music" , among others . Rating : 6.5/10 . The flick will appeal to spoof Western and Musical genre enthusiasts , as well as Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin fans .