Il caporale Sam

Jumping Jacks though early in the careers of Martin and Lewis personified and solidified the act as comedians. Though it was relatively the end of their comedy team, this movie only proved they had more fun and slap stick to come. Fantastic laugh a minute movie with a few Martin songs which are equally as good. If you have never seen a Martin and Lewis movie this is the one to see.

Starting in 1949 and through the early 1950s, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together. Their match-up is the familiar one of comedy teams. A straight man, who often gets the gal, and a goof-up, klutz or clown. So, we had had Laurel and Hardy, Crosby and Hope, and Martin and Lewis.

This is one of the earlier Martin-Lewis comedies. As with most of their films, Dean's singing and their comedy routines play in the plot. So, we get a little singing and dancing along with a wacky story of sorts. After Chick (Martin) goes in the Army, Hap Smith (Lewis) finds himself a female partner for a new show. But before they can get launched in the big time, Chick calls for help that only Hap can provide. So, he sneaks on base to help with a show for the troops.

Well, it's not hard to imagine what happens from there on. The base is a fictitious one, of course, but for this one Paramount did some film shooting at Ft. Benning, GA, and the Army parachute school.

While this and similar films still bring a chuckle here and there, they don't seem as funny as they must have been to audiences in the mid- 20th century. I remember watching these in theaters as a youngster. Slapstick can still be good and very funny, but I think the comedy with actors completely changing their voices was a phase from that period that hasn't lasted.

This film is OK for some laughs and the music and comedy. The rest of the cast provide nice support for the two leads.

So, Martin & Lewis came out near the end of the slapstick comedy era. They were the last of the great classic comedians, that grew out of vaudeville and kept the sub-genre of the slapstick comedy alive for 50 years. In the silent era of film, you had the likes of, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. In the 1930s and 40s, it was names like, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello, who reigned as kings on the slapstick stage. Martin and Lewis would debut in the movie theaters in 1949 and dominated the 1950s. But, by 1956 (oddly enough the same year that Abbott and Costello broke up), Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis called it quits. This left the decaying bones of the slapstick sub-genre to low-budget films, mostly made by the aged Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis' solo career and a small resurgence of new comedians on television, that kept the sub-genre alive until its untimely death in the 1970s.

This film is a textbook example of what a great Martin and Lewis film looked like. Dean and Jerry were huge in the 1950s. They had crowds show up to their Atlantic City, New Jersey shows, like Elvis was in town. They were big in the movies and on television. This film follows the same formula, that the old Abbott and Costello war films were like. The difference with this one was the Korean War was going on and it was a different attitude in the 1950s. They weren't trying to sell war bonds, so much as, just make a comedy about basic training and war games. Dean (as Chick Allen), is a corporal in the Army, who is part of the para-troopers and also used to do a nightclub act back in the states. In a desperation move to put on a great show, he asks for the assistance of his old fellow performer, Jerry (as Hap Smith), which unfortunately ends in Hap getting pulled into training camp and becoming, accidently, a para-trooper himself. It is hilarious watching Hap, who has no business being near the Army, get through this film without getting himself killed. Dean throws in some great songs and this film is a classic in a sub-genre still at its peak.

7.3 (C+ MyGrade) = 7 IMDB.

I have my voice to see! I love that movie since when I was a kid, i'm a big kid now! That's amazing,

Very unrealistic and a bad outing for Martin and Lewis. A couple of funny scenes but plot makes no sense. What kind of a show can be put on in military compound that looks like a Broadway show with a "stage" thats goes on and on. No way could that first musical number fit on a real stage. And the impersonation of a Paratrooper by Lewis is inane. Martin meets Mona Freeman and in one scene they're in love and want to get married.!!!! Fantasy pure and simple although its all meant to be REAL. Stupid, stupid stupid.