Bentornato, picchiatello!

I saw this when it was first released, in a theater filled to the gills with rabid Jerry Lewis fans (of which I am one) who were all ecstatic to be seeing a new Jerry Lewis movie after all those years. The opening montage of scenes from his earlier films was greeted with cheers, and this giddy enthusiasm carried over for the rest of the film. (The donut scene was a particular favorite--everybody there totally "got" it.) Good spirits and joyous Jerry Lewis fandom abounded in that theater that night, and I had a wonderful time.

Whenever I see this movie now, I recall the feelings I had when I first saw it that night. Maybe you had to see it in that context and that frame of mind to truly enjoy it. Anyway, I'm still a huge Jerry Lewis fan as I have been all my life, and I enjoy all of his movies from the highs of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and THE LADIES MAN to the lows of WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT? and HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER. Now if I could just see THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, my life would be complete.

I watched this movie and LOVED it!! It might not be Jerry's best but it is still a very good movie. Just because one person viewed the movie and did not care for it does not mean that everyone should write it off as a bad movie...Please, watch this movie and form your own opinion. I LOVE JERRY LEWIS!!!!

This Jerry Lewis project does not ring with the sound of success. This film is way below the high standards that the legendary star/director has set for comedy flicks. The plot is quite simple and most of the sight gags are over done. A bumbling idiot has trouble keeping a job. He has tried being a circus clown, gas station attendant and even delivering the U.S. Mail. Unlucky in the working world, but lucky in love. Go figure.

Also in the cast are Susan Oliver, Harold Stone and Stephen Baccus.

"Hardly Working" was heralded for being Jerry Lewis's first film in a decade. After seeing the final results maybe he should have waited longer. I loved Lewis films as a kid and wondered if perhaps I had just outgrown him. Watching some of his older films up against this one convinced me that it was the movie and not my maturing. "Hardly Working" is a bad film. It's poorly written and ineptly directed.

The film's best scene is its first as we see a brief montage of clips from past Lewis movies. Trust me there is nothing close to being this amusing once the film gets going. But it does get going and we see Jerry as the lovable loser who can't hold a job. He starts as a circus clown and soon gets fired and for good reason. The one scene we see him as the clown is painfully unfunny. He then moves into a succession of jobs that he gets himself fired from. One scene in particular shows how clumsy the script is. He has been hired to work at a gas station. His new boss is setting up a pyramid of cans that Jerry (of course) keeps knocking over. The exasperated boss finally sends Jerry out to serve a customer and (of course) can't even fill the gas tank without causing havoc. What does the boss do? He knocks the same pyramid of cans over that he has struggled over and over to build. Why? You tell me.

The bulk of the film has Jerry as a mailman. Certainly there are funnier things they could have come up with then sagging pickle spears and donut jokes and multiplying rabbits within the postal service. "Hardly Working" is a lame comedy that picks up where Lewis left off with his lame comedies of the late 60's.

Watch this one only its first five minutes, a fast-paced and genuinely funny montage of clips from Lewis's earlier comedies. Then, if you dare, settle back and get ready for a jaw-dropping compendium of unfunny gags, rip-offs from earlier movies (an entire set-up is lifted from Lewis's The Bellboy), and product placement ads galore.