Um Biruta em Órbita

If you like silly, spoofy films, this is a great one to watch. Jerry Lewis and Connie Stevens work so well together and, as a big fan of both of them, I am always thrilled when I get the chance to watch this film. They are both so lovable! I especially love the scene where they finally agree to go to the moon together. Dick Shawn gets to provide us another frenetically, wacky character and Anita Ekberg is just a total sexpot. The rest of the supporting cast each add to the fun in their own signature ways. I think that is the best part of this movie; each actor gets to provide us with a great view of what we expect from their comedic side.

Arguably despite having Jerry Lewis, Dick Shawn and Howard Morris (3 great comedic actors) in the cast this was the most unfunny Jerry Lewis movie I have ever seen. The cold war/space race humor is indeed dated but despite being an attempt at political satire it failed as comedy and probably didn't get lots of laughs even back in 1966. I'm used to Jerry Lewis as a great comedic actor but in this movie he was playing it straight and totally lacking the kind of outrageous antics and physical comedy that made his earlier movies great comedy. I'm inclined to believe that even in France this Jerry Lewis effort would have been a great disappointment. Not only was it lame comedy but it wasn't even good science fiction. Absolutely thumbs down.

"Way...Way Out" is an unusual Jerry Lewis film mostly because it isn't really a comedy. Sure, it has a few laughs here and there, but the overall effect is more like a commentary about the Cold War than a funny film. To put it bluntly, it isn't particularly funny--though it is interesting.

The film is set in the near future. There is an American and Russian base on the Moon and both are quite small--with two persons in each. As for the American base, the men aboard keep going crazy--presumably because they cannot function without women. But, the Russians have sent a man-woman team and their base is functioning much better. So, the head of the American space agency (an oddly cast Robert Morley) has determined that the next team going to the station will be married. The problem is that the next man scheduled to go (Jerry Lewis) is single and has no particular plans to marry. But, when told they want him to marry a pretty lady (Connie Stevens), he's in favor of the idea--but she isn't. So, the pair agree to go and to marry but not to consummate the marriage. The rest of the film is basically waiting until Stevens changes her mind. In between there is a pretty silly (and forgettable) plot involving the two Russians (Dick Shawn and Anita Ekberg).

The bottom line is that the film lacks laughs but is also inoffensive and an interesting look into the times in which it was made. A must for Lewis fans--otherwise, an inoffensive time-passer and nothing more.

By the way, I am not sure why but if you watch the veteran actor Sig Ruman closely, you can tell his voice is dubbed. Perhaps he had trouble doing the Russian accent credibly.

We have VHS! So I rented it last night--first laid eyes on this gem back in '66 when I was ten years old. Ten year olds shouldn't see movies like this, hehe.

Jerry Lewis does less of his wacky character here, and tries playing it straight, not for gonzo laughs. He's nearly laid back compared to Robert Morley's curtain rattling performance as Jerry and Connie Stevens "first married couple on the moon. He's a handler like Leo G. Carroll was for Napoleon Solo in the Man From Uncle. Brian Keith appears several times in short inserts as a gruff-but-still-gruffer General who orders third act action where Jerry must "secure the moon".

Sure, all the sets are drenched in futuristic lighting as the story is set sometime after the Sixties, doesn't say when though. So in the background are cool concept cars of the future, during the Earth based scenes. You see solid patches of red and brilliant white furniture,(and very cool clear, plastic pillows), straight out of movies like "In Like Flint" or the British set designer for Sixties movies Ken Adam.

The Moon base location has cool looking pods for sleeping/working--and yes the patented "Batman"-style, big, blinking lights computers are strewn all over your eyeline, which I totally loved as a kid. Lighting-wise, the production simply pours all available light at all times during the indoor moon scenes, which has a television-feel about it; later verified by the technical names, especially Jack Martin Smith, who worked scores of sci-fi/fantasy pics during the Sixties for TV and low budget independents.

The film is super-sexy with tease galore supplied by Anita Ekberg's fab legs, shot from at least three angles during her opening house call on the American married couple living next door on the moon. There's all sort of adult-level innuendo that flew over my head at the time: things about wife swapping, watching two girls makeout on one's wedding night, and others that are cleverly enfolded into the dialog, some PC types of the Two-Thousands would call this "leering" and it probably is, hehe.

Dick Shawn as the Tarzan-like Russian counterpart to Jerry simply does his patented "thing" with grimacing and good accents. There's an extended sequence of everybody getting drunk and kinda swapping, which today's producers would be cutting out because bad things happen to people who drink to excess, right? --oh yeah everybody knows that. The drunk thing was big in the sixties for some reason. Dick Shawn's other picture that year "What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?" had him being drunk through days of story time.

Seeing this movie without any warning would certainly remind some of Austin Powers; it's inescapable really. However I saw this tonight with a 28 year old who reminded me, "Austin Powers got it's look from this, not the other way around"

Our narrator informs us at the start that our film takes place near the turn of the century, so we must assume it is 1998 or 1999. NASA is now NAWA and is in a pickle. Both the Americans and the Russians are maintaining weather stations on the moon. The Americans have 2 male astronauts while the Russians have a male and female. The problem is, one of the Americans keeps attacking the Russian female because he has gone mad. The head of NAWA sees a publicity coup by arranging for a married American team to replace the 2 men, but everything falls apart when the newly married couple starts fighting. Enter Lewis as Peter Mattemore, the oldest trainee who always finds a way out of actual space flight. Mattemore manages to convince Eileen Forbes (played by the lovable Connie Stevens) to marry him and go to the moon with him. Hilarity ensues after they arrive at their destination to find the 2 Russian cosmonauts (played by Dick Shawn and Anita Eckberg) and find Shawn's character is a sex crazed cossack.

For most of the film Lewis is rather subdued in his acting, only letting some of his comic genius burst out for a few seconds at a time. It isn't until we are 2/3's through the film that the true slapstick that we recognize as Lewis trots out during the party scene with all 4 main characters. Stevens is her usual sexy yet girl next door type. She really makes those clear plastic couches and pillows look good. Eckberg, although more statuesque and built than Stevens, takes a back seat to Connie. Shawn is a zany lunatic that is about the only equal to Lewis when it comes to over the top acting.