Le trouillard du Far-West

After years of just seeing parts of this Martin & Lewis movie, I finally watched the whole thing on YouTube. As you can discern from the title, Dean & Jerry are in the old west. First, as their fathers from the previous century. Then, as their sons with the mother of Lewis (Agnes Moorehead) raising him back in New York to marry some Amazon woman but that son will have none of it. I'll stop there and just say that while I enjoyed Pardners, I did feel that some of the plot points and characterizations seemed rushed in order to parody certain clichés. Still, Jerry's as funny as he can be doing what he does here and Dean seems quite comfortable in his first of many times he would wear cowboy duds. The leading ladies of Lori Nelson and Jackie Loughery sure look good and nothing more. The villains of Jeff Morrow and John Baragrey provide good enough menace. So on that note, I recommend Pardners. P.S. Despite the team mentioning at the end they plan to stay together in movies for years, by the time this was released in August of '56, they had already done their last performance in tandem the previous month. It would be 20 years before they would publicly reunite on Jerry's telethon with Frank Sinatra doing his bit...

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

RIDE ALONG WITH THESE TWO COMEDIC COWBOY LEGENDS - 8 out of 10 rating

I love Jerry Lewis films so when I popped in this DVD which is classified as a Western/Comedy I was hoping to see a film that may provide a few chuckles. Much to my surprise for a picture that was released almost 60 years ago the picture quality was in pristine Technicolor, the tandem of Martin and Lewis and a strong supporting cast that included Agnes Moorehead kept me entertained throughout the film from beginning to end.

Lost in the production values of today's films is that combination of a simple but effective plot, the bantering between the two co- stars Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the slapstick comedy of the King of Comedy of the 1950's and 1960's Jerry Lewis, and the film also threw in a few cowboy songs that were sung by swooner Dean Martin. Heck even Jerry and Dean sung a few numbers together.

I keep hearing that life was much simpler back in the 1950's than it is now 60 years later. Although in my humble opinion if there were more family oriented films such as this classic comedy "Pardners" that were more readily available for families to sit down and watch together as a family unit rather than today's generation of laptop, tabloid and android users who prefer to watch films in isolation that are saturated with Computer Generated Imagery more commonly known as CGI the family unit would be stronger today with a lot less violence in the world.

Pardners has everything this moviegoer demands. It has a simple plot with great comedy relief and a few light songs to go along with the cowboy's journey. The two old cowboys from the late 1800's played by Dean Martin and Lewis die together at the hands of an evil desperado but leave behind their sons (also played by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) who 25 years later in the early 1900's join forces together once again to take down the evil banker who also happens to be the son of the rustler who killed their daddies 25 years earlier.

Jerry Lewis plays the bumbling heir apparent to mom's (Agnes Moorehead) industrial revolution fortune who runs away to reunite with real life cowpoke Dean Martin to save the ranch that Jerry's and Dean's daddies died trying to save many years ago. It is a wonderful family film that has endured the test of time. I urge families to sit back and relax with a bowl of popcorn and just enjoy this comedy western classic.

I give the film a strong 8 out of 10 rating

The plot is quite simple: Dean Martin is the rodeo riding, singing cowboy, and foreman of a ranch. Jerry Lewis is a rich kid who wants to become a real cowboy, and hence he becomes the clumsy (unwanted) sidekick of Dean Martin. Oh, and for good measure there's some bad guys trying to take over the ranch, as well...

If you expect "Cat Balou", don't watch this. This is no comedy for adults, as its slapstick humour is horrendously outdated, and the set-pieces are all too cliched. This movie is fun for kids, because it is so naive and harmless, and the violence is never serious. Also, the characters are just as simple as Stan and Ollie, just as loveable if you're a kid.

As adult, I'd recommend to grab a "Cat Balou" tape instead, for a good classic western comedy.

Martin and Lewis are seen as old men in the beginning of the film.They are these ranch partners who are brutally murdered.Their sons ought to revenge for their death.In 1910 their sons are fully grown men, at least Martin's character Slim Mosely Jr. is.Lewis' Wade Kingsley Jr. is a rich momma's boy.But together they head back for the old west where they meet a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders".Norman Taurog is the director and Sidney Sheldon is behind the screenplay of Pardners (1956).It's a western comedy that stars the comedy team Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.Actually this was the second last picture they made together before their break-up.The collaboration between them still works even though this isn't the best picture they did together.But still pretty funny.Just watch Jerry Lewis learn how to be a real cowboy.And how he's in the saloon acting tougher than he actually is.The rest of the cast does good job, too.Lori Nelson plays Carol Kingsley.Agnes Moorehead is Mrs.Matilda Kingsley.Jeff Morrow plays Pete Rio and John Baragrey is Dan/Sam Hollis.Lon Chaney Jr. is Whitey.Lee Van Cleef plays Gus while Jack Elam is Pete.I became an admirer of Jerry Lewis movies, with and without Dean 10 years ago.They showed all these great and funny movies during the summer that made me laugh.Lewis and Martin worked great together.Just like Laurel and Hardy did, or Hope and Crosby and the Marx brothers.What ever happened to great comedy teams?