Le trouillard du Far-West

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.

This is a great Martin and Lewis Comedy from 1956, which is the same year that they broke up as a Comedic Duo, and this film "Pardners," was the second to their last that was made. Jerry's father and Dean's father were the best of friends, and died together in the hopes of saving their land. And of course, the story picks up with the children fully grown and ready to go back get some justice in the western town in which they were both born. Dean has some great singing numbers in this film, and Jerry's special brand of physical comedy is very effective in a number of saloon fight scenes. A very entertaining comedy!

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

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

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?