L'increvable Jerry

I've noticed that in Jerry Lewis' earlier solo films, he tended to play his roles a bit more...quietly. In films like "The Delicate Delinquent" and "The Sad Sack", Lewis was reasonably restrained. However, as the 1960s arrived, Lewis began a long period in which being loud and overplaying things was his schtick. This mugging was quite obvious here in "It'$ Only Money". He's very loud, his voice is much more intensely annoying and ethnic and he is anything but subtle. As a result, it's difficult going at times.

The film finds Jerry playing a TV repairman. A rich inventor has recently died and Jerry's detective friend (Jesse White) wants to use Jerry to infiltrate the dead man's mansion. What no one knows at this point is that Jerry is the heir to the estate--the rich guy's long-lost son. The first to realize this is a shyster lawyer (Zachary Scott) who plans on using his homicidal assistant (Jack Westin) to kill Lewis before he can collect his fortune. And, his plan is to then marry the dead guy's sister (Mae Questel) and then kill her--and taking the fortune for himself. Can Jerry somehow survive? And, for that matter, can the audience survive the ordeal?! Considering how much Lewis mugs during the train recording sequence, when he's shaving and when looking at the painting of his dead father, it's doubtful. Subtle and well acted, it ain't! If you do watch, look for Barbara Pepper (Mrs. Zipfel from "Green Acres") and Mae Questel (the voice of Olive Oyl and Betty Boop). Pepper is just there in a cameo as the lady at the fishing pier and Questel plays Jerry's aunt with the very annoying voice (hence, it's easy to tell they are supposed to be related).

Frank Tashlin and Jerry Lewis did a very special film with It's Only Money. The film is a salute to those noir films of the Forties and Fifties with a generous helping of Jerry Lewis's comedy stylings.

Like Bob Hope in My Favorite Brunette, Jerry is a television repairman, but what he wants most of all is to be a private detective having devoured all the Mickey Spillane and Dashiell Hammett he could get his hands on in the orphanage he was raised in. Usually his hero, real life private eye Jesse White snubs Lewis, but comes a day when Lewis's talent and his profession come in handy on a case he's on.

It concerns a missing heir and if said heir can be found he'll inherit the fortune of an electronics tycoon. Otherwise the money will go to the tycoon's sister Mae Questal and her fiancé lawyer Zachary Scott when they tie the knot. Unbeknownst to all Scott has been shrewdly manipulating events and he wants the estate all to himself. And he's enlisted family chauffeur Jack Weston in his scheme.

To be sure this is a Jerry Lewis film and he got the lion's share of the laughs. I did so love his time on the pier 'helping' a woman catch a fish with his head and later on having her line snag him in the rear and saving him from a planned explosion courtesy of Weston. His show of gratitude was equally full of laughs.

But Frank Tashlin was generous all around with the players. Questal is pretty ditzy as an heiress without a clue, note that she keeps singing a whole flock of songs associated with Paramount classics like Isn't It Romantic, Cocktails For Two, and It's Easy to Remember. Weston has some good laughs as a hit man who just can't get the job done. Even Joan O'Brien who is the nurse for Questal and the love interest for Lewis has some funny moments.

This was Zachary Scott's farewell performance on the big screen. Scott in his salad years at Warner Brothers in the Forties and later on did some really serious slick villain roles. In this one however, Frank Tashlin discovered Scott's funny side and he did really well spoofing some of the parts he did in his starring days. A really good performance to go out on.

It's Only Money was one of Jerry Lewis's better solo films and his legion of fans especially the French will keep this special for centuries.

Even if you don't crave for comedies, you can't miss this kind of stuff, never boring material which always keep its promises in terms of entertainment. It is fast paced with always an excellent climax, here with the lawnmowers. The story is only a pretext, as usual, you have not to ask many questions, just enjoy and laugh. Only pure top entertainment. I guess Jerry Lewis was the best of his time. I am sure that Frank Tashlin made the best of his films with Lewis, though I have not seen all his films either. I am not a comedy specialist, you see.

In IT'S ONLY MONEY, disaster-prone TV repairman, Lester March (Jerry Lewis) gets involved with a private investigator named Flint (Jesse White), in his attempt to find a recently departed millionaire's son. The sleuthing pair pretend to return the old man's TV set to his palatial estate.

Confusion occurs when the man's daughter (Mae Questel) mistakes Lester for her long, lost brother, and fellow heir to the family fortune! Adding to the fun are a sleazy, conniving lawyer (Gregory Scott), and the creepy, homicidal butler, Leopold (Jack Weston).

Lewis is at his lamebrained best in this movie, making it one of his finest / funniest outings!

Besides, how many movies have a finale featuring an army of killer lawnmowers?

Highly recommended for fans of old school comedy in general, and Jerry Lewis movies in particular.

Co-stars the beautiful Joan O'Brien as the kindly nurse Wanda Paxton...

Perhaps one the most ignored picture from Jerry Lewis, as a great admirer I've never watch this picture on commercial circuit on TV, here Lewis takes ahead one of most successful formula at Hollywood, the missing inheritor millionaire, Jerry plays Lester March a daffy owner of TV repairs, when is aired on TV about a missing nephew from a death unmarried millionaire, they offer a hundred thousand dollars reward over his whereabout, guess who is the real inheritor, yeah Lester, having in the casting the great Zachary Scott as the crook lawyer and the disastrous private detective Pete Flint (Jesse White) and his romantic pair the nurse Wanda (Joan O'Brien) also appears the clumsy killer Leopold (Jack Weston) in your best performance, without forget the eye candy Francine York as sexy girl at agency, hilarious Jerry's picture!!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25