Les tontons farceurs

Ten year old heiress Donna Peyton (Donna Butterworth) spends two weeks with each of her six uncles to try and decide who is to be her new father, when it's patently obvious that her caring chauffeur Willard Woodward is the perfect candidate.

A vanity project written by, starring and directed by Jerry Lewis, The Family Jewels sees the comic actor playing seven different characters, thereby allowing him to run the gamut of his comedic repertoire: loveable (Willard), scatterbrained (old sea salt Uncle James), grouchy (circus clown Uncle Everett, who hates kids), zany (Uncle Eddie the pilot, who sounds a lot like Jack Lemmon from The Great Race), logical (private detective Uncle Skylock), and villainous (gangster Uncle Bugsy).

Films don't get more self-indulgent than this, Lewis milking his multiple roles for all they are worth, the star often over-egging the pudding, with many of the characters outstaying their welcome. Lewis is having so much fun doing his zany thing that he doesn't know when to call it quits and move on to the next segment. The result is a film that could have done with some judicious editing to remove the chaff, but I imagine Lewis's ego got in the way of that happening.

Butterworth is charming as the young rich girl who is constantly bemused by her many uncles' eccentric behaviour, and Lewis is at his best when he's playing loveable Willard, but overall there is way too much grandstanding from its star for this to be considered a success.

I wanted to like "The Family Jewels" but found there was more to it to dislike than like. It's really a shame, as some aspects of the film were quite good--but too much of it suffered from extreme overacting.

The film begins with a very rich little girl being told by lawyers that her father's will stipulates that she must move in with one of her five uncles. So, the plan is for her to visit each uncle and spend a couple weeks with each of them--and then she gets to choose the one she'll live with for the rest of her life. The uncles, it turns out, are all played by Jerry Lewis. And, oddly, their unrelated chauffeur also is played by Jerry. So, in many ways the film is reminiscent of such comedies as "Kind Hearts and Coronets", "The Mouse That Roared" and "The Klumps".

There were some parts of the film I liked. A few of the jokes (a distinct minority) were funny and I caught myself laughing a couple times. Additionally, I liked watching the relationship between the chauffeur and the child--showing what I've thought for a long time--that Lewis was EXCELLENT at drama and I wish the film had more of that. But, too often the characters were done with no subtlety and although many reviewers love him, I found much of the antics overbearing and overdone. Subtle, it ain't! It's a shame, as I do like some of Lewis' films--but others just needed less--a lot less.

I'll give Lewis credit: even though this one isn't on par with the uproarious stuff he and Dean Martin did or even with "The Disorderly Orderly" or "The Nutty Professor", "The Family Jewels" shows Lewis doing what he does best.

Running amok.

Playing no less than seven characters here, Lewis changes costumes, accents and venues but stays just as addled in all of them. This time, he plays a chauffeur who takes care of a little girl (Butterworth, a novice here and since) and shuttles her between six brothers (all Lewis again) who vie to be guardian of her and the millions of dollars she will inherit.

Of course, it's interesting to see that he brings back (in shape only) his character from "The Nutty Professor". Good to see him.

And only Lewis could make a slapstick free-for-all in which Anne Baxter makes a cameo.

It's good, nutty fun for all and definitely a better choice than his later work. "The Family Jewels" - definitely a "Jewel" in the rough.

Eight stars.

I know this isn't the best movie to watch, but for some reason I found it campy, corny and enjoyable. Jerry Lewis did seem to try and have fun with this film, and showed off his mulit-character talents which some people called hogging the movie. But hey can't we all just have fun sometimes? Apparently not since some of the negative reviews the movie received. Oh well I still like the movie alot and will always look to catch it on TV.

10 out of 10, bc I said so.

My friends and I laughed so hard. Even at age 10 I thought the movie was totally funny and engaging. Jerry Lewis was my favorite comic back then and I also liked the child actress Donna Butterworth. She and Jerry had chemistry. I loved the characters and I remember Sabastian Cabot trying to squeeze into or out of a car; too funny.

Whatever happened to Donna Butterworth? She acted in an Elvis movie and that was it for her. If anyone knows, let me know.