Scared Stiff

Jerry Lewis was part of TCM's Summer Under the Stars this past August, and that gave me the chance to record a bunch of his movies that I hadn't seen before, since the ones they selected were mostly not the ones on my Jerry Lewis box set. So I'll be going through them over the next year or so. Next up is Scared Stiff.

Scared Stiff is one of the movies Lewis made when he was still part of a comedy team with Dean Martin, and we see Dean Martin first, as nightclub singer Larry Todd. Except that we don't see Martin right away either. Instead, there's an introductory scene of a waiter at the club being approached by a gangster's henchman because the waiter has been seeing the gangster Shorty's girlfriend Rosie (Dorothy Malone). When Larry enters the club, however, we learn that he too has been seeing Rosie. As for Jerry Lewis, he plays Myron Mertz, a busboy at the club which is a good way for Lewis to do physical comedy with food before a routine with Myron, Larry, and Rosie.

After the routine, Myron meets Larry in Larry's dressing room, and informs him of the waiter who was taken away by the gangster for being with a chorus girl, at which point Larry finds out that Rosie is a gangster's moll. Larry leaves he club in a panic, and Shorty calls Larry's dressing room only to get Myron. Myron decides he'll do a favor for Larry by going to the hotel where Larry has been summoned and confronting Shorty in Larry's stead.

Also at the hotel, and on the same floor as the gangsters, is Mary Carroll (Lizabeth Scott). She's spending her last night at the hotel before taking a cruise down to Cuba. She has an inheritance there, and it's an entire island with a castle. However, there's no electricity on the island, and there are rumors that the castle is haunted or something, since nobody's spent a full night in the castle in 20 years. Mary also draws the ire of Shorty by making a joke about murder during a power outage.

A gunfight ensues between one of Shorty's henchmen and a man trying to buy the castle from Mary. Larry is in the hallway trying to save Myron and has a gun of his own, and since he drew it he fears he might be arrested for murder. He escapes into one of the hotel rooms, which happens to be Mary's. He hides, but it's in Mary's trunk, which by the time the police are finished with their investigation has already been sent to the pier. So Myron and Mary go to the pier, and as you can guess, a comedy of errors occurs that results in Myron and Larry winding up on the cruise after it's set sail. Thanks to their comedy stylings, they're able to work their way to Havana, meeting singer Carmelita (Carmen Miranda in her final film role).

Larry and Mary fall in love along the way, and when they and Myron get to the island, they find out that someone has a reason for wanting to buy the castle from Mary, although they haven't quite yet figured out what that reason is. But since this is a comedy, you can guess that everything is going to be wrapped up with a happy ending.

Scared Stiff was based on an old Bob Hope comedy called The Ghost Breakers, which I have on my Bob Hope box set but have not yet seen. As such, I can't compare the two movies to see whether the remake is that much worse; any number of reviewers suggest that The Ghost Breakers is a better movie. As for standing on it's own, I'd say that Scared Stiff isn't that bad a movie, but some of the other Martin/Lewis pairings I've seen are better. Perhaps The Ghost Breakers just wasn't the best material to adapt to the strengths of Martin and Lewis.