Cracking Up (1983) starring Jerry Lewis
Review
Cracking Up is really a series of short comedy sketches, featuring Jerry Lewis. The loose framework has him being a total failure in life, seeking psychiatric help. Some of the comedy highlights include:
The very funny introduction, where he enters the psychiatrists’ office — where the floors are insanely slippery! After finally making his way to a seat (by crawling), he makes the mistake of opening a bag of M&Ms.
Trying to order dinner at a restaurant, with a very annoying waitress. She recites an enormous list of choices for everything on the menu. An example of a funny idea that simply goes on too long.
Bank heist scene, where a bank robber (also played by Jerry Lewis) who comes into a bank …. And notices a bank camera. So he and his fellow thieves immediately change into doing a soft-shoe routine for the camera! To the tune “New York, New York”. Ending with them marching out of the bank, to the applause of the customers! A very funny routine.
A very funny extended routine where Jerry takes the cheapest flight possible to London. It’s absolutely hilarious! With the drunken airplane pilot Foster Brooks!
Surgery, where the doctors are going to remove a spleen — without anesthetic. Another routine that goes on too long.
Editorial review of Cracking Up courtesy of Amazon.com
Cracking Up is a crazy quilt of sight gags, one-liners, caricatures, slapstick and quirky vocal mannerisms. In short, it’s marvelous mayhem of the kind which has gained Jerry Lewis admirers the world over. Lewis plays a hapless misfit who seeks psychiatric help after bumbling a suicide attempt. His shrink sessions reveal a flashback history about a klutzy childhood and a family history of (what else?) ineptitude, affording Lewis to play a smorgasbord of roles, including a 6-year-old boy, a 15th-century coachman, a good-ol’-boy sheriff and a bearded guru. The wackiness soars to new heights when our nutcase patient takes a transcontinental flight on the cheapest airline he can find. But there’s no scrimping on the laughter. Cracking Up is zany proof that nobody does funnymaking filmmaking better than Lewis.
Trivia for Cracking Up
- The opening credits jokingly state that the picture’s main title song is sung by Marcel Marceau.
- After principal photography on this film was completed, Jerry Lewis went to have triple bypass heart surgery at the Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas.
- The picture was released in the USA on a double bill with The King of Comedy.
- Jerry Lewis plays ten different roles in this movie. These included Warren Nefron, Dr. Perks, a gangster, a six-year-old, Speed Armeter and an elderly guru. Co-writer Bill Richmond played five different parts.
- This film reunited Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis Jr though this is the first time they’ve shared a scene together. Previously, they’ve worked together in One More Time, a movie which Lewis directed in 1970
- As Ms. Sultry, Milton Berle appears in drag in this movie.
Cast
- Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor) … Warren Nefron / Dr. Perks / Gangster / Speed Armeter (as Jerry — Who Else?)
- Milton Berle (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) … Ms. Sultry
- Sammy Davis Jr. (The Cannonball Run) … Sammy Davis, Jr.
- Herb Edelman (The Odd Couple) … Dr. Jonas Pletchick
- Foster Brooks … The Pilot
- Zane Buzby … Waitress / Valet / Woman in Line
- Dick Butkus … Anti-Smoking Enforcer
- Francine York (The Family Man) … Marie Du Bois
- John Abbott (The Jungle Book) … Surgeon
- Buddy Lester (Three on a Couch) … Passenger