Jerry Leis is The Sad Sack, a well-intentioned misfit in the Army, with perfect recall, and a knack for causing trouble. And David Wayne’s assigned the task of helping him!
The Sad Sack (1957) starring Jerry Lewis, David Wayne, Phyllis Kirk
Product Description
SYNOPSIS: Private Meredith Bixby is so out of step in the Army that his six weeks of planned basic training has now stretched to 17 months. After he loses a tank, WAC Major Shelton, a psychologist, is assigned to make a good soldier out of him. She requests Corporal Dolan and Private Stan Wensalawsky to help with the training. Dolan and Stan both have scores to settle with Bixby and their ‘guidance’ leads to more mishaps. Sergeant Pulley has them shipped out to Morocco.
On leave in North Africa, Bixy wanders alone into a bar, has a few Moroccan Delights, which he thinks are malted milks, and becomes convinced that exotic singer-dancer Zita is THE girl for him. To protect him, Dolan tells him some lies about Zita, and Bixby, in despair, joins the Suicide Division of the Foreign Legion. He is kidnapped by a band of Arabian plotters and, guarded by the knife-happy Abdul, is ordered to assemble a stolen American cannon. Zita learns of his plight and gets Dolan and Stan to join her in a rescue mission. …The Sad Sack (1957)
Comedy highlights
- Bar fight where Bixby uses Judo moves that he read from a manual.
- The male trio accidentally wake up in the ladies barracks! And then try to escape without being recognized.
- Trying to qualify Bixby on the rifle range.
- The running gag of the “loose thread”.
- Bixby unintentionally leading the villains to the large gun, whom he thinks are his two pals.
- The three American prisons chained up – in hilarious fashion.
Cast of characters
- Jerry Lewis (Visit to a Small Planet) … Private Meredith C. Bixby
- David Wayne (The Prize Fighter) … Corporal Larry Dolan
- Phyllis Kirk (House of Wax) … Maj. Shelton. The psychiatrist who thinks she can use Bixby as a test case for all of the good-hearted misfits in the military.
- Peter Lorre (Arsenic and Old Lace) … Abdul. Give me fifty push-ups!
- Joe Mantell (Marty) … Pvt. Stan Wenaslawsky
- Gene Evans (Support Your Local Sheriff) … Sgt. Major Elmer Pulley
- George Dolenz (Scared Stiff) … Ali Mustapha
- Liliane Montevecchi (Me and the Colonel) … Zita
- Shepperd Strudwick (Joan of Ark) … Major General Vanderlip
- Abraham Sofaer (A Matter of Life and Death) … Hassim
- Mary Treen (Who’s Minding the Store?) … Sgt. Hansen
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