It's hard now to imagine how popular this comedy team was around 1950. Everyone with a television set seemed tuned in to their Colgate Comedy Hour in which the routines were usually similar: the silly Jerry Lewis was Lou Costello and the self-confident Dean Martin was Bud Abbott. Martin insulted Lewis constantly, shoving him around, and Lewis helped with his whiny voice and puppet-like postures.
The show was risqué for its time. They once used the word "broad" to refer to a woman. They came close to using a forbidden word when they exclaimed, "What the -- HEY!" When they broke up a few years later it was tragic, like the Beatles breaking up a generation later.
This production is true to form. Lewis whines, makes faces, and falls down. Martin orders him around and treats him with scorn. It appears to be a hurried version of a stage play made during the war years. Basically, there is a single set, the Captain's office and the Admittance Room or whatever it's called. Dean Martin is Top Sergeant (after having been in the Army for only five years) and Lewis is a PFC.
There are a couple of songs, limitlessly forgettable, a stunning solo on the alto sax by Dick Stabile as Punky, and a spot-on impersonation of "Going My Way," with Lewis as Barry Fitzgerald's priest and Martin passing convincingly for Bing Crosby.
It doesn't seem very funny now. People rush in and out of rooms and shout at one another. Lewis somehow winds up dressed as a blond girl in a beer parlor but the jokes seem weak. After their split, both performers went on to more ambitious and better things.
The show was risqué for its time. They once used the word "broad" to refer to a woman. They came close to using a forbidden word when they exclaimed, "What the -- HEY!" When they broke up a few years later it was tragic, like the Beatles breaking up a generation later.
This production is true to form. Lewis whines, makes faces, and falls down. Martin orders him around and treats him with scorn. It appears to be a hurried version of a stage play made during the war years. Basically, there is a single set, the Captain's office and the Admittance Room or whatever it's called. Dean Martin is Top Sergeant (after having been in the Army for only five years) and Lewis is a PFC.
There are a couple of songs, limitlessly forgettable, a stunning solo on the alto sax by Dick Stabile as Punky, and a spot-on impersonation of "Going My Way," with Lewis as Barry Fitzgerald's priest and Martin passing convincingly for Bing Crosby.
It doesn't seem very funny now. People rush in and out of rooms and shout at one another. Lewis somehow winds up dressed as a blond girl in a beer parlor but the jokes seem weak. After their split, both performers went on to more ambitious and better things.