Dean plays parts of The Stoogelike a noir anti-hero.

Hey pallies, likes today we are powerfully pleased to return once 'gain to our new pallie Mr. John McElwee's self tagged blog "John McElwee's GREENBRIAR Picture Shows."  McElwee always always superbly scribes his prose entries at his beau-ti-ful blog devoted to the big screen, and likes when it comes to accentin' our most beloved Dino's actin' credits, John's deep devotion and awesome appreciation for our main man supremely shines brighter then bright!

Today we share with all youse Dino-holics McElwee's touchin' thoughts on the Martin and Lewis classic, "The Stooge."  Likes, we couldn't 'gree more with how John tags his remarkable review, "Dean and Jerry Being Themselves in The Stooge (1952)."  One of the thin's we so so appreciate 'bout McElwee's wonderful work is that we always always seem to learn a new-to-us Dino-fact or two.  Likes, we don't ever remember knowin' that filmed "almost two years before its release."

John uses that pertinent point to reflect in how much   all use Dino-philes know "The Stooge' storyline reflected more and more the tensions between our Dino and Mr. Lewis.   We coulda shares more of Mr. McElwee's wise and wonderful words of this remarkable reflection, but we wanna leaves that for your Dino-discovery.

Once 'gain Mr. John McElwee has offered his readership the opportunity to powerfully ponder  the deeper and perhaps even darker side of our Dino and Mr. Lewis in "The Stooge."  To checks this out in it's original source, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-sharin'  Always, Dino, Always, DMP

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2014

Was It The Martin and Lewis Story?

Dean and Jerry Being Themselves in The Stooge (1952)

A Martin and Lewis done almost two years before its release, a delay caused by --- what? There's been suggestion that producer Hal Wallis was discomfited by subject matter, Dean being a heel to doormat Jerry and far less laughs than had been case with initial M&L's. If The Stooge got under skin, it might have been Jerry's, his title character desperate throughout to please an indifferent Dean. Was this by most accounts, including Lewis' own, how things were offscreen? Dean plays parts of The Stoogelike a noir anti-hero. I wonder if he ever passed Burt Lancaster or Charlton Heston in Wallis hallways and wondered why he couldn't do the straight and rugged stuff. Anything off-formula was figured to shake limbs, and Wallis had overseen enough series to know folly in that. What was difference to his mind between Dean/Jerry and Joe E. Browns turned out wholesale at Warner Bros. while Wallis ran production there in the 30's? Martin and Lewis would have looked to be a fad with four or maybe five years to maximize output, never mind merit, and harvest whatever there'd be of coin before novelty and interest flagged.

Jerry Lewis complained that Wallis had no head for comedy and I can imagine Hal wondering what point theperformer was trying to make. Here was rush on a finite vein of gold, as Dean Martin might also have sensed. Could that be why he took money and ran to golf courses? Lewis had Chaplinesque designs and would eventually upset a golden apple cart. I wish an alternate history could tell us how much longer M&L might have lasted as a team had the 1956 break-up not occurred. The Stooge came at peak of a public's engagement. For young folk, especially boys, Martin and Lewis were a happier discovery than even Abbott and Costello had been. What is laborious inThe Stooge are routines Jerry does sans Dean, like a lunch counter exchange or business with a  squirting sink in a train compartment. Lewis relied mostly on two expressions: manic and pouty. He's likeable with neither to my thinking. At least there's curiosity for Lewis pics with Martin; when Jerry became the whole show, it was every viewer for him/herself.