The Delicate Delinquent


1957 comedy

Rating: 12/20

Plot: After a mentally-challenged janitor is mistaken for part of a 1950's Hollywood street gang member, a cop decides to use him as the subject for a reform project.

This was Jerry Lewis's first movie without Dean Martin and if you believe the poster, his biggest laff-a-thon. That's right. Jerry Lewis's movie's posters can't even spell correctly. The movie's completely harmless. You've got the naive charm of 1950's gangbangers, and Jerry Lewis doing his totally unrealistic wacky thing that the French seem to love. Darren McGavin plays the straight man, the cop trying to reform Lewis's character. The movie's got the type of excursions you'd guess it would have, making the movie closer to 2 hours than the 80 minutes it should have been. Of course, if you cut it to its bones, you'd lose the nearly great moment where Jerry Lewis rocks out on a theremin.

I didn't laugh at this movie at all, but it's mild amusement for Jerry Lewis fans. Hardly a laff-a-thon, however, and I don't even know if I'd call it a laugh-a-thon.

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