The Bellboy

The Bellboy is a 1960 American comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on July 20, 1960 by Paramount Pictures and marked Lewis's directorial debut.

For other uses, see Bellboy (disambiguation).
The Bellboy
Directed byJerry Lewis
Produced byJerry Lewis
Written byJerry Lewis
StarringJerry Lewis
Narrated byWalter Winchell
Music byWalter Scharf
CinematographyHaskell B. Boggs
Edited byStanley Johnson
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • July 20, 1960 (1960-07-20)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$10 million
836,783 admissions (France)[1]

Synopsis

In a prologue sequence, fictitious executive producer of Paramount Pictures Jack E. Mulcher introduces the movie, explaining that it has no story, and no plot. The film simply shows a few weeks in the life of a person Mulcher calls "a real nut." Mulcher breaks into hysterical laughter as the movie fades in.

Stanley the hotel bellhop gets into one ridiculous situation after another (via a series of blackout gags) while working at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Stanley does not speak until the last scene of the film, as he is always interrupted or silenced by another character.

Vignettes and gags
  • Stanley delivers an entire car engine to Room 664 after being told to "bring up everything out of the trunk."
  • The bellhops stand in a line and trip over each other when Bob the Bell Captain points at them from afar to get their attention.
  • Mr. Carter stays in Room 625 while Miss Winkley stays in Room 626. Stanley finds Miss Winkley's brassiere in Mr. Carter's luggage and leaves without hanging any of his clothes up.
  • Mrs. Hartung comes to the hotel to stay for 2 weeks. During this time, she loses a large amount of weight due to extreme dieting. As she's waiting for her uncle to pick her up, Stanley delivers a box of chocolates to her which she promptly devours, causing her to gain all the weight back.
  • Stanley randomly assigns the keys for all the suites, locking the guests out of their rooms.
  • Bob sends Stanley to fill the hotel's empty theater/auditorium with chairs. To Bob's shock, Stanley finishes in record time.
  • Jerry Lewis arrives at the hotel accompanied by his incessant entourage of employees. The other bellboys comment on Stanley's resemblance to Lewis.
  • Stanley delivers a note to Milton Berle, who mistakes Stanley for Jerry Lewis. Lewis then mistakes Berle for a bellboy who looks identical to Milton.
  • Stanley loses control over the hotel guests' dogs and they escape into the city streets. Once off-duty, he visits the dog track with his coworkers, steals the racing dogs, and takes them back to the hotel.
  • Stan Laurel attempts to strike up a conversation with Stanley to no avail.
  • Bob puts Stanley in charge of the reception desk, leading Stanley to destroy the phones when they won't stop ringing.
  • A modeling convention in town has its models stay at the hotel. The other bellboys accost them, leading Stanley to be the only one allowed to handle their belongings.
  • Stanley is assaulted by a middle-aged couple after they drag him into one of their arguments.
  • Mr. Novak gives a lecture about being professionally dressed as he wears casual beach attire.
  • A packed dining room forces Stanley to sit next to a gangster boss giving conflicting orders to his subordinates.
  • An exhausted woman named Dottie falls asleep on Stanley's shoulder as he takes a break.
  • Mr. Novak forbids his staff from going to a burlesque club. Bob is then shown drunk at the club but leaves before the main performer arrives.
  • Stanley places a mesh covering on a sleeping man's face so he does not get sunburned. The mesh pattern gives him an uneven tan.
  • Stanley attempts to eat lunch by himself but is interrupted by hotel guests ogling at him from behind a window.
  • Stanley fails to listen to Bob's instructions and hauls a heavy steamer trunk across the hotel lobby instead of the hat box Bob wanted.
  • A man eats an invisible apple and leaves some for Stanley to finish.
  • Stanley overhears a telephone conversation as he drinks from a drinking fountain. The female voice says she wants to marry someone who doesn't love her for her fortune or her Rolls-Royce, but for who she is as a person. As Stanley prepares to win her heart, he finds that the voice belongs to Stan Laurel.
  • Stanley refuses to let go of a suitcase; the owner drags Stanley through the hotel lobby, into a taxi, and drives away.
  • Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Manville wait in the lobby for their suite to be ready. Mr. Manville slips and injures his back as Stanley waxes the floor.
  • Stanley is sent to acquire a pickup order from Mr. Weal in Room 877, but the elevator door fails to open.
  • Passing through the theater, Stanley picks up a drum mallet and uses it to conduct an imaginary orchestra. As he finishes the piece, an imaginary audience gives Stanley a round of applause.
  • A malfunctioning trouser press leaves a hotel guest's pants as stiff as cardboard.
  • Stanley disfigures a bust after failing to read a "Wet Paint" sign.
  • Stanley goes to a golf tournament, where the flashing bulb of his camera costs Cary Middlecoff the win and $25,000.
  • At 3:30am, Stanley goes outside to take a photo of the full moon. Upon taking the photo, the moon disappears and inexplicably turns the night into daytime.
  • Stanley is sent by Mr. Novak to retrieve a briefcase from the cockpit of an airplane sitting at the airport. Stanley makes the journey, then commandeers an airliner back to the hotel.
  • Stanley and the other bellboys sit in a meeting discussing an upcoming labor strike. Mr. Novak barges in, falsely accusing Stanley of being the organizer. Stanley speaks for the first time in the movie, answering the question of why he never talks, "Because no one ever asked me."

A voice-over narration states that while the film had no plot, it did have a moral: "You'll never know the next guy's story...unless you ask."

Cast

Production

Principal photography took place from February 8 to March 5, 1960 and marked Jerry Lewis's debut as a director. Filming took place on location at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida; Lewis would film during the day and perform in the nightclub at night.[2]

Before he began, Lewis consulted his friend Stan Laurel about the script. Since Laurel had worked in silent films and was a master of English pantomime, he offered suggestions. It is unknown if Lewis used any of Laurel's ideas in the production.[3] But it is believed Lewis paid homage to the comic by naming his character 'Stanley' after him. A Stan Laurel lookalike character also appears throughout the story, portrayed by writer and impressionist Bill Richmond.

The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene.[4] Milton Berle was in town performing at another hotel while Lewis was shooting the picture and agreed to make an appearance as himself and in a dual role as another bellboy. Professional golfer Cary Middlecoff, the "Golf Doctor," appears as himself at a golf tournament. Lewis also appears as a fictional version of himself, credited in the opening credits as "Joe Levitch," his birth name).

The Bellboy came about after Paramount wanted to have a Jerry Lewis movie for summer release in North America. The movie that it wanted to release was Cinderfella, which had finished shooting in December 1959. However, Lewis wanted to hold back the release of Cinderfella until Christmas 1960 and Paramount agreed to his terms if Jerry could deliver another movie for summer. While playing an engagement in Miami Beach, Lewis came up with a movie that could be shot at the hotel during winter and delivered to Paramount by the summer release deadline.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed about $10 million in the USA alone.[5]

Critical response

Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that some parts of the film were "surprisingly successful" and that it was to Lewis' credit that "he has kept his energetic demeanor in reasonable check," to the point that some of his fans "may find the comedian disappointingly restrained."[6] Variety stated: "Several of the sequences are amusing, but too many are dependent upon climactic sight gags anticipated well ahead of the punch ... There are latent elements of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, Jacques Tati's 'Hulot,' Danny Kaye's 'Mitty' and Harpo Marx's curiously tender child-man, but the execution falls far short of such inspiration."[7] John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Times commented that there were "some very laughable situations" in the film, adding, "Some gags don't come off too well, but there are so many that the poorer ones quickly get lost in the fast shuffle."[8] The Monthly Film Bulletin reviewer wrote: "Too many scenes are both pointless and witless; sometimes the gag doesn't work, sometimes the direction is to blame. And Lewis's habit of ending each joke with a display of cross-eyed, simian mugging is scarcely endearing. Nevertheless, there remain some half-dozen moments of genuine comic invention."[9]

The film has a rating of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 6.89/10.[10]

Home media

This film was released on DVD on October 12, 2004[11] and again on July 15, 2014 in a 4-film collection, 4 Film Favorites: Jerry Lewis, with The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, and The Patsy.

See also

References
  1. Box office information for film at Box Office Story
  2. Goyanes, Ily (August 26, 2010). "Celluloid City: Jerry Lewis Is The Bellboy at the Fontainebleau Hotel". MiamiNewTimes.com. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  3. Jerry Lewis At Work (included in the Paramount DVD release of The Nutty Professor
  4. Franich, Darren (October 6, 2013). "The Bellboy (1960)". Movie Tech Breakthroughs: 10 That Broke the Mold. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-10-06. Lewis wanted to be able to look at scenes even when he was on screen. So he used primordial video technology, putting a video camera next to the film camera. This system became known as video playback and was basically used by everyone in Hollywood, before everyone in Hollywood stopped shooting on film.
  5. Lewis, Jerry; Gluck, Herb (1982). Jerry Lewis In Person. New York: Atheneum. p. 226. ISBN 0-689-11290-4.
  6. Archer, Eugene (July 21, 1960). "Screen: Double Feature". The New York Times. 17.
  7. "Film Reviews: The Bellboy". Variety. July 13, 1960. 6.
  8. Scott, John L. (July 7, 1960). "Lewis Plays Zany but Silent Bellboy". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 8.
  9. "The Bellboy". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 27 (320): 123. September 1960.
  10. "The Bellboy". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  11. "The Bellboy: Review of the DVD Video". DVDTalk.com. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  12. Sachs, Ben (May 23, 2012). "Now playing: Battleship, which isn't quite terrible". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  13. "The Bellboy". The Quentin Tarantino Archives Community. Forum.Tarantino.info. June 21, 2002. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
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