"An acquired taste" sounds like a phrase specifically invented for him.
To the everlasting confounding of American critics and film pundits, Lewis was embraced in France as a gifted clown and visionary film director.
Masses of American audiences (especially baby boomers growing up) loved his hapless sweet-tempered idiot-nerd-rubberfaced loon character. He crafted this persona during his partnership with crooner Dean Martin, who'd honed his own public identity as a womanizing, heavy drinking, nightclub lounge lizard.
Apart, they equally flourished - Martin as both actor and singer and Lewis playing the loon boy by himself in one film after another. And when Lewis took over directing his own films, he proved to be an innovative creative force in filmmaking and at times a remarkable visual stylist.
"The Ladies Man" came two years before what's generally credited as his masterpiece, "The Nutty Professor". That film took its place as a penultimate summing up of his two public personalities - the unabashed loon and the cold-hearted, cynically insincere showbiz hipster. (the latter of which Martin Scorsese tapped into in "The King Of Comedy")
Depending on your tolerance for him, with the 'Ladies Man' you get the full dose of unadulterated Jerry Lewis as the braying circus clown working on your last nerve. (Buddy Love, the cool, cruel Mr. Hyde of "The Nutty Professor" is yet to exist. )
His name is Herbert Heebert, a recent junior college grad traumatized into screaming hysteria at the sight of his girlfriend kissing another boy. Herbert shrieks for his mom, also played by Lewis in drag.......and I'll leave that topic for French film critics and American Freud-ians....)
Swearing off women forever, Herbert naturally ends up as a handyman for a boarding house exclusively populated by young girls, all of whom look like what they actually were, Hollywood starlets hoping for their big break.
Cue the expected avalanche of Lewis's overblown mugging, hollering and supposedly hilarious gibberish he babbles to himself while surrounded by this mansion full of cuties.
There's no point in discussing (or attempting to critique) the comedy on display here. You either think Lewis is a riot or tiresome, repetitive and monotonous in his limited repertoire of overreacting. But is the genuine pleasure of watching his intricate dialogue timing and chemistry in his scenes with veteran comic character actress Kathleen Freeman (a regular in Lewis's company of supporting players.)
(And there's at least one startling, inventive sight gag involving a glass display of pinned butterflies......like something you might see if the film was directed by Frank Tashlin.)
But apart from the obvious mugging, let us now praise the some of the extraordinary cinema creativity in "The Ladies Man".....
Lewis's boarding house mansion was constructed on Paramount sound stages as a three story set with a life-size dollhouse view of every room. With each room fully designed and decorated, director Lewis, himself and his camera mounted a huge crane, could glide across each apartment for separate scenes or pull back for an impressive Dollhouse view long shot of the entire structure as the ladies went about their daily lives...or sprightly choreographed dance numbers.
Nobody was more impressed with this feat than the ego-driven Lewis himself, installing bleachers on the sound stage for visitors to gawk at and admire. The crowds included young Paramount intern, Francis Ford Coppola.
The 21 year old Coppola was probably equally knocked out by Lewis's other groundbreaking technique used in the film - a video recorder sitting side by side with the 35 millimeter camera. Without having to wait the next day to see 'dailies' of each day's footage, Lewis could play back the video version of each shot instantly to judge its value and usability. (Modernized versions of Lewis's 'video assist' are now standard procedure on every film you view.....)
Hard to pin a rating on this one. For the sheer versatility of its filmmaking, it's at least a one time watch for all dedicated cinema buffs. But for those with a very limited (or zero) capacity for Jerry Lewis, it's by no means an easy sit. BQ will leave it a 2 & 1/4 stars......(** 1/4).
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