Scared Stiff (1953)

Intro.

We all have those feel-good movies that we watched when we were younger, right?  When I was in middle school, I started watching the old Martin and Lewis comedies.  My mom recently gave me a box full of my old VHS tapes, among them all of my Martin and Lewis movies.  This past week was horrible, so one night when I was stressed to the max, I decided to settle down with my old friends, Dean and Jerry.  And sure enough, that old charm of those 50s comedies came back and melted my stress away.

Overview

Scared Stiff opens in a nightclub where we find Larry Todd (Dean Martin) as the star singer who is having a fling with one of the showgirls.  She, however, is the main squeeze of the biggest mob boss in town - Shorty.  Shorty orders Larry to come to his hotel room to "work things out" but Larry's best friend, bumbling busboy Myron (Jerry Lewis) decides to go first and scare Shorty into leaving Larry alone.  Larry goes after him and of course things go from bad to crazy as Larry thinks he has accidentally shot someone.  With the police after him, he and Myron escape with the help of a beautiful woman named Mary Carol (Lizabeth Scott), who has just inherited Lost Island, just south of Cuba.  Lost Island is supposedly haunted, populated by zombies, you name it.  Mary will not be stopped, even after voodoo threats and offers to buy her out.  Larry, who has become quite taken with Mary, promises to go with her to check out the island.  Myron of course comes too and after a lot of terrifying run ins with ghosts and a zombie, the threesome finally find the real secret of Lost Island - a secret that people are willing to kill for.

Background and Highlights
Martin and Lewis became the leading comedy act in the US in the early 1950s.  They teamed up in a nightclub in 1946 and stayed together until 1956.  They made a total of 16 films together and starred on the Colgate Comedy Hour.  In fact, they were so popular, they once completely stopped traffic in Times Square when they leaned out of their hotel room window and all of their fans gathered around.  The fans themselves filled Times Square and inspired a scene in the film The Caddy.  Theirs was perhaps the most successful of the crooner-comedian pairings and it made national news when they broke up and went their separate ways.  Some of their films are very silly, some good and innocent fun, and still there are a few that touch on that once close but then strained brotherly relationship.  Scared Stiff came in the middle of their film career, and is still in that innocent fun mode, where they had the formula to make America laugh.

There is a good balance in this film - Jerry is able to have some great comic routines like the argument with himself in a mirror and his amazing impersonation of Carmen Miranda (oh my gosh, Jerry trying to dance in those heels while keeping all that fruit balanced on his head makes the whole film worth watching).  And Dean has some fantastic musical numbers, including what may be my favorite in all of the Martin & Lewis films - "When Someone Wonderful Thinks You're Wonderful".  They are great together too, and Lizabeth Scott is a wonderful addition as a great leading lady.

What really struck me when I watched this time, was how funny Dean Martin could be.  I knew that when he later performed with Frank Sinatra on stage, he was responsible for writing their jokes, but I've heard it wasn't so clear who wrote what for Martin and Lewis.  Regardless, he delivers some of the best lines in this film.  A few favorites include: "Don't give me away, please!  Someday you may have a little boy and he'll grow up and commit an innocent murder too!" and "I'm just dropping a few eaves." 

Review
Scared Stiff isn't necessarily a classic - it's not in the ranks of The Philadelphia Story or Some Like It Hot.  It is a wonderful comedy though and a great example of what Martin and Lewis could accomplish at the height of their career.  It has something for everyone - Jerry's juvenile antics appeal to younger crowds while Dean's more subtle jokes (and crooning) appealed to older crowds.  It's also a good look at what entertained audiences in the early fifties.  As I wrote earlier, this was one of my favorite movies from when I was about thirteen and I love it even more now.  It still has that innocent, feel-good quality that so many of today's comedies are missing, and I recommend it.

Fun Facts
First, there is a great, great cameo at the end of the film, which I won't spoil, but it relates to a cameo that Dean and Jerry had in an earlier film.  Also worth mentioning is how Larry, upon seeing the underground railroad tracks and spooky lanterns says "reminds me of my hotel room in Steubenville."  Steubenville, Ohio is, of course, Dean Martin's hometown.