Jerry Lewis built his comedy on frantic movement and extravagant facial expressions. His restraint in The King of Comedy makes an even stronger impression on us, turning a celebrity’s weariness into something painfully funny.
Fi1m perspective
Jerry Lewis lets the fatigue settle in his face while Robert De Niro keeps offering friendship. In Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982), his talk-show host Jerry Langford has no wish to make Rupert feel welcome. He does not soften that response to make the encounter easier for us, either. The longer De Niro persists, the more reasonable Lewis’s coldness becomes.
This was a considerable change from the hapless, manic figures of his comedies. His partnership with Dean Martin ran from 1946 to 1956 and produced 16 films. Working alone, he became writer, director and star with The Bellboy (1960), a virtually plotless film built around visual comedy. By The Nutty Professor (1963), playing Professor Julius F. Kelp and Buddy Love, he was controlling the film as well as supplying its two central performances.
In The Ladies Man (1961), the elaborate multi-storey boarding-house set shows how far that visual ambition extended beyond his own face. Lewis was a director who thought about the space a comic body could occupy. But the extreme mannerisms and sentiment can be wearing, and control is no guarantee of judgement. We would not recommend the self-directed comedies indiscriminately.
Under Scorsese, a dead-eyed response is enough to make him funny. Langford has no intention of thanking an admirer merely for wanting his attention, and Lewis makes no attempt to disguise his impatience. We felt trapped by the exchanges, because De Niro’s eagerness survives every discouragement Lewis can give him. A more welcoming performance would make Rupert’s persistence easier to forgive, giving him an excuse that Lewis is careful to deny him.
It is the performance we would start with, provided an evening of repeated humiliation appeals. The film’s 109 minutes can feel long, because those encounters bring so little relief. It is not a promising choice for repairing a bad day.
Biography
Jerry Lewis was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. Born Joseph Levitch in Newark, New Jersey, he began performing in vaudeville and nightclubs before forming the comedy duo Martin and Lewis with Dean Martin in 1946. The pair starred in a series of films until their partnership ended in 1956.
Lewis went on to direct and star in films including The Bellboy (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He appeared in later roles such as Jerry Langford in The King of Comedy (1982) and in Arizona Dream (1993). He hosted annual telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 until 2010.
