Frank Tashlin

A pardoned stagecoach robber, becomes government agent and marries a naive unsuspecting east-coast dentist in order to join a wagon train and catch the smugglers who have been selling guns to the Indians. Jesse W. Haywood graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west "to fight oral ignorance." Meanwhile stagecoach robber Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers. She tricks the bungling Haywood into a fictitious marriage as a disguise, and he becomes the heroic "Doc the Haywood" after he guns down "Arnold the Kid" and performs other exploits with Penny's help (unbeknown to him or anyone else). —Doug Shafer <dsshafer@uncc.edu>

A bumbling, yet loveable, med student leaves medical school because of his neurotic sympathy pains that he shares with his patients. He takes a job at an exclusive posh sanitarium as an orderly. While he makes great efforts to be a model orderly, his good natured innate ineptness makes a shambles of the institution and tries the patience of the hospital staff. The harder he tries, the worse he makes things with sidesplitting funny results. While at the hospital, a significant figure from his long ago teenage past resurfaces. The results will have you in a flight of emotions from drama to slapstick to pathos. Only Jerry Lewis could pull this off in one of his best film works. Look for the wonderful Alice Pearce ("Gladys Kravtiz" of Bewitched) in the role as the hilarious hypochondriac "Mrs. Fuzzybee." Her scenes with Jerry are the funniest in the entire film.

Norman Phiffier works as a store clerk in a large department store. Clumsy and inept, he can't do anything right. Boy are they in trouble! Barbara is a very rich girl who falls in love with Norman Phiffier, a poor young man. She doesn't tell him who she really is and prepares to marry him. But, Mrs. Tuttle (Barbara's mother) doesn't want her daughter to mary such a poor man. So, she hires Norman at one of her big stores, and gives him the most difficult and disgusting works. She hopes that seeing Norman humiliated, Barbara will finally leave him. But things don't work exactly this way... —Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>

An employee at Diner's Club issues a credit card to a well-known mobster and has to retrieve it in order to keep his job. Mobster Foots Pulardos, who operates a health gym as a front, plans to flee to Mexico to evade government tax officials. His girlfriend Sugar Pye suggests that he first arrange for the cremation of a man having his own peculiar identifying characteristic--feet of different sizes--then apply for a Diners' Club card to use to pay his fare. The credit-card request comes to the desk of timid clerk Ernie Klenk. Nervous about his forthcoming marriage to the boss' secretary Lucy, Ernie inadvertently OKs the application; when he discovers his mistake, he rushes to the health gym to recover the club card he had issued. —Canon y mus

A TV repairman dreams of being a detective and sets out to locate a missing heir. Lester is a clumsy and awkward TV repair man who is nevertheless gifted technically. In helping out a friend, he is drawn into a mystery involving a missing heir in a rich family. He begins to notice little things, like how much those family portraits look like him. Surely..no..he can't be...can he ? —David Gibson <djg6@ukc.ac.uk>

A gender-swapped retelling of Charles Perrault's classic, where Cinderfella is visited by a fairy godfather to help him escape from his wicked stepmother and stepbrothers. This was Jerry Lewis' answer to the classic Cinderella story. When his father dies, poor Cinderfella (Jerry Lewis) Fella is left at the mercy of his snobbish stepmother (Dame Judith Anderson) and her two no-good sons, Maximilian (Henry Silva) and Rupert (Robert Hutton). As he slaves away for his nasty stepfamily, Maximilian and Rupert attempt to find a treasure Cinderfella's father has supposedly hidden on the estate. Meanwhile, hoping to restore her dwindling fortunes, the stepmother plans a fancy ball in honor of the visiting Princess Charming (Anna Maria Alberghetti) who she hopes will marry Rupert. Eventually, Cinderfella's Fairy Godfather (Ed Wynn) shows up to convince him that he has a shot at winning the Princess. —phillindholm When Fella's father dies, he continues to live with his wicked stepmother Emily and her two sons, Maximilian and Rupert. His stepfamily takes over the family mansion, while Fella is reduced to living in an unfinished room at the end of a long hallway. He has essentially become their butler, catering to their every whim. Fella dreams nightly that his father is trying to relay a message to him about where he has hidden his fortune, but he always awakens before he learns the hiding place. His stepfamily knows of this secret fortune and some go to great lengths to discover its whereabouts, while others pretend to befriend him in order to wrangle Fella's fortune away once it is found. Back home, one of Fella's stepbrothers realizes that Fella is the supposed "prince." They wind up in a struggle under a tree and discover that the fortune is hidden there. Fella, who had always known where the money was, gives it to his stepfamily, saying that he never needed money to be happy; he only wanted a family. Shamed, his stepmother orders her sons to return the money to Fella. The princess arrives with Fella's lost shoe, but Fella explains that they could never be together because she is a "person" and he is a "people." She tells him that, underneath the fancy clothes, she is a "people" too. —tpsimpleman

Gilbert Wooley is a second-rate magician who is sent to entertain the troops in the pacific. During his time in Japan he becomes attached to a little orphan boy.

Carla Naples ran away from her small town life, her small town family, and a small town boy with a crush on her to become a big star. But while on a shoot in Mexico she got secretly married and turns up pregnant with no proof of marriage her agent suggests a little bit of help keeping her babies and keeping them secret, he suggests family but Carla knows there's only one person who'll do anything for her and that's small town crush Clayton Pool. Carla's little sister has had a crush on Clayton as long as Clayton has had a crush on Carla. Clayton agrees to find the baby on his doorstep and keep it for Carla until.... Carla fails to tell him it's not one baby, but three..and the laughs go on from there.

A singer who can't pay his bookie joins a nerdy, star-struck movie fan and his Great Dane in a cross-country convertible ride to Hollywood. The last movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin together, is a satire of the life in Hollywood. Steve Wiley is a deceiver who cheats Malcolm Smith when he wins a car, claiming that he won it too. Trying to steal the car, Steve tells Malcolm that he lives in Hollywood, next to Anita Ekberg's. When Malcom hears that, they both set out for Hollywood and the adventure begins... —Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com> Malcolm Smith, a star-struck movie fan known for his lucky feelings, wins a new convertible in a theater raffle, but his ownership is challenged by compulsive gambler Steve Wiley, who hopes his forged winning ticket will help him pay off his bookie. After Steve regales a lovesick Malcolm with concocted stories about his supposed next-door neighbor, sultry actress Anita Ekberg, they agree to share the car on a cross-country trip to Tinseltown. Steve is prevented from abandoning his traveling companion on several occasions by the latter's pet dog, a huge and voracious Great Dane named Mr. Bascomb. They bond by sharing various adventures in New Jersey, Chicago, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. By the time they get to Las Vegas, where they meet the real Anita Ekberg and test Malcom's luck with craps, they have acquired a third member of their group, Terry Roberts, an aspiring dancer, who becomes romantically involved with Steve. —Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com) Malcolm Smith is a movie buff who yearns to go out to Hollywood to meet Anita Ekberg. Steve Wiley is a gambler with some bad debts. They both have winning tickets in a car raffle (Steve's is fake), so they share the car and head off to Hollywood along with Malcolm's Great Dane and a girl named Terry that they meet along the way. —Chris Yanda <cyanda@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca>

Rick Todd uses the dreams of his roommate Eugene as the basis for a successful comic book. Rick Todd and Eugene Fullstack share an apartment and have dreams for the future. Rick is an aspiring artist looking for a break. Eugene loves comic books, especially The Bat Lady series. He is so engrossed with her stories that he has nightmares and dreams of his own comic book characters. Their luck begins to change when Abby Parker is fired as the artist for the Bat Lady. Rick pitches his own comic book series and Eugene gets to meet Bessie Sparrowbrush, who, unbeknown to him, is the artist's model the Bat Lady. Rivalry and romance ensues for all four of them, with several song and dance numbers along the way.

Sally borrows her friend's cosmetics kit to sell door-to-door but fails miserably. She and her fiancé get caught up in a smuggling scheme, are suspected of murders, and must evade the police while hunting for the real culprits. Scatterbrained Sally Elliott tries to get a job as a Fuller brush girl and desperate for money she borrows her friend's kit without permission and her attempts at selling cosmetics door-to-door are disastrous. She and her fiance Humphrey get involved in a smuggling scheme and she becomes the prime suspect in first one and then a second murder. She and Humphrey find themselves dodging the police while trying to catch the real killers. —Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

Striving to be a whiz-bang salesman and screwing up at every turn, Red Skelton turns in a genius comic performance inevitably getting into big trouble, impossible situations and a wild chase involving dastardly crooks. Poor Red Jones gets fired from every job he tries. His fiancée gives him one last chance to make good when he becomes a Fuller Brush man. His awkward attempts at sales are further complicated when one of his customers is murdered and he becomes the prime suspect. —Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com> "Red" Jones attempts to prove himself to his sweetheart, Ann Elliott, by becoming a successful Fuller Brush door-to-door salesman. When one of his clients is murdered, "Red" becomes the number-one suspect by the police. He and Ann escape a trap set by the killer and his henchmen, but are still being chased through a war-surplus warehouse. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Sherry Williams (Jane Powell) is a fifteen year old girl at boarding school. On the day of the school show, in which she has a leading part, she goes to the rail station to meet her sister Josephine (Constance Moore). Sherry thinks that her sister is a Broadway musical star, but in fact she is in burlesque. Josephine has left the train on the wrong side to avoid meeting Arthur Hale (Ralph Bellamy), a Broadway producer who she fears might recognise her as "Bubbles Barton", her stage name. By the time that she emerges, Sherry and all the taxis have gone, so Josephine has to hitch a lift to the school, while Arthur gets there first. He is at the school talent spotting, so meets Sherry who is in tears because of teasing by other girls over the non-arrival of her famous sister. He earns Sherry's friendship by quick-wittedly supporting her belief that Josephine Williams is indeed a big star. The show goes on, Sherry is a smash and Josephine and Arthur meet. he is smitten but can't quite place her face. They return to New York separately, swiftly followed by Sherry who wants to see her sister perform. She catches the burlesque act and deeply shocked by the sight of her sister's legs, rushes from the theatre in tears to seek solace at Arthur's apartment. Eager to get rid of her, he calls up Josephine who comes round to collect her and reveals that she is Bubbles Barton. Josephine must leave on tour next day, so extracts a promise that Arthur will put Sherry on the train back to school next day. Sherry however, calls a friend, goes shopping and returns after the train time dressed to kill. It is her intention to make Arthur put her into his next musical, so that the money she earns can rescue her sister from a life of sin. Arthur is taken aback, but is persuaded to take her to a big night club, where she is the centre of attention, particularly when she sings with the band! The bandleader, Morton Gould (as himself) introduces her to a radio producer who is just about to sign her, when her sister appears and is recognised by a bystander. The producer reneges on his offer, as his sponsor can have no connection with the sister of a burlesque artiste. Undaunted, Sherry devises a new plan, records her sister singing, plays the record to Arthur, who recognises immediately that she is the star he needs to save his new show and puts both girls onto the stage. They are a smash and Josephine also gets a marriage proposal from Arthur.