The Disorderly Orderly

This film keeps getting better. The 60s as they should have been. I'll always remember the ambulances, the frustrated nurse, the rotten hospital director (Everett Sloane). The chase at the end is what film comedy is about. Watch it at the cinema if you have a time machine.

Spoilers herein. Many film comedies are oddly insensitive to the comedic talents of the star when the strength of that star is to be intrinsically ridiculous. That's because you have to juggle and integrate several things: the funniness of the man himself and the funniness of the local situations and skits, to the wrapper of the story that is required for us to accept it as a movie. Here we have Lewis the unequalled goofball, funny in himself. They engineer numerous skits, all of which fit the peculiar Lewis type of pratfall performance and a few of which are still funny. Where this thing seems dated now is in the wrapper story. The sad thing is that this (and "Nutty Perfesser") is just about the best Jerry Lewis we have. He deserved better. Can you imagine him in something better integrated like "The Producers?" Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY (1964) *** Jerry Lewis, Susan Oliver, Kathleen Freeman, Jack E. Leonard. Very funny and frenzied comedy with our boy Jerry running amok in a private hospital and discovering a long-lost love recovering there. Some precious sight gags and one mother of a chase at the end.

This time Jerry Lewis is a hospital worker.Now that doesn't sound right.When Jerry is trying to do his job, it's always a disaster.This Jerome Littlefield, that Jerry plays, is in love with one patient.And there is also a nurse, that likes Jerome. Disorderly Orderly is a terrific Jerry Lewis comedy. Just hilarious.

I am not a Jerry Lewis specialist, though I possess nearly all his films, but comedies are not my stuff. However I like this kind of entertainment,naive, mindless but exciting, especially in climaxes. This one makes no exception and remains I guess one of Jerry Lewis' best, pulled by a Frank Tashlin in great shape. Last fifteen minutes are overwhelming, a gigantic tribute to Buster Keaton and silent slapstick masterpieces. IT'S A MAD MAD WORLD was also a terrific tribute to slapstick movies.

Disorderly Orderly, The (1964) * 1/2 (out of 4) Totally unfunny Jerry Lewis film finds him playing (gasp) a dumb orderly who wishes to become a doctor. Lewis falls in love with a suicidal patient and she could hold the key to him getting his wish. I really love Jerry Lewis and find him quite funny in interviews but man have I been disappointed in his solo work. One of the characters tells the dumb orderly that his problem is that he tries too hard and I think that's the problem with Lewis. The jokes are so forced that they are more annoying than anything else. A few laughs but after thirty minutes I started looking at my carpet.

I can watch Jerry Lewis films over and over again and still get the full laugh effect. This one finds him as an orderly in a mental hospital (!) where he manages to fumble everything from breakfast to scrubbing the floors. He meets a destitute patient (Susan Oliver) and then the fun begins. These sequences provide a little of the film's serious side but overall the slapstick and Jerry's mugging are hilarious. Even the kids will get a hoot out of this. Highly recommended for family viewing.