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Been watching Martin & Lewis movies again, this time Scared Stiff from 1953. I know I've seen much the same film, but starring Bob Hope in the Dino role. It's based on a play, though, so there's probably been several adaptations. Lovely scene at the end, when the boys, thinking that they've seen all that the haunted house has to offer, see one last terrifying thing behind a secret panel - skeletons with the heads of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. What a lovely conceit. That sort of thing used to happen a lot more often in those days; and of course Dino and Jerry cropped up in one of the Road movies, too. Bali, was it? It's a shame that actors don't pop up in each other's films nowadays. It gave these things such a nice family atmosphere somehow.
One thing that did amuse me, though, after muttering about Jerry Lewis and Lucille Ball the other day. About two thirds of the way through the film, Jerry totally rips off an old routine of Lucy's. In the first season ILL episode "Be A Pal", Lucy mimes to the Carmen Miranda song Mama Yo Quiero; and predictably enough the record gets stuck, and speeds up, and slows down, etc. That was 1951. And in Scared Stiff two years later, there's Jerry Lewis, miming to a fluctuating Mama Yo Quiero, with a very similar costume. Carmen Miranda was one of the stars of the film, and he was impersonating her character, so it wasn't just out of the blue or anything, but it did seem a bit odd. Same idea, same song. They could at least have used a different record!
Jerry does Carmen Miranda. In a manner of speaking.
Lucille Ball does Carmen Miranda, two years earlier.
Hope and Crosby after a crash diet.
Lessons learnt: 1). It's extremely hard to get a still of Jerry Lewis when he's not making a very weird face; and 2). When impersonating Carmen Miranda, it pays to have a manic Cuban standing alongside. ;)
One thing that did amuse me, though, after muttering about Jerry Lewis and Lucille Ball the other day. About two thirds of the way through the film, Jerry totally rips off an old routine of Lucy's. In the first season ILL episode "Be A Pal", Lucy mimes to the Carmen Miranda song Mama Yo Quiero; and predictably enough the record gets stuck, and speeds up, and slows down, etc. That was 1951. And in Scared Stiff two years later, there's Jerry Lewis, miming to a fluctuating Mama Yo Quiero, with a very similar costume. Carmen Miranda was one of the stars of the film, and he was impersonating her character, so it wasn't just out of the blue or anything, but it did seem a bit odd. Same idea, same song. They could at least have used a different record!
Jerry does Carmen Miranda. In a manner of speaking.
Lucille Ball does Carmen Miranda, two years earlier.
Hope and Crosby after a crash diet.
Lessons learnt: 1). It's extremely hard to get a still of Jerry Lewis when he's not making a very weird face; and 2). When impersonating Carmen Miranda, it pays to have a manic Cuban standing alongside. ;)
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