The Big Mouth
A fisherman crosses paths with a diamond-smuggling gangster–who is his doppelgänger—and inadvertently takes his place at a resort hotel where he meets a special girl.
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- Cast:
- Jerry Lewis , Harold J. Stone , Susan Bay Nimoy , Buddy Lester , Del Moore , Paul Lambert , Jeannine Riley
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Reviews
Very Cool!!!
There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Why this Jerry Lewis comedy isn't better known or more widely available is a mystery since it's a classic and as consistently funny as anything he did. Here the slapstick verges on the surreal while its 'thriller' plot is virtually irrelevant. As well as starring, Jerry wrote, produced and directed and if it never amounts to anything more than a series of sketches they are, at least, very funny. It's certainly a movie ripe for rediscovery that, for now at least, will have to settle for ultimate cult status.
This slow moving train wreck was produced and directed by the star, Jerry Lewis. No one else would touch it. Lewis plays an accountancy clerk who catches a sea diver when fishing on the coast. The diver is a diamond thief and gives Lewis a map. The diver's confederates, who he has cheated, plan to assassinate him and get the map. Then follows a dull series of slow pratfalls. Lewis stays at the Hilton while searching for the diamonds. How he can afford to is not shown (he's only an accountancy clerk remember).One of the confederates is a Japanese who runs a "racket" selling plastic inserts in oysters as pearls – although in fact this is how manufactured pearls are made. Lewis never finds the diamonds. The strong violence make it unsuitable for the most undemanding of children. Product placement – Pepsi Cola.
"The Big Mouth" is one of the better Jery Lewis movies out there. While I have yet to see ALL of Lewis's earlier works, I have seen a good handful of the better known titles including "The Family Jewels" and "The Nutty Professor." This one is better than both. I always felt that it deserved more attention and props than "NP" (his most well known) simply because the humor was more consistent throughout and the comedic timing, especially with Jerry as Gerald Clamson, couldn't have been better. Some great examples include him and the bellhop during an awkward moment involving a tip. Another one involves him and an elderly Chinese man at the pearl shop at Sea World. His remark about Confucious is the stuff of legend. So is the man's reaction. I also felt that "NP" was lacking in good supporting characters that were wacky enough to hold there own against Clamson. This is why the movie fizzles and becomes somewhat stale early on. Nothing for him to play off of. "FJ" had plenty of characters, but they were all played by Jerry Lewis. In other words, that movie suffered from Lewis overload. "The Big Mouth" is a perfect balance of all these elements. Though it may lose some of its pacing around the second half, the movie is well worth at least a rental simply for the first. If you suddenly crave some good silliness that will actually make you laugh from time to time, this is the Jerry Lewis movie for you, if you can find it.p.s.-for Hojean, this is the one you're thinking of.
Smugglers have a falling out, and one of them high-tails it with the loot. When the gang finds out that Jerry unknowingly received the stones, they pull out all stops to get at him. That should have been easy, but the fools are more inept than Jerry. Of course, along the way Jerry falls in love. An amusing film.