ROCK A BYE BABY
US, 1958, 107 minutes, Colour.
Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Maxwell, Reginald Gardiner, Salvatore Baccaloni, Hans Conried, Isobel Elsom, James Gleason, Isa Moore, Connie Stevens.
Directed by Frank Tashlin.
Rock a Bye Baby was one of Jerry Lewis' earliest solo films - after his break with Dean Martin. They had had a very successful cabaret and film career to the mid-'50s. Several of their films (Hollywood or Bust, Artists and Models) were written and directed by former cartoonist Frank Tashlin. Tashlin continued a collaboration with Jerry Lewis for almost ten years from the '50s to the '60s.
Tashlin here adapts Preston Sturges' screenplay for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, a Betty Hutton-Eddie? Bracken comedy vehicle of the mid-'40s. This kind of thing had happened for Jerry Lewis in Living It Up (adapted from Nothing Sacred with Jerry Lewis in Carole Lombard's role) and You're Never Too Young (from The Major and the Minor with Jerry Lewis in the Ginger Rogers role). Here he has the Betty Hutton role - at home in a small town having the responsibility of what seem to be illegitimate children. It is interesting to note how Tashlin adapts the strong heroine for Lewis' comic personality. There are many funny sequences - but success depends on audience response to Lewis and taste for his comic style. Marilyn Maxwell and Reginald Gardiner offer strong support, Italian opera singer Baccaloni (also in Full of Life) is the father. The character supporting cast includes Hans Conried and James Gleason. A young Connie Stevens appears as Marilyn Maxwell's sister.
1. The popularity of Jerry Lewis in the '50s? The impact of his comedy in its time? Later generations? In retrospect? French admiration for his comic style? in himself. as a comic, his comic persona? An American type? His acting abilities, sentiment, the little man? Put-upon? mimic? Singing and dancing? The quality of his work with Frank Tashlin?
2. The adaptation of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek? Updating, transferring of the feminine role to Jerry Lewis? The colour musical comedy of the '50s? The presentation of the small American town? The television era?
3. The Paramount style: California. Indiana? Special effects, especially for comedy? Parody of genre films? Fantasy? Musical score and songs?
4. Jerry Lewis' persona in the film? His name Clayton Poole? Midvale as his home? An idealised little man? Selflessness? Love for Carla? Friendship with Sandra? His work - and the details of his work providing farce and pratfall comedy? Carla's father? Carla's career and Clayton's joy? The babies and his caring for them? The humour of Jerry Lewis as surrogate mother? Studying how to bring up babies? His courting of Carla? The admiration of Sandy? His relationship with the range of people in the town - employers, customers? The credibility of his idealised little man?
5. The quality of the laughs: the television aerial sequence, the hose, the advertisements, the TV impersonation, the children, being a father, at home, the Elvis parody?
6. Carla and her glamorous style. laughs. ambiguity, the agent, the babies, her using Clayton, the filming. the skit, the ending?
7. Sandra as the nice devoted hometown girl, television, the children, marrying, the end?
8. The father - in town, the games, work, drinking, hardness, the photo, singing, the resolution?
9. The detail of life in the small town: phone, the ads, the television-watcher, the judge, the university and work?
10. Jerry Lewis' portrayal of the American comic as the generous and long-suffering little man? Hollywood glamour - divorced from reality? The eccentricities of characters?
