HARDLY WORKING

US, 1981, 90 minutes, Colour.
Jerry Lewis, Susan Oliver.
Directed by Jerry Lewis.

Hardly Working is Jerry Lewis' comeback film of the '80s. His last major film was Which Way to the Front in the early 170s. He subsequently made The King of Comedy with Robert de Niro for director Martin Scorsese. The film opens with a reprise of many Jerry Lewis comedy sequences from earlier films. It then makes a transition to Jerry in his 50s as a clown, out of work, messing up many jobs - but eventually coming through. Many of his old verbal and visual gags are replayed - he believes in the perennial value of such comic turns. He has quite a good supporting cast for his shenanigans - much less emphasised and inane than in some previous films. French critics have often thought him one of the world's greatest comics, a view not shared even in the United States. Hardly Working is engaging enough entertainment and probably more than enough for his fans.

1. Jerry Lewis and his prestige during the '40s, '50s & '60s? European acclamation of his comic genius? His being a comedian, a clown? The ten year absence from the screen? The collage of previous comic excerpts to open this film? The transition to the '80s?

2. The film as a comedy of the '80s, presenting once more past comedy, the value of perennial routines? Clowning, visual humour, pratfalls, the combat with machines, verbal humour, sentiment? Jerry Lewis as the little man comedian? Victim, awkward? Losing but winning through at the end?

3. The American flavour of the comedy, Florida: homes, jobs, cities? America Post? A warm look at American society - with the critical touch?

4. Audience response to Jerry Lewis and his comedy, especially with the opening? The clown and his routines? The pathos and the laughter? His age? The serious undertones? The zaniness but less zany than when he was younger? Romance? Achievement? Bo as character? The American clown, entertaining the kids. going to his sister's. sequences at home, relating with his niece and nephew, the variety of American jobs and his messing them up, being funny? The work at the post office - the interviews with Frank, falling in love with his daughter? Friendship with Claude, companionship with Steve? His enjoying being a clown? The finale as a clown through the streets of the city? His achievement in the post office? The possibility of his going back to the circus?

5. His relationship with his sister Clare? Her concern about him? Her pressuring her husband? Her ringing the various jobs? Robert and his antagonism towards Bo? The comic routines ridiculing Robert? The response of the children?

6. The encounter with Millie and her son, the accident in the garage, their laughing, the tennis sequence, dating Millie and taking her to dinner? The discovery that she was Frank's daughter - and the humorous routine on the Frank. Millie, Bo variations? Her discovering him as a clown at the end? Her giving him the ride? Happy prospects? The obnoxious son and his antagonism towards Bo? At the end?

7. The variety of jobs and the set-ups for comedy: the garage and the cans spilling, the, Japanese meal. the glass warehouse, the disco - and the fantasy satire on John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever?

8. America Post and Frank and his lecture, Claude and his help, Steve and his help? The various pratfalls and spilling the letters? The deliveries and his friendliness? The test and his perfect success? The decision to dress as a clown and distribute the rabbits? His delighting people?

9. Gentle humour, slapstick, zaniness? Verbal and visual humour? Human foibles? Laughter and hope?