PARDNERS

US, 1956, 90 minutes, Colour.
Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lori Nelson, Jeff Morrow, Agnes Moorhead, Lee van Cleef, Jack Elam, Lon Chaney Jr.
Directed by Norman Taurog.

Pardners is an ironic title for the second-last Martin and Lewis film. After 'Hollywood or Bust' they went on their own separate careers. Pardners is quite a good presentation of their differing talents and their working together. It is also a humorous poke at the conventions of the West. Agnes Moorehead stands out as the tough matriarch. The film was directed by Norman Taurog who directed the majority of the Martin and Lewis films.

1. A successful Martin and Lewis comedy? Audience expectations of their individual styles, combination? Style of humour, comedy routines, songs?

2. How enjoyable were the comedy routines? Especially within the conventions of the West? The initial parodies of the gun fighters and comradeship in death? The sequences when Wade was Killer Jones and Sheriff? The parody of Western expectations and conventions? How clever, what comment on Westerns?

3. Colour photography, period setting? Music, the integration of the songs into the plot? Special effects for example shootouts and explosions?

4. What ingredients of the Western did the film use well? The basic situation of ranches in the late 19th century and comradeship? Mrs Kingsley and her making a financial empire in New York? The domineering mother, the spoilt son and his ineffectualness, the arranged marriage? The rodeo sequences? The buying of the bull and Wade's use of his wealth? Wanting to be Slim's partner in the memory of the past? The humour of the K Ranch and its survival, the masked raiders and their identity, the shootouts and hold-ups? The finale?

5. Slim as a typical Dean Martin character? His good side, romantic side, putting himself out to help Wade? Wade as a Jerry Lewis character? small, ineffectual, wishing to do well, heart of gold, ultimately succeeding with help?

6. Mrs Kingsley and the satire on the dominant mother, board meetings, arranged marriages etc.? The contract with the two women in the West, Wade's cousin as a romantic heroine, Dolly and the saloon girl?

7. The treatment of such humorous sequences as the rodeo, Wade taking the bull to the West, the fight in the saloon with the gun fighter, the bank robbery, the tying up of Wade and his rescue, the finale?

8. How enjoyable a parody of the West and an example of American humour?