The Family Jewels casts Jerry Lewis as chauffeur/bodyguard/factotum to little Donna Butterworth who is worth millions and who has just lost her father. The attorney for her estate is the officious Neil Hamilton and by the terms of her father's will Butterworth can choose whom her guardian shall be among an interesting variety of uncles.
And those uncles are all played by Jerry Lewis in a homage to Alec Guinness and the many members of D'Ascoyne family he played in Kind Hearts And Coronets. The Family Jewels is not as good a film as Kind Hearts And Coronets but that's because the Guinness film contains a witty and interesting story, wit being supplied by Dennis Price as he kills off the heirs.
Nothing that bad here except one of the uncles Jerry plays is a gangster who wants the fortune for himself and holds Butterworth for ransom after several inept efforts to capture her from chauffeur Lewis.
The most interesting of the Lewis characters is that of the pilot uncle who has a broken down one plane airline who happens to get a charter flight the day Butterworth visits. The whole sequence is one sustained gag about this group of old ladies with matrimony on their minds who out of desperation take Jerry's airline to a convention in Chicago. The trip is most interesting and hilarious.
Jerry directed himself in this and director Lewis packaged all his characters with tender care for a still appreciative audience.
And those uncles are all played by Jerry Lewis in a homage to Alec Guinness and the many members of D'Ascoyne family he played in Kind Hearts And Coronets. The Family Jewels is not as good a film as Kind Hearts And Coronets but that's because the Guinness film contains a witty and interesting story, wit being supplied by Dennis Price as he kills off the heirs.
Nothing that bad here except one of the uncles Jerry plays is a gangster who wants the fortune for himself and holds Butterworth for ransom after several inept efforts to capture her from chauffeur Lewis.
The most interesting of the Lewis characters is that of the pilot uncle who has a broken down one plane airline who happens to get a charter flight the day Butterworth visits. The whole sequence is one sustained gag about this group of old ladies with matrimony on their minds who out of desperation take Jerry's airline to a convention in Chicago. The trip is most interesting and hilarious.
Jerry directed himself in this and director Lewis packaged all his characters with tender care for a still appreciative audience.