"Visit to a Small Planet" is an early Jerry Lewis solo film. Apparently, it was originally a teleplay and then a very successful Broadway play and I have no idea how close all this is to the film. However, considering that the author was NOT at all pleased with the casting of Lewis, I assume the projects are very, very different.
The planet begins in some sort of far off world across the universe. A crazy guy (Lewis) makes a nuisance of himself and constantly talks about how fascinated he is by humans that the big boss-man (John Williams) decides to allow him to visit this insignificant place--to get it out of his system. There, he meets a nice family and hangs out with them--getting into all sorts of adventures.
Some of the film is quite funny (such as when Jerry drinks for the first time). However, most of it is just pleasant light-hearted fun. However, the longer the film goes, the less fun it becomes. It's unusual to see a film fade like this one did, but the final portion lost momentum and had some flat moments that were clearly overdone. Worst were the beatnik scene (at first, it wasn't bad) and the final scene with the spaceship was just awful. Also, occasionally Lewis mugged a bit too much--something that he had a tendency to do a bit too often in his films. Overall, a flawed but pleasant diversion.
cute drunk scene and ceiling excessive mugging (such as the bongo scene)
The planet begins in some sort of far off world across the universe. A crazy guy (Lewis) makes a nuisance of himself and constantly talks about how fascinated he is by humans that the big boss-man (John Williams) decides to allow him to visit this insignificant place--to get it out of his system. There, he meets a nice family and hangs out with them--getting into all sorts of adventures.
Some of the film is quite funny (such as when Jerry drinks for the first time). However, most of it is just pleasant light-hearted fun. However, the longer the film goes, the less fun it becomes. It's unusual to see a film fade like this one did, but the final portion lost momentum and had some flat moments that were clearly overdone. Worst were the beatnik scene (at first, it wasn't bad) and the final scene with the spaceship was just awful. Also, occasionally Lewis mugged a bit too much--something that he had a tendency to do a bit too often in his films. Overall, a flawed but pleasant diversion.
cute drunk scene and ceiling excessive mugging (such as the bongo scene)