The one thing everybody knows about Jerry Lewis is that he is beloved by the French, those incomprehensible hedonistic strangers across the sea. The French understand him, while in the U.S. he is at best a riddle, not one of us. Lewis is someone we take profound pleasure in excluding, if not ridiculing. Enfant Terrible! Jerry Lewis in American Film is the first comprehensive collection devoted to one of the most controversial and accomplished figures in twentieth-century American cinema. A veteran of virtually every form of show business, Lewis's performances onscreen and the motion pictures he has directed reveal significant filmmaking talents, and show him to be what he has called himself, a "total filmmaker." Yet his work has been frequently derided by American critics. This book challenges that easy reading by taking a more careful look at Lewis's considerable body of work onscreen in 16 diverse and penetrating essays. Turning to such films asThe Nutty Professor, The Ladies Man, The King of Comedy, The Delicate Delinquent, Living It Up, The Errand Boy, The Disorderly Orderly, Arizona Dream, and The Geisha Boy, the contributors address topics ranging from Lewis's on- and offscreen performances, the representations of disability in his films, and the European obsession with Lewis, to his relationship with Dean Martin and Lewis's masculinity. Far from an out of control hysteric, Enfant Terrible! instead reveals Jerry Lewis to be a meticulous master of performance with a keen sense of American culture and the contemporary world. Contributors include: Mikita Brottman, Scott Bukatman, David Desser, Leslie A. Fiedler, Craig Fischer, Lucy Fischer, Krin Gabbard, Barry Keith Grant, Andrew Horton, Susan Hunt, Frank Krutnik, Marcia Landy, Peter Lehman, Shawn Levy, Dana Polan, Murray Pomerance, and J. P. Telotte.
1 Jerry and Me1 Whatever Happened to Jerry Lewis? "That's Amore. . ."2 Being Rupert Pupkin 2 Jerry Lewis, Faces Off3 Dreaming of Jerry Lewis's Arizona Dream 4 Jerry Agonistes: An Obscure Object of Critical Desire5 Flaming Creature: Jerry Lewis and Screen Performance in Hollywood or Bust 6 The Day the Clown Quit: Jerry Lewis Returns to The Jazz Singer's Roots 3 Jerry Lewis and Social Transformations7 Sex and Slapstick: The Martin and Lewis Phenomenon8 The Imbecile Chic of Jerry Lewis 9 Sick Jokes: Humor and Health in the Work of Jerry Lewis 10 The Geisha Boy: Orientalizing the Jewish Man 11 Jerry in the City: The Topology of The King of Comedy12 Terminal Idiocy (The comedian is the message)4 Jerry-Built13 "The Inner Man": Mind, Body, and Transformations of Masculinity in The Nutty Professor14 Working Hard Hardly Working: Labor and Leisure in the Films of Jerry Lewis 15 Hello Deli!: Shtick Meets Teenpic inThe Delicate Delinquent16 The Errant Boy: Morty S. Tashman and the Powers of the Tongue
