The Family Jewels (1965)

Got home from school late missed Dark Shadows but caught the ABC Channel 7 4:30 movie already in progress and I see what looks like Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton) Attorney talking to a young lady Donna Peyton (Donna Butterworth) no relation to the Maple Syrup Company, anyway, Donna has a dilemma, she has to choose which of her eccentric Uncles to live with. All of these Uncles portrayed by Jerry Lewis. A collection of six the strangest characters in the Jerry Lewis genre. Donna closest companion and temporary guardian is the chauffeur Willard Woodward also played by Jerry Lewis. From a ship's Captain to bumbling photographer into the air with Captain Eddie and down to earth being abducted by Nubbley Uncle Buggs and pursued buy his brother the clumsy detective Shylock Peyton.Along side in tow with Uncle Shylock is his rational sidekick Dr. Matson played by the bearded portly (Sebastian Cabot)notable TV character the gentlemen's gentlemen Mr French on Family Affair. Willard and Donna had a special bond.Willard was Jerry playing it straight for the most part as he would drive Donna to each of the Uncles for a visit except for the evil Uncle Circus Clown Everett who loathes children. Some notable performances by Captain Eddie and his beat up airplane. Cameo appearance by Son Gary and his Playboys in the closet. This movie is not to be taken seriously but an attempt to see Jerry Lewis show his range of Characters. Uncle Julius for example was taken from his earlier movie THE NUTTY PROFESSOR except this time no more professorship with wife Stella Purdy who is not present in this film but replaced by sexy models in a photography studio. The scene was awful and dull. A side splitting scene is when Uncle Detective Shylock warms up his pool stick at the pool hall.Meanwhile Uncle Buggs is teaching Math problems to his Niece Donna as she repeats the math answer verbatim in Bugg's voice. All Donna wants to do is live with Willard her personal Driver. Jerry is an acquired taste. Either you love him or hate him. This movie did at times tickle my funny bone. This movie was sort of a farewell to his silly movies from there after. A few years later Jerry did the attempt of multiple roles in Three on a Couch with close friend Janet Leigh and Kathleen Freeman.

I have been familiar with both The Family Jewels and Paradise Hawaiian Style for many years, but it was only when I coincidentally bought both on DVD recently that I realised Donna Butterworth starred in both. I'm not sure her name even registered with me in the past. However, her performances in both films are winning and funny and I imagine she grew up to be a very lovely person. Her singing is sensational in what is otherwise a lesser Elvis Presley film (directed by Michael Moore (!) but not the Sicko guy). The audio commentary and special features on The Family Jewels provide some interesting information and background about Donna. Jerry claims to have discovered Donna in Hawaii and we see amusing and heartwarming screen tests of them together among the special features. She is now 50 or so years old and I hope she is proud of them. If you're reading this Donna, hi from me.

The father of a 9 year old Donna Peyton (Donna Putterworth) dies and she has to live with one of her six uncles, which are all played by Jerry Lewis.He also plays a chauffeur called Willard Woodward.All the uncles are nutty in a way or an other.There is a clown and the other is like Jerry's character in The Nutty Professor.The Family Jewels (1965) is a movie, that mr Lewis also directed and wrote.I remember when I saw it in 1998, when I was 16 and liked it very much.As a huge Jerry Lewis fan I was delighted to see Jerry Lewis in seven.He and the young Donna do both great job in this movie.This is a funny comedy which ain't a wonder since it's a Jerry Lewis film.It makes me glad to read from IMDB that he's making an appearance in a movie called Miss Cast Away this year.Let's hope we'll see this 78 year old comedian in more movies in the future.

One has nearly always gotten the impression from watching the antics of Mr. Lewis that the humor is being undermined by a fatal egotism which knows no reasonable or acceptable boundaries. 1965's The Family Jewels marks the beginning of Lewis' long decline--his wish to play seven roles, far from constituting a bravura tour de force, is simply a sign of his nauseating hubris and megalomania. What better way to dominate the proceedings and garner all the attention for oneself than to occupy seven of the eight principal roles? Also, Lewis at this stage is teetering indecisively between being a director of kiddie flicks and turning out films designed to appeal (or at least be tolerated by) a mature audience. Here he fails dismally. The kiddie humor is mostly forced; the adult content betrays Lewis' all-consuming flaws of cloying sentimentality, self-righteousness, and hackneyed plot devices. You KNOW the little girl will pick the chauffeur to be her "father," you KNOW the foppish Brit will turn out to be a pool shark, the thug will have a heart of gold, etc. I get the impression that it is at about this point Mr. Lewis should have sought long-term psychotherapy so that he could have combatted the inner demons built up during the course of his (admittedly harrowing) childhood. Even at the self-expressed risk of losing his sense of humor, this move would have been cost-effective--his film previous to this, The Disorderly Orderly, was, in many respects, his last hurrah. Sadly, The Family Jewels (note the smirkingly referential title; note the poster in which a cloyingly "cute" moppet with a soft fuzzy beret is surrounded by seven phallic Jerry Lewises) deserves its reputation as a flop. But at least it's a very interesting case study.