Hollywood or Bust (1956)

Hollywood or Bust (1956)*** (out of 4)Steve Wiley (Dean Martin) is a gambler who is in over his head with some bookies. He works up a scheme to basically steal a car from a theater that is giving it away through on raffle. The only problem is that die hard movie fan Malcolm Smith (Jerry Lewis) ends up with the car and the two are forced to share it, which sends them on a road trip to Hollywood.Hollywood OR BUST would turn out to be the last Martin & Lewis movie and it's really too bad because it seems the duo were making some of their best movies at the end. This one here is an incredibly entertaining and at times very funny picture that manages to offer up a pretty good story and three great lead performances. It has been said that Martin and Lewis' relationship was pretty much dead during the making of this picture and that they refused to speak to each other but you certainly can't tell that by watching the film.I really thought that out of all the Martin & Lewis films I've seen this one here gave both actors their most equal parts. I think the highlight of the film is a moment early on when the two are inside the theater and trying to win the car for their own reasons. There were some very funny moments inside the theater and things got even funnier when the large Great Dane dog enters the picture. Martin, Lewis and the dog have some very funny scenes together and things get even funnier when Pat Crowley joins things as well as Maxie Rosenbloom in her quick role. Anita Ekberg plays herself, the star who Lewis loves the most.There are a couple decent music numbers throughout the picture but here is one time where Dean's songs take a back seat to the comedy. Hollywood OR BUST is your typical road picture but I really thought it was an extremely funny picture and one with a good spirit and a nice pace. It's really too bad Martin & Lewis came to an end here but at least they went out with one of their better pictures.

I caught this on YouTube soon after the great Jerry Lewis passed away. I always love to read the "backstories" about films, so I read about it in Wikipedia and IMDb before I watched it. This was the comedy team's final film, and the two barely spoke to each other off camera during the shoot. You can't tell that from the finished film, because the chemistry between the two is there. Because the version I saw on YouTube turned off the audio whenever there was a song (for music copyright reasons), I can't comment on the music, but I am sure that it was good. Enjoyable, frothy comedy.

This is the last of the 16 movies which Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together, and by this point they weren't even speaking to each other off-camera, but this time the screen is filled with even more inventiveness than usual. That's because the director is master satirist Frank Tashlin, who, having already taken on rock and roll (The Girl Can't Help It) and comic books (Artists and Models, also with Dean and Jerry), now turns his attention to movie fandom.Dean plays Steve, a down-on-his-luck gambler who wants to pay off his debts by cheating in a raffle to win an expensive car, but the legal winner (Malcolm, played by Jerry) also turns up, and the contest holder rules that they have to share the car. Malcolm (a movie fan who's obsessed with Anita Ekberg) wants to drive the car to Hollywood to meet her, and Steve goes along for the ride, planning to ditch him somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, Malcolm is also bringing his gigantic dog "Mr. Bascom," who manages to thwart a few of Steve's plans.Besides the numerous references to movies real and fictional (i.e., "Chloroform and Old Calico"), we also get romance, great musical numbers, beautiful Technicolor, Jerry doing a bullfighting routine a la Rudolph Valentino, a hilarious gambling sequence in a Vegas casino, and much more. Dean and Jerry part ways after this, but at least they leave on a high note.

"Hollywood or Bust" was the last of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin musical comedies and a very good one. Although it is not as bracingly innovative and riotous as Tashlin's "Artists and Models", I kept laughing throughout. Some hilarious and enjoyable scenes come to mind: The opening moments in the movie theater where Lewis is ruining a woman's hair with popcorn; the rousing musical number "A Day in the Country" (Martin and Lewis in a car) which is Tashlin's homage to the "Beyond the Blue Horizon" number in Lubitsch's 1930 musical "Monte Carlo"; and there is Lewis' imitation of Rudolph Valentino's "Blood and the Sand". Sure it can be silly and puerile at times, but it's a lot of fun. Worth seeing.