ABOUT FACE (1952)

A year-and-a-half run on B’way, a quick film adaptation (with follow-up sequel), no doubt musicalizing BROTHER RAT/’38 (a service comedy where three Virginia Military Institute cadets cover for the one who’s illicitly married) sounded like a sure thing for Warners in a hard to read post-war marketplace.  Hadn’t Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin recently scored on a couple of service comedies over @ Paramount?  But where those were comedies with a couple of tunes tossed in for Dean, this one tries (halfheartedly) to be a legit ‘integrated’ musical right from its Get-Out-Of-Bed ensemble opening number.  No breakout stars above or below the title; no hit tunes getting radio play; corny old gags; it’s hardly worth the effort . . . and it shows on the actors’ faces.  (Even our poster seems to say, unnecessary.)  Three instantly forgettable girlfriends for the three pals: Gordon MacRae, Dick Wesson and Eddie Bracken - at 37 the world’s oldest cadet.  Plus a baby cadet for comic relief.  Extra comic relief?  When you’ve already got Eddie Bracken in the lead?  Not exactly a vote of confidence.  And yet it’s that comic relief who oddly makes this essential viewing.  It’s 20-yr-old Joel Grey making like Jerry Lewis (and you can’t look away!) in a debut that pretty much kept him off the big screen for the next twenty years.  Till CABARET/’72 made him briefly essential.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Right at the end, journeyman director Roy Del Ruth gives the leash to dance director LeRoy Prinz who promptly comes thru with a lollapalooza of a finish.  Kudos for noticing that Cliff Ferre, hiding in plain sight as the film’s comic butt, was one heck of a dancer.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Seeing shrimpy Joel Grey (5'5") trying on Jerry Lewis for size helps show just how Jerry got away with his Looney Tunes act.  It was playing rather than being the scrawny kid that made the difference.  Lewis, at 5'10½”, a bit taller than straight-man Dean Martin, and with a far more athletic build.  Ever wonder why he wore that ridiculous haircut?  Without it, in a proper suit, he’d look at least as good as Dean.  (Or would if he didn’t take care to slouch.)  Mind you, Jerry remains nearly unwatchable, but dumb he wasn’t.  On the other hand, compare Lewis in ROCK-A-BYE-BABY/’58, a semi-remake of Eddie Bracken’s classic Preston Sturges film THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S CREEK/’44, to see the difference between Bracken’s wildly underused humane comic genius and . . . Jerry Lewis.