The Family Jewels (1965) Reviews

• Goofy stuff

  DrWorm1999-04-20

  Ah, Jerry Lewis. One of the most underappreciated comic actor/writer/directors. In "The Family Jewels" he attempts to play every single member of a family of brothers...and pulls it off successfully. All these Lewis characters are funny and quirky, and this movie is consistently entertaining all the way through. Note the similarites between the voice of the airline pilot Peyton brother and the voice of Paul Reubens' Pee-Wee Herman. The plot here involves a young girl who must live with one of her uncles, and her search for the uncle she likes best. But that's mostly an excuse to let Lewis show off his incredible comedic character talents. Sometimes downright cartoonlike.

• Why not?

  warlorde2003-05-31

  I know this isn't the best movie to watch, but for some reason I found it campy, corny and enjoyable. Jerry Lewis did seem to try and have fun with this film, and showed off his mulit-character talents which some people called hogging the movie. But hey can't we all just have fun sometimes? Apparently not since some of the negative reviews the movie received. Oh well I still like the movie alot and will always look to catch it on TV. 10 out of 10, bc I said so.

• Beginning of Lewis' fatal decline as director and funnyman.

  ronghero1999-06-24

  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.

• Frustratingly uneven...

  MartinHafer2013-02-19

  I wanted to like "The Family Jewels" but found there was more to it to dislike than like. It's really a shame, as some aspects of the film were quite good--but too much of it suffered from extreme overacting. The film begins with a very rich little girl being told by lawyers that her father's will stipulates that she must move in with one of her five uncles. So, the plan is for her to visit each uncle and spend a couple weeks with each of them--and then she gets to choose the one she'll live with for the rest of her life. The uncles, it turns out, are all played by Jerry Lewis. And, oddly, their unrelated chauffeur also is played by Jerry. So, in many ways the film is reminiscent of such comedies as "Kind Hearts and Coronets", "The Mouse That Roared" and "The Klumps". There were some parts of the film I liked. A few of the jokes (a distinct minority) were funny and I caught myself laughing a couple times. Additionally, I liked watching the relationship between the chauffeur and the child--showing what I've thought for a long time--that Lewis was EXCELLENT at drama and I wish the film had more of that. But, too often the characters were done with no subtlety and although many reviewers love him, I found much of the antics overbearing and overdone. Subtle, it ain't! It's a shame, as I do like some of Lewis' films--but others just needed less--a lot less.

• Funny? Irritating!

  PeterJackson2000-09-02

  This is the third old Jerry Lewis-film I've seen recently(the others being THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and WHO'S MINDING THE STORE?)and it's easily the least of the three. Whereas the other two had an inspired moment every hour or so, this film scores low on ingenuity and high on stupidity. There just isn't a single funny scene in it, the story is of course ludicrous(which wouldn't have been a problem when it would have been funny) and the only thing Jerry Lewis seems to be able to is looking cross-eyed when there's a sudden noise. Oh yes, and have I mentioned his idiotic walk? Now I know that when you've seen a Lewis movie, you've seen them all. The more I see of him the worse it gets. And I just can't understand why some people keep calling him "underrated", I just can't. There's nothing subtle about him, he's about as funny as Pauly Shore(and his films of the same level)and he's not really a modest guy too. If it's obvious that your films are nothing more than a showcase for yourself(and the story of no importance), you expect them to be funnier. What can I say more? Just don't see this unless you have to write a book or so about Jerry Lewis. But then again, who would do that? 3/10