Patrick Mirza

Just announced from Paramount Home Entertainment is The Martin & Lewis Collection vol. 1. Due on June 13th, this eight-disc set (732 minutes) contains the films The Caddy, Jumping Jacks, Money From Home, My Friend Irma, My Friend Irma Goes West, Sailor Beware, Scared Stiff and That's My Boy, all with newly remastered transfers.

Cover art here

Hebrew Assassin

sweet

Steve Phillips

Too bad MONEY FROM HOME isn't offered in a field sequential 3-D option, but of course that is too much to hope for. It's one of the more subtle 3-D movies anyway, I suppose. I was able to see it theatrically twice in recent years in the original dual projector polarized 3-D form.

MUNKB

I was hoping that they would restore At War with Army". in Vol#1
The public domain print by MADACY and others out there is terrible.
Hopefully it would be included in a future volume.

darkside

I just hope they include the audio outtakes of them recording the spots for The Caddy. Classic audio though probably to obscene to put on the DVD.

bacigalup

Has this been cancelled ??? Can't find at any etailers !!

rw2516

Don't know about cancelled but it's definately been removed. First the film noirs, now these. Makes me wonder if Let's Scare Jessica to Death is really gonna make it. Wonder what's going on at Paramount.

Bill Needle

Also the release date of Paramount's "Julius Caesar" (3/28/06) came and went without the DVD ever showing up or any reason why not.

snorlaxnut

This outtake?

http://www.daveamason.com/april/mp3/...outtakes%2Emp3

I don't think Paramount would want that on any DVD.

lotsofdvds

It's an extra. Paramount doesn't do extras unless it's "SCENE SELECTION" or "INTERACTIVE MENUS".

whotony

omg, is that real. its rightious, i mean i mean riotous.

darthkorey

great site This is the Biggest pile of Sh** I hvae seenin a while ther is a great market for theese films what is paramounts problem ???

Patrick Mirza

Martin & Lewis vol. 1 has been re-announced for October 31st.

DaTimster

Very cool - thanks for the update.

GaryO

Hope this new date holds. I won't get my hopes up until I either see an official announcement from Paramount or see it up for pre-order on multiple sites (like DDD & Amazon).

baracine

Anybody get this set? And, if so, what did you think of «Scared Stiff»? Better, as good or not as good as the original «Ghost Breakers» (1940)?

baracine

The boxset came out and I watched «Scared Stiff» (1953) for the first time. My impression...

I'm a Jerry Lewis fan and I think Bob Hope's «The Ghost Breakers» (1940) was technically way ahead of its time as a funny/scary Old Dark House comedy. This thirteen-years-later remake feels like it was hatched together as a quickie Martin-Lewis vehicle in the «scary» mode (they made four films that year). It reuses the same director (George Marshall), most of the dialogue, most of the situations, most of the special effects, all the stock footage and even one song from the original. The sets have also been recreated and the jokes «updated». If the remake works at all, it is due to the extreme quality and originality of the first film. Comedy writer Norman Lear (of TV fame) did his best in adapting the Bob Hope/Willie Best routine to the particular talents of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Where the story starts to creak though is in the scary scenes. They have lost their suspense and mystery and that undefinable mix of editing, timing, lighting, photography, acting, pacing and music called «atmosphere», which «The Ghost Breakers» had in spades.

The casting is also lacking: Lizabeth Scott is no Paulette Goddard. She may look good in a bathing suit but her comedy is stilted, her romantic moods are too entranced and her dramatics don't convince. William Ching is no Richard Carlson, Paul Marion is no Anthony Quinn and George Dolenz is no Paul Lukas either. The zombie character is also a special disappointment all its own. Out of a misguided sense of political correctness, the original Black zombie (Noble Johnson) has been replaced by a nondescript White (!) cowboy villain (!!) (Jack Lambert) who actually looks like an ordinary Joe (!!!) without makeup (!!!!) from a distance. His entrance actually causes crickets to start chirping.


Jack Lambert


Noble Johnson

All in all, I appreciate this film as a kind of hommage to the original, for its numerous Jerry Lewis set pieces, in which he exhibits a supreme self-confidence, and for the Dean Martin songs - despite the near-obscenity of the «Enchilada Man» number (you can imagine but don't ask!)... The less said about the Carmen Miranda numbers the better (this was her last film).

From what I've seen of the set so far, the films are in pristine condition.