Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A loose remake of Preston Sturges' wonderful The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Rock-a-Bye Baby is safe entertainment for the Jerry Lewis fans. Here he plays Clayton Poole, a small town guy whose childhood sweetheart, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell) is now a big film star. When she finds she is pregnant, the problems it will cause her career prompts her to coerce Clayton into looking after what turns out to be triplets! Much prat-falling and high energy chaos ensues.As befitting the Tashlin/Lewis combination, it's all very cartoonish in visual presentation. Narratively outside of Lewis' mad-cap rearing of the babies, there's a running thread of Carla's sister, Sandra (Connie Stevens), being hopelessly in love with Clayton - who of course has no idea, while the sentimental strings are pulled as Clayton fights to not lose the kids to a shifty legal guardian.The musical numbers start to grate on the nerves after a bit, with them feeling like attempts to show off something that isn't there, and the running time is too long to sustain this type of comedy. But once a Lewis fan then always a Lewis fan, with that in mind Rock-a- Bye Baby still has enough fun and frothery to make it above average entertainment. 6.5/10

Before I review this Jerry Lewis movie, let me just mention a couple of players from previous films he made with Dean Martin: Hans Conried plays his boss, Mr. Wright, and Mary Treen plays a nurse. Okay, with that out of the way, I'll just say this was quite a change of pace for Lewis since for one thing, there's no role that would have been played by Martin since Jer is truly the whole show here. Also, with him having to take care of babies that happen to be sired by former girlfriend Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell), his shtick is not-so-frantic when he's on screen with them. Helping him is Carla's father (Salvatore Baccaloni) and her sister Sandy (Connie Stevens) who has a crush on Clayton Poole (Jer's character). Oh, and Carla's a movie star so there's also an agent (Reginald Gardiner) on hand. And one more thing: Jerry sings some good songs, including a duet with Mr. Baccaloni, in his own normal voice and he's as good as Dean would have been if he warbled them. He also sings with his son Gary, who's underage here and years from his fame with the Playboys, in a sequence mixing present with flashback as Gary plays his father when his age. Reportedly, Jerry's father Danny also appears though I didn't recognize anyone with the family resemblance. No matter as for the most part, I really enjoyed this movie except whenever Lewis did a couple of Asian gibberish that fell in the stereotypical trap. Oh, and Connie was also lovely when she sang. Okay, I've said enough so on that note, I highly recommend Rock-a-Bye Baby. Kudos to writer/director Frank Tashlin too. One more thing, you'll be amazed when you see the picture of the bullfighter Carla was married to when she had her triplets!

I've read the preceding comments and they pretty much tell the story of why this is a classic Jerry Lewis film. However, I think one of the reasons I love this one so much is that it also captures a feel for what life was like growing up in the fifties (as I did). In many ways it typifies the fifties mindset, but also exemplifies the entertainment of the period. Things were so much more family-oriented. Sex wasn't non-existence in films, but it was more often handled tastefully. Language was wholesome and the humor didn't depend on "shock" (such as the name of Navin Johnson's dog in The Jerk).I find the segment in Hill Valley of the fifties in Back to the Future especially enjoyable as Robert Zemeckis does a great job of re-creating the era. Watching Rock a Bye Baby, which is authentically of the era confirms that. (In fact, the court house and town square in both of these films appear to have a striking similarity to one another.)Although the story owes a lot to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as inspiration (and even gives Preston Sturges credit), it really has its own unique flavor as well. Like a son who bears a resemblance to his father but also has his own personality. In many ways I think that Frank Tashlin has improved upon it. The subplot with the sister and its resolution are wonderful additions.Over all I think it is a great film and can't wait till it's available on DVD (Is anybody listening?).

Giving a Jerry Lewis movie, any Jerry Lewis movie, a vote of ten is in some people's minds tantamount to movie heresy. That is, however, the vote I gave to Rock-A-Bye-Baby, and I stick by it. Believe it or not, before he became the king of overindulgent egomania in many of his later films, Lewis did manage to put a few good films on celluloid. These films were not only funny, but gave us charming, sympathetic characters, a good script, and good supporting casts. Of his early solo efforts, Rock-A-Bye Baby is the one that has stuck with me the longest, so it is the Lewis film I have chosen to talk about here.Lewis plays Clayton Poole, a television repairman, who has gone through life carrying a torch for the beautiful Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell). Because of advice that Clayton gave Carla, she left town to become an actress, and ends up becoming a big film star. Carla's father, Gigi Naples (Salvatore Baccaloni) blames Clayton for his daughter going away. Then there is Carla's younger sister, Sandra (Connie Stevens), who is carrying the torch for Clayton. It turns out that Carla, had been married for a short time to a bullfighter who was killed in the bull ring. Later, just when she finds out she is to star in a film called (believe it or not) White Virgin of the Nile, she also finds out she is pregnant. Believing that she will not be able to do the movie if people find out she has had a baby (not to mention the way morality was looked at back then, see what happened to Ingrid Berman), Carla contacts Clayton to see if he will temporarily take care of the baby till the film is finished. Feeling that this is the one thing he can do for Carla, he agrees. What Carla doesn't tell Clayton is that there is not one baby, but three as she has had triplets.What happens after that, well I set it up for you it's up to you to find the movie and watch it. Jerry as Clayton is funny throughout, without resorting too much to mugging while keeping the slapstick toned down to where it fits well into the picture. Marilyn Maxwell plays Carla, and though in todays climate it would hard to understand her motives, in this movie we are reasonably able to understand her motives, and despite the fact that she is using Clayton, we are sure she wouldn't if she had another way out. The rest of the cast is also good. Connie Stevens as Sandra, is sweet and funny, especially when she gets frustrated at Clayton for refusing her advances. Salvatore Baccaloni as Papa Naples, shows a rough mean exterior, yet we know inside he is a loving, carring, father. Reginald Gardner is witty and debonair as Carla's agent. Hans Conried who plays Claytons boss, could have been on note but it is not, as he also cares about Clayton despite Clayton's on the job foul-ups. There is an early scene in this movie, where Clayton sings a song with himself as a child, played by Lewis's own son Gary. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie and from then on we are hooked. How does it all end? I'll not tell that, as it is one of the funniest endings of not only a Jerry Lewis movie, but of any movie. This movie is for everyone. It has heart, it has soul, it has comedic genius. I only wish Jerry had made more films like this one. Then, not only in France, but in the USA, we just might be calling him "genius". Till Next Time, Next Class Please