Really Surprised!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The movie deals with a nutty profession who is ill treated and ignored by everyone. He develops an alter ego by his own experiments. He develops a chemical that makes him charming, handsome and egoistic.Jerry Lewis proves his ability in writing, directing and acting. The nutty professor is present in most of us. We are shy and feeling neglected in the society at some point. Our face is the problem; A "mask" could solve this problem. That is the case in most of super heroes in the comics.The movie is really entertaining, funny and makes you think deeper at times. Performance of the actors, camera, music etc are all outstanding. The movie is very colorful. Compared to the year of release, it is definitely a master piece.Highly recommended!

Comic actor Jerry Lewis draws inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for his crazy fantasy The Nutty Professor, in which the star plays a nerdish chemistry professor, Julius Kelp, who invents a formula that transforms him into the debonair yet rather despicable Buddy Love, a cool cat who is hip with the kids at jazz club The Purple Pit, but who has a particular eye for blonde student Stella Purdy (played by the stunning Stella Stevens).A little less slapstick than Lewis's previous work, The Nutty Professor teaches a valuable lesson about being comfortable with who you really are, while at the same time providing plenty of giggles as Buddy's personality frequently collides with Kelp's at the most inopportune of moments. Even those unable to recognise the genius of Lewis in his other movies surely cannot deny the brilliance of the performers' work in this instance—how he effortlessly switches between Kelp and Love, bringing pathos to his role as well as humour.Also making The Nutty Professor a delight to behold are the wonderful production design, which is infused with bright colours throughout, and the the excellent jazzy soundtrack, which helps to keep the action swinging along.

American comedian Jerry Lewis' fourth director-cum-co-writer-cum-star vehicle in his solo career, a loopy parody of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where he playfully juggles with the dichotomy between the geeky, bucktoothed, accidental-prone professor Julius Kelp and the raffish, chain-smoking, hipster crooner Buddy Love. What prompts Professor Kelp (Lewis) to undergo a thorough transmogrification is his swooning over his student Stella Purdy (Stevens), who is far out of his league, although no one in his class is even remotely credible to pass for a college freshman, or maybe the 60s simply was not a kind era for adolescents. Thanks to an inexplicable magic potion he manages to confect, with a faint reference to the turning of a hirsute werewolf, Kelp's new-born alter ego, Buddy Love fabulously materializes (introduced by a laboriously arranged reaction long-shot from on-lookers to elicit the anticipation), he is the antithesis of Kelp, and whose rebarbative behaviour has also implausibly escaped from the latter's clutches. But then the grating part emerges, albeit his condescending, offensive and self-serving attitude, this chimney-mouthed slicker is portrayed as a virtuoso show- stopper, and perversely sweeps Stella off her feet (although she does have some reservations but condones to fall for his bad-boy mojo). This male-patronising, female-stereotyping angle, becomes the undoing of a well-intentioned comedy, as in the final speech Buddy/Kelp delivers, we must brave ourselves to embrace who we are, we can always learn to be a better me, but leave the ideal me in that imaginative realm only. The film would be treated with a redux remake starring a multiple-role-playing Eddie Murphy in 1996 with great popularity owing to its staggering make-up magic and special visual effects. It also foreshadow the personality-sea-changing in Jim Carrey's breakthrough stunner THE MASK (1994). Since this broad comedy relies heavily on its star's slapstick, Lewis unstintingly turns it into his own shtick-boasting vehicle, and as obnoxious as Buddy Love is, one has to admit Lewis' protean performance is something to be reckoned with, sometimes he is also evocative of a young Jack Lemmon. Therefore, it barely leaves anything for other players, only Del Moore's prim but showbiz- passionate university president Dr. Warfield can swipe some thunder from Lewis' omnipresence, whereas, Stella Stevens' buxom ingénue is too amicable and souless for her own good, as a corollary of being projected from a parochial and patriarch world-view. In hindsight, the film is a mug's game hindered by its own myopia but survives only for Lewis' comedic knack, when he stays in his nebbish character.

The expression Swinging sixties could apply to the movie : it's full of music, colors, youth and fun and as a movies explorer, it's a prerequisite to see this icon. But finally this comedy is far to stay as a classic for my taste and Lewis seems to be a bit overrated : the story is weak as it's more an addition of ideas, the scenes drag endlessly and have no pulse, the Jekyll character is totally boring and in a way, the crooner choice is not interesting ! Sure there is some very funny moments and up to the last frame but beyond the historical value as we can travel in past, there are a lot of fun movies more dynamic out there !