Hollywood or Bust (1956)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

It was time. Time to end the partnership. As this film shows, writers couldn't come up with anything very different for the boys to do. Unfortunately, this wasn't a very good film to go out with.So what's wrong with it? 1. Why is Jerry singing so much????? 2. Why is a big, dumb dog such an important character in the film? 3. Were all those slinky models all over really beautiful...even in 1956? 4. Pat Crowley was a pleasant actress. Did someone actually think she could sing? 5. Couldn't they find stunt men that weren't so obviously NOT Dean and Jerry? Dean does what Dean's supposed to do here, but -- at least in the first half of the script -- appears to be a "letch". Although, that's less disturbing than the glimpse we finally get of Jerry Lewis in puberty. It's not a pretty picture for either. Dean has one really good song in the film, which he shares with Crowley -- "It Looks Like Love". The other tunes are okay, but not as good as one might expect from Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. Ad mentioned, Pat Crowley was a pleasant actress...of course, maybe that's not saying a lot. And Anita Ekberg has a sort of extended cameo as Jerry's lust interest.Much of the film is a sort of road picture, but in my view they were traveling down the wrong road here. There is some good scenery pics (e.g., Santa Fe and the Grand Canyon), but of course, Dean and Jerry weren't there.No, it was time for it all to end.

Having spent the last two or so weeks watching Martin & Lewis movies in chronological order on YouTube, I just finished their very last one on the same site. Once again, a couple of female players from their previous ones have appeared here: Pat Crowley, previously Jerry's girl in Money from Home, is now Dean's here though she initially plays hard to get. And Anita Ekberg, who was a model in Artists and Models, plays herself as the movie star Jerry has a massive crush on. Since this is directed by Frank Tashlin, expect plenty of well-endowed women in view, particularly when Dean and Jerry are watching the views of various farming countrysides on the road. Oh, and there's also a dog named Mr. Bascomb in tow to add to the hilarious comedy that's almost nonstop throughout. Watching this, you wouldn't know that Martin & Lewis weren't talking to each other off-set and that they would break up the act for good. Maybe it's just as well as they both would continue to have success solo (Jerry) and with others (Dean). I've had the best time seeing them grow as performers during this time and I'm looking forward to watching what I can of their subsequent films separate from each other. So on that note, I highly recommend Hollywood or Bust. P.S. While the IMDb cast list doesn't identify him, I swear the guy who announces the winning car ticket that Dean & Jerry claim is Harold Peary, best known to me as The Great Gildersleeve on radio, especially when he enunciates certain words. And I immediately recognized when they went through my birthtown of Chicago, Ill., by the Prudential building.

This is the last of the 16 movies which Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together, and by this point they weren't even speaking to each other off-camera, but this time the screen is filled with even more inventiveness than usual. That's because the director is master satirist Frank Tashlin, who, having already taken on rock and roll (The Girl Can't Help It) and comic books (Artists and Models, also with Dean and Jerry), now turns his attention to movie fandom.Dean plays Steve, a down-on-his-luck gambler who wants to pay off his debts by cheating in a raffle to win an expensive car, but the legal winner (Malcolm, played by Jerry) also turns up, and the contest holder rules that they have to share the car. Malcolm (a movie fan who's obsessed with Anita Ekberg) wants to drive the car to Hollywood to meet her, and Steve goes along for the ride, planning to ditch him somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, Malcolm is also bringing his gigantic dog "Mr. Bascom," who manages to thwart a few of Steve's plans.Besides the numerous references to movies real and fictional (i.e., "Chloroform and Old Calico"), we also get romance, great musical numbers, beautiful Technicolor, Jerry doing a bullfighting routine a la Rudolph Valentino, a hilarious gambling sequence in a Vegas casino, and much more. Dean and Jerry part ways after this, but at least they leave on a high note.

This is the final Martin & Lewis film before their breakup. It begins with gambler Dean getting in trouble for gambling debts and the mob sends a tough guy (Maxie Rosenbloom) to beat him up unless he pays. However, instead of paying him off, Dean convinces Maxie to wait, as he's got a scheme to steal a brand-new convertible--thus paying off his debt and then some. It seems that these is a car giveaway at the local movie theater and Dean had the same printer make an extra set of tickets--then he can claim the prize. He figures that whenever there's a raffle, the winning ticket isn't usually the first or second one drawn, as many ticket holders don't bother to come to the theater. But, unfortunately, his plan falls apart when the winning ticket holder IS there (Jerry) and the two men both try to claim the prize. Instead of giving them two cars, the theater owner says they should share the car--and Dean plans on just stealing it the first chance he gets. So, Dean convinces movie-crazy Jerry to go with him to Hollywood so he can introduce him to Anita Ekberg (not a bad plan, as MOST heterosexual men in 1956 would quickly fall for this angle!). Naturally, however, the plan does NOT go smoothly and there are comic situations galore--thanks in many cases to Mr. Bascom (see the movie to find out more about him) and better than normal writing.This is the only Martin & Lewis film I hadn't seen up to today and I always expected it to be terrible. After all, the team soon broke up and reportedly the two couldn't stand each other and barely spoke during production. But you really couldn't see this in the finished product--a clever movie with some nice gags. It also has a nice, leisurely pace that works well--surprisingly well. Considering the end product is so good and the film relies less than normal on Jerry's over-the-top histrionics than many of their films, it's a shame they went their separate ways. In a few cases, however, Jerry's shtick went on way, way too long was the over-acted bullfight scene and his expressions during the craps game. Still, a nice blend of comedy, music and romance--I wish I'd seen this one sooner. Certainly not great but quite enjoyable.In Las Vegas, be sure to keep a close eye on the marquees they pass on their way through town.