The Sad Sack * (1957, Jerry Lewis, Phyllis Kirk, Peter Lorre, Liliane Montevecchi, David Wayne, Joe Mantell, Gene Evans) – Classic Movie Review 11,590

Director George Marshall’s 1957 Paramount Pictures comedy film The Sad Sack stars Jerry Lewis and is based on the Harvey Comics character of the same title, created by George Baker.

Lewis pops up again as Pvt Bixby, an incompetent army recruit with a super memory, who moves from a US army base to Morocco to the foreign legion, and stumbles across a kidnapping plot, when Arabs snatch a weapon but discover that Bixby (Lewis) is the only man with a clue how it works.

Sexy Moroccan chantoose femme fatale Zita (Liliane Montevecchi) leads the army to extricate Bixby (Lewis) from the Arab clutches.

Phyllis Kirk also stars as the army psychologist Major Shelton, who is assigned to turn Bixby into a good soldier. It turns out he has a photographic memory.

The Sad Sack is a sad occasion with depressingly few laughs despite an unusually solid supporting cast for a Lewis vehicle. Those who persevere until the final reel will be rewarded by an appearance by the sensationally miscast Peter Lorre as Abdul the Arab. The Sad Sack is strictly for diehard fans of the mugging misfit comedian Jerry Lewis only.

The cast are Jerry Lewis as Pvt Bixby, Phyllis Kirk as Major Shelton, Peter Lorre as Abdul, Liliane Montevecchi as Zita, David Wayne as Corp. Dolan, Joe Mantell as Pvt. Wenaslavsky, Gene Evans as Sgt. Pulley, Shepperd Strudwick as Maj. Vanderlip, Mary Treen as Sgt. Hansen, Abraham Sofaer, Michael Ansara, Don Haggerty, Dan Seymour, Yvette Vickers, Drew Cahill, and Jean DeVal.

Producer Hal B Wallis bought the film rights to George Baker’s comic book character to star Dean Martin and Lewis, but they split up before filming began on Lewis’s previous vehicle, The Delicate Delinquent (1956).

The Sad Sack was shot between 18 March 1957 and 31 May 1957 and released on 27 November 1957.

It was re-released in 1962 in a double bill with Lewis’s The Delicate Delinquent (1956).

Liliane Montevecchi (October 13, 1932 – June 29, 2018) was a French-Italian actress, dancer and singer.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,590

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/