Hollywood or Bust (1956)

(On Cable TV, July 2021) The Martin and Lewis comedy duo may have been legendary during the ten years it ran, but today is usually a footnote to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’ later solo careers. Hollywood or Bust came at the very end of their decade-long partnership, past the point when Martin was itching to get out of their contract considering that Lewis was getting all of the attention as the more overly comic half of the pair. That pressure is clearly at play here, as the film features Martin as a fast-talking hustler who is forced to partner with nerdy Lewis when they jointly win a car and decide to head southwest to Los Angeles. There are a few obvious resonances with the later Rain Man, but much of Hollywood or Bust is self-obviously about seeing Martin as the smooth talker and having to real with the insufferable Lewis along the way (and his big dog, because big dogs are comedy). There are plenty of period references for those well-versed in the period (including some worshipful shots of Anita Ekberg) and perhaps the best feature of the film is the capture (in colour!) of what a country-spanning road trip could mean before the rise of affordable commercial aviation. The gags are all over the place — if you’re the kind of person who laughs at Jerry Lewis antics, then the film will go over much better than otherwise. I liked it well enough (especially as the film reaches Hollywood and reaches into self-referential gags on the Paramount studio lot), but part of it is seeing earlier incarnations of familiar actors known for subsequent roads. You can certainly see echoes of Matt Helm and the Buddy Love here — although now that I know that Hollywood or Bust was made during a period of considerable tension between Martin and Lewis, I’m curious to see them at their best.