the audience applauded

People are voting emotionally.

hyped garbage

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This was arguably the first time an Original Screenplay (Nothing Sacred, 1934) had been adapted into a Broadway Musical (Hazel Flagg, 1952) and then the Broadway Musical had been adapted into a film (Living It Up, 1954) It grew progressively weaker in each incarnation and seen today the movie has little to recommend it. Carole Lombard, the original Hazel, was light years better than Helen Gallagher who in turn eclipsed Jerry Lewis. There are four decent songs, a frenetic dance, Sig Ruman phones in his guttural dokktorr - he did it much better in Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie ten years later, Janet Leigh is the love interest, Fred Clark is Fred Clark and that's about it.

I hated "Living It Up" and think it's probably the worst film made by Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. Now you should know that I am NOT a die-hard fan of the team--though I will watch a film if it comes on TV. A few of their films are very good (such as "The Stooge" and "That's My Boy"), but I have also felt that too often the team's films suffered from either having too much mugging from Lewis or too much music. Now I like Dean Martin's singing, but too often they included production numbers that were just distracting. Well, "Living It Up" has both LOTS of horrible mugging from Jerry, ridiculous and inappropriate production numbers that look like padding and, to top that off, it's a remake of a film that is a classic--"Nothing Sacred". "Nothing Sacred" starred Carole Lombard and Frederic March (a class team) and was a lot of fun. By comparison, Martin & Lewis simply look second-rate. All the subtlety and joy of the original film is gone--in its place, the new film is brash, loud and often irritating--plus the script often makes no sense (such as Jerry acting not 1% sick--even though he is supposed to be dying).Before you assume I am an angry crank for not loving this film, try watching it yourself. The scene where Jerry poses as French, German and Japanese doctors is not only highly offensive, but it's just plain stupid. Jerry contorts his face and mugs and he instantly goes from a European to an Asian (without makeup)--just sticking his teeth out and saying "Ah, so..." repeatedly. This was just lazy and dumb. And, throughout the film the director and writer just chose to let the actors do their thing without restraint or finesse. As a result, the film often made me cringe. And, as a result of all these problems, there really is nothing positive I can say about the film. Yes, it's THAT bad and offers nothing over "Nothing Sacred". Oh, and PLEASE see "Nothing Sacred"--it's a great film. Plus, it may be interesting for you to see this and then this Martin & Lewis film--the contrast is striking.

I've seen this movie many times over the last 40 years and I noticed that during the scene where they're bringing all the food "Homer" ordered to the suite, the first waiter to enter the room is Rodney Dangerfield. Unfortunately, he is not listed in the credits and I have submitted this to the IMDb database managers. I'd like someone else to look closely at that scene to make sure I'm not crazy. I know that to add the credit they need some concrete evidence, like a cast list or contract or anecdotal evidence from Rodney himself, who is no longer with us, but I'm pretty sure it's him.As for the film, overall, it's a typical silly Martin/Lewis film. Full of Jerry's mugging and Dean's singing and charm. Some good gags, especially the light bulb bombing of Fred Clark.I give it a 7 of 10.

Jerry Lewis plays a railroad worker Homer Flagg, who think he's dying on radioactive poisoning in three weeks.Dean Martin is his doctor Steve Harris, who tells him that's not the case.A beautiful New York reporter Wally Cook (Janet Leigh) comes to New Mexico wanting to write a series of articles about this "dying" young man.She takes both Homer and the doc to New York.Homer hasn't bothered the lady with the truth, that he's not actually going to die, because he's always wanted to go to NY.And of course the love sick doctor falls for the pretty reporter and so does Homer.The whole city of New York feels pity for the poor Homer. Norman Taurog's Living It Up (1954) is an extremely funny Jerry Lewis movie from the time he still made a team with Dean Martin.It's not only Jerry who makes you laugh hard, also Dean does that trick.Janet Leigh makes a perfect leading lady in the middle of the clown and the playboy.You can find awfully many funny scenes from the movie, like where Jerry pretends he's a doctor from Paris, Wienna and Hong Kong.He also pretends he's Dean's character while Dean is Jerry.Also the scene on the dance floor with Sheree North is pretty amazing.I saw this movie for the first time in seven years yesterday.It sure brought me back.