Money From Home

I hope the 3-D buyer base of enthusiasts is holding out … I’ve had a good-luck reprieve. My beloved big-screen monitor that featured passive 3-D capability gave out two years ago. But it just so happens that I discovered that my daughter’s old 40″ monitor had active 3-D, with battery-powered glasses. One swap later, and some help from 3-D enthusiast Allan Peach, and I am in business for the new 3-D releases. Pete Walker’s  The Flesh and Blood Show didn’t appeal, but the Kino corral of disc labels has a pair of worthy items.

The first up is  Money from Home, a big-budget ‘A’ picture from Paramount, which in 1953 made a couple of 3-D features while developing its (excellent) format VistaVision. As Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis were the biggest hits on the Paramount lot, the studio sunk a bundle into this show, which also happens to be their first starring color feature. Top producer Hal Wallis actually made it as an independent offering. 3-D was going to pry America from its 14-inch TV sets, and Martin and Lewis would lead the way.

Extras on the new KLSC disc explain that the 3-D Film Archive co-founder Bob Furmanek was a fan transformed into a film archivist through one meeting with Jerry Lewis. After years of searching for, collecting and remastering classic 3-D features Furmanek has come full-circle back to Jerry’s only 3-D title, something of a FHG (Furmanek Holy Grail). Many 3-D Film Archive projects were rescues and save jobs, working with faded and/or damaged film materials. The company’s skill set goes way beyond the careful adjustment of the binocular 3-D effect. Money from Home is a change in that they were able to do the enormous job properly, without cutting corners. ‘More on that below.’

Money from Home begins as a Damon Runyon story about illicit gambling in New York, like  Guys and Dolls. It soon becomes a basic showcase for Jerry Lewis’s many talents, with music interludes, chases and some token romantic moves. The opening is very Damon Runyon. Horse-race gambler Herman Nelson (Dean Martin) is called “Honey Talk” because he can sweet-talk anybody into anything, but his pals on the street are aware of his recent streak of bad luck. That’s when ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ (Robert Strauss of  The Atomic Kid) drags Honey to a meeting with the big operator Jumbo Schneider (Sheldon Leonard). It’s all bad news. Jumbo has bought up Honey’s IOU’s and demands payment in an illegal form: he wants Honey Talk to go to Maryland and make sure that the horse ‘My Sheba’ is pulled from the big race, so Jumbo’s filly can win. Dis bein’ a real-histic story, Honey ain’t, like, got no choice.

The Damon Runyon setup is great, giving us the fun of mugs like Robert Strauss, Jack Kruschen and Lou Lubin doing their special patter and facial tics in 3-D. Then Jerry enters the picture, and it becomes more of a standard Martin and Lewis expedition..

Delivery boy and apprentice veterinarian Virgil Yokum (Jerry Lewis) is a spastic klutz at everything.  ^*  But he also has a good heart, and he falls in with Honey Talk’s unpleasant mission. Both find female friends when snooping around the stables. Romancing horse owner Phyllis Leigh (Marjie Millar) might allow Honey to get her to withdraw My Sheba from the race lineup. Some of the relationship comedy is good — the performing is adept and George Marshall’s direction smooth — but the verbal humor is terrible and the appeal of Lewis’ infantile characterization …. can be difficult to understand.

Lewis’s gawky moves often demonstrate great control and skill, although he smartly uses doubles for things like falling down a flight of stairs. When it comes time to perform musically or show off his dancing, he’s a total pro in every respect. To me, he ‘projects’ past the fourth wall to assure us that he’s just acting like a total idiot — he’s really the coolest guy on the planet. Having his sidekick be the charismatic smooth talker Dean Martin is a big help. It’s the ‘Sancho Panza Effect:’ Jerry is cool because Dino thinks he’s cool. Jerry sings one song and Dean sings two and part of another.

The comedy is colorful and antic and … for fans. A bid to get on a train without a ticket sees Virgil dressed as a harem girl and entertaining a Middle Eastern Poobah (Romo Vincent) while Honey romances the real seraglio cuties. The boys are then are forced to hitch a ride with Englishman Bertie Searles (Richard Haydn of ), who happens to be My Sheba’s jockey. Bertie has a drinking problem; Virgil now impersonates Bertie as part of Honey’s plan. To get close to the beautiful Phyllis Leigh, Honey must pry away am amorous, crooked jockey, Marshall Preston (Gerald Mohr of  Invasion USA). Preston is the jockey for Jumbo’s favored horse,

After getting past bits of antic business — crazy customers, the rescue of a cute dog — Virgil’s new human friend is Veterinarian Dr. Autumn Claypool (lovely Pat Crowley). Virgil is smitten, while Autumn proves impervious to his ‘unusual’ behavior patterns. She is betting big on My Sheba, so she can open a fancy veterinary clinic. Jumbo’s thugs lean in from the sidelines Despite threats from ‘Seldom Seen,’ mishaps with Virgil’s ant farm and the interference of Preston, our boys eventually do the right thing and determine to help Phyllis and My Sheba win. But the horse hates Bertie — Virgil is going to have to ride her!

The cast is well-chosen, with the two leading ladies providing the spirit and adoration needed to prop up the comic duo. We’re told that favorite Mara Corday is in there somewhere, but we didn’t catch her. Those colorful ‘Runyon types’ that hover around the periphery are faces we know well: Sheldon Leonard ( It’s a Wonderful Life), Jack Kruschen ( The Apartment), Lou Lubin ( The Seventh Victim), Charles Horvath ( Vera Cruz). Robert Strauss is the only one with a substantial role. Usually an uncontrollable ham, Strauss plays his part in full accordance with the  Top Banana rules — he never dares pull inappropriate attention away from Jerry. No, siree, it just ain’t done.

Let’s get right to the talk about the feature encoding, the 3-D and the overall technical beauty of this disc. It’s The 3-D Archive’s most polished work to date.