WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT?
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1997 Chuck Dowling
Which Way to the Front? (1970) ** out of ***** - Cast: Jerry Lewis, John Wood, George Takei. Written by: Dick Miller. Directed by: Jerry Lewis. Running time: 96 minutes.
Very "hit and miss" comedy from Lewis, as with most of his films. This time Jerry plays the richest man in the world, and one day decides to try and enlist in the army to help fight in World War II. He is denied. Not accepting that, he and a small group of others who also were denied entrance into the army create their own army to fight the Nazis. From that point on the plot is absolutely all over the place, from training the men to trying to assassinate Hitler.
The film does have some laughs, mainly whenever Jerry breaks into his trademark "Lewis-speak" language of babble and doubletalk. Other moments seem uncomfortable. For example, is Hitler really a great comedic character? I didn't think so. The opening credits (which don't begin until at least 20 minutes into the film) begin with "Jerry Lewis as Which Way to the Front?". Jerry Lewis "as"? Hmmmm, at this point I don't know if Jerry meant that as a joke or not.
Lewis didn't act in another film which was actually released until 1981's "Hardly Working". [PG]
-- Chuck Dowling Visit Chuck's Movie Reviews at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Over 1,600 movies rated and/or reviewed! Movie news, film related links, and reader's reviews.
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