The Disorderly Orderly

Jerry Lewis Director: Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin

Overview

In this comedy classic, Jerry Lewis plays Jerome Littlefield, an orderly in a mental hospital in this slapstick situation comedy that makes full use of Lewis's patented brand of screwball comedy. Dr. Jean Howard (Glenda Farrell) is the exasperated head of the sanitarium who almost becomes a patient after the antics of the frantic employee. Jerome takes on the symptoms of most of his patients and helps Susan Andrews (Susan Oliver) go from a woman considering suicide to an alluring woman of sensual confidence. When talkative patient Alice Pearce relates her maladies to Jerry, he hilariously has psychosomatic symptoms that mirror those of the woman.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/26/2017
UPC:	0032429284693
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	NR
Source:	Paramount
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Time:	1:29:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jerry Lewis	Jerome Littlefield
Glenda Farrell	Dr. Jean Howard
Everett Sloane	Mr. Tuffington
Karen Sharpe	Julie Blair
Kathleen Freeman	Maggie Higgins
Susan Oliver	Susan Andrews
Del Moore	Dr. Davenport
Jack E. Leonard	Fat Jack
Barbara Nichols	Actress
Alice Pearce	Talkative Patient
Benny Rubin	Waiter
Frank Scannell	Mr. Mealy
Milton Frome	Actor
John Macchia	Actor
Murray Alper	Actor
Richard Deacon	Mr. Courtney
Herbie Faye	Mrs. Welles
Mike Mazurki	Actor
Michael Ross	Ambulance Driver
William Wellman	Driver

Technical Credits

Frank Tashlin

Frank Tashlin	Director,Screenwriter
Sam Comer	Set Decoration/Design
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
John P. Fulton	Special Effects
Ed Haas	Original Story
Edith Head	Costumes/Costume Designer
Paul Jones	Producer
W. Wallace Kelley	Cinematographer
Tambi Larsen	Art Director
Paul K. Lerpae	Special Effects
Jerry Lewis	Producer
Norm Liebmann	Original Story
Joseph Lilley	Score Composer
Ray Moyer	Set Decoration/Design
Hal Pereira	Art Director
Russell Wiles	Editor
John M. Woodcock	Editor

Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. The Real Hero [4:54]
2. Don't Try So Hard [3:43]
3. A Great Doctor [2:30]
4. Overly Sensitive [3:38]
5. Live Without Love [3:14]
6. Trust [2:19]
7. On Thin Ice [5:30]
8. We Need More Nuts [6:26]
9. Cheer for Quimby [6:55]
10. Romantic Fallout [5:22]
11. A Story [1:44]
12. In a Hurry [6:35]
13. Freedom [5:06]
14. In the Market for Love [7:19]

Menu

Side #1 --
   Play
   Set Up
      Audio Options: English
      Audio Options: Français
      Subtitle Options: English
      Subtitle Options: Español
      Subtitle Options: None
   Special Features
      Archival Materials
         Outtakes
            Black Teeth Gag
            Jerry Grapples With Unwieldy Laundry
            Jerry Kids Around While Shooting Laundry Cart Scene
            Jerry Pushes Man in Wheelchair
            Play All
      Theatrical Trailer
   Scene Selection

Editorial Reviews

For Jerry Lewis fans, the DVD release of The Disorderly Orderly is just what the doctor ordered. Jerry stars as Jerome Littlefield, a hapless orderly in a sanitarium. A failed medical student, Jerome psychosomatically experiences the patients' symptoms and otherwise creates havoc. This was Lewis's last film with former Warner Bros. animator Frank Tashlin, who provided this human cartoon with some of his best sight gags. At one point, a snail overtakes a crawling, straitjacketed Jerome. In another, Jerome is nearly buried under an avalanche after a patient asks him to adjust the "snow" on her television screen. A jarring subplot involving an embittered, suicidal woman (Susan Oliver) on whom Jerome has had a lifelong crush is at odds with the Mack Sennett slapstick tone of the rest of the film. But Jerry will have kids in stitches.

Barnes & Noble - Donald Liebenson

This hilarious Jerry Lewis vehicle is one of his all-time classics. The major reason for this is the skillful work of writer/director Frank Tashlin: no other filmmaker could use the many gifts of Lewis as skillfully as he could. Tashlin's script plays not only to Lewis's skills for mugging and slapstick but also weaves in a surprising amount of drama that brings out his underrated gift for pathos. Lewis rises to the challenge of this script with a performance that covers the gamut from rubber-faced antics to surprisingly understated expressions of adult emotion, often within the same scene. Tashlin also gets great performances from the rest of the cast: Susan Oliver delivers a genuinely intense and dramatic performance as the troubled girl the hero pines for, Kathleen Freeman makes an excellent comedic foil for Lewis as his constantly agitated supervisor and Everett Sloane is amusing as a sleazy administrator who gets his comeuppance. Best of all, Tashlin's direction of The Disorderly Orderly is truly inventive: he gives the film a snazzy pace and a bright, "pop" color scheme that suits the manic approach of its star. More importantly, he uses the language of film to choreograph the gags in unique, visually expressive ways. Highlights in that area include a silent argument played out with subtitles and the masterfully choreographed finale, which orchestrates a chase between two ambulances in a manner that is thrilling and hilariously destructive all at once. In short, anyone with an interest in Jerry Lewis's work needs to see The Disorderly Orderly.

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