I’ve been involved in some filmmaking in 2021. My friend Dangerous Dave is working on four film projects–two animated films (I provide a voice characterization in one of them) and two live-action films (I have a small part in one of them). I have also been featured in certain of Dave’s music videos for our mutual friend Kalin Krohe, he of Kalin Krohe Reference fame.
I have learned a lot about the art and science of making movies from these experiences. But to really become an expert in the art of film, I had to seek out the expert advice of…this guy!
Yes, it’s time to enroll in USC FIlm School, where in 1967 Jerry Lewis taught a series of classes that later, transcribed from tapes of his lectures, became “The Total FIlmMaker”. This book has a reputation as a valuable tool for young filmmakers, and also a look behind the scenes of how Lewis made classic films like “The Nutty Professor”, “The Bellboy”, and…oh..let’s say, “The Errand Boy.” There are lots of other good ones. If you like Jerry Lewis. I like him.
“The Total FilmMaker” has been out of print for quite some time, and used copies are hard to come by. But now a nifty new printing is available and I spent my Quiet Old Man Sunday® reading it.
Since the book is taken directly from the Lewis lecture tapes, it’s directly in “Serious Jerry” voice. You can hear him saying the words. Putting aside the passage of time and changes in technology and the entertainment business, there’s a lot of really sensible information to be found here.
Lewis goes into detail on the challenges of being the writer, director and star (as he was for many of his classic Paramount films). He basically explains that it is necessary to split the roles and handle them individually–for example. “director Jerry” taking control in the editing room with a critical eye on “actor Jerry”.
Of course, it takes more than Jerry Lewis to make a Jerry Lewis movie. And a great deal of space in “The Total FIlmMaker” goes to the importance of what Lewis deems “humanities”: How you treat the people you work with. It’s one thing to balance the personalities in an office setting–but on a Hollywood film set you’ve got actors, craftspeople, technicians and other important folks.
On actors, Lewis quotes from Moss Hart’s “Act One”: “The theatre is an inevitable refuge of the unhappy child, and the tantrums and childishness of theatre people are not either accidental nor a necessary weapon of their profession. It has nothing to do with so-called ‘artistic temperament.’ The explanation, I think, is a far simpler one. For the most part, they are impaled in childhood like a fly in amber.”
Wow. Fascinating that Jerry Lewis, who is himself an actor, would land on that particular take.
Lewis basically just gives good common sense advice about keeping things running smoothly. He illustrates his points with stories from his time as a director, such as when he found it easier to ask an actor to do another take by blaming it on a mistake of his (“I knock over a lamp. I’m a champion at knocking over lamps”). And he recalls frustrations from his earlier days in front of the camera, when producer Hal Wallis (he isn’t named but, trust me, it’s Hal Wallis) refuses to take Lewis’ suggestions for improving scenes–until Lewis presents them as having come from Wallis himself.
Lewis also discusses the challenges of working with old hands in the technical side of things–guys who yell “I’ve been doing this 25 years!” as the answer to any challenge.
From cast and crew Lewis moves into the financing end of the business, the process of promotion and marketing and finally the all-important editing and post-production. Again, a lot has changed since 1967 but the basic information about framing shots, editing scenes so the audience isn’t confused, etc. is still as valid today as it was then. The editing chapter also includes some fascinating stories about the editing of comedy scenes to the individual frame of film.
The book concludes with a section about comedy. Lewis expresses some unsurprising gripes about the lack of attention given comedy films by the Academy Awards, the low regard with which some view his brand of comedy, and the “sick” humor then in practice by the likes of Lenny Bruce. Most mainstream comics of the era made this same complaint, including a few who would peel the paint off the walls with the jokes they told each other in private.
It is hard to argue with this, Lewis’ final statement on the subject: “The great ones, the giants, are Chaplin, Stan Laurel, and Jackie Gleason, in that order.”
And now, a couple of random interesting things I learned reading “The Total FilmMaker”:
–Jerry Lewis hated “Psycho”. He felt Hitchcock “crossed the line of decency”. He writes: “After seeing it at the DeMille Theater in New York, I went to a bar and shook a brandy down. I couldn’t enter the bathroom in the hotel without shuddering.”
-Jerry Lewis’ characterization of “Nutty Professor” Julius Kelp was based on a real person! Lewis and his associates encountered the bespectacled, nasal-voiced fellow on a train. Lewis, knowing a good thing when he saw it, spent three hours with the fellow on the train, buying him drinks and engaging him in conversation.
“The Total FIlmMaker” is pure, unfiltered Jerry Lewis. I think my favorite line might be this one regarding the importance of using the right lens: “Cast a pretty girl, use a 35 [lens] on her, and she’s apt to look like Ma Kettle.” There are some very funny lines and turns-of-phrase in the book, but they are the exception, not the rule. Jerry Lewis took filmmaking seriously. The book is a lasting testament to the regard he had for his craft.
Oh…and if you decide to pursue getting a copy of the book, make sure it’s the Jerry Lewis version and not this shameless ripoff: