The Nutty Professor (1963)

Lte Mayıs 05, 2022

The Nutty Professor
Director: Jerry Lewis
USA 1963
107 min

This is the story about a... well, nutty professor (played by director and writer Jerry Lewis). A very abscent-minded chemistry nerd with no respect from any of his students. Except from the beautiful blonde Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens), the only one who is nice to him.
However, one day he gets enough of his pupils pushing him around and decides to do something about it. He tries the gym and the bowling alley, but he soon realizes that it isn't anything for him. But chemistry... that is his right element. Before you have twitched an eyelid, professor Julius Kelp has made a potion making him the most successful man in town - Buddy Love.

Stella Purdy helps her professor to get out from a locker his football student put him in.

A great comedy that hasn't aged a bit. Sure, some scenes take it slow, but you have to be darned inpatient to think they are boring. Jerry Lewis is fantastic as the embarrassing geek professor, and Stella Stevens is fabulous as the innocent and sweet student that has complicated feelings for her teacher.
When Jerry Lewis has entered the stage as a totally different persona (as the self-confident, cool and attractive Buddy Love) you get to see that he is a really great actor. Especially when the effect of the potion starts to descend and he shifts between the two characters.
Extremely entertaining! And one thing is for sure: Eddie Murphy could not fill Jerry Lewis' shoes in the 1996 remake. Not nearly as funny.

Scene: Buddy Love makes an entrance and orders an "Alaskan Polar Bear Heat".

Quotes:

Dr. Hamius R. Warfield: Kelp, it's human nature. Kelp, people just don't like teachers blowing up their kids!

Buddy Love: Hiya, chicky baby. How's it going?
Stella Purdy: Fine.
Buddy Love: Crazy. I thought I'd visit your little land of learning. Cute. Cute pad.
Stella Purdy: What happened to you last night? What'd you run away like that for? I thought you saw a ghost or something.
Buddy Love: Oh yeah. How 'bout that? Well, that's why I stopped by. I thought I'd lay it on ya, but this ain't the place to talk. What do you say we meet later at the Purple Pit? We can talk better there.
Stella Purdy: Well, I dunno. You're pretty weird, you know, and I don't want...
Buddy Love: Chi-chi. Ten o' clock?
Stella Purdy: Perfect.
Buddy Love: Figures.

Buddy Love: Here y'are, baby. Take this, wipe the lipstick off, slide over here next to me, and let's get started.

Dr. Hamius R. Warfield: Now try to understand that I understand, that scientists and creators have their little eccentricities. Einstein hated hair cuts, Da Vinci love to paint, and Newton...
Professor Julius Kelp: He had something to do with figs, didn't he?