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The Nutty Professor

1963, Movie, NR, 107 mins

The Nutty Professor: Review

Jerry Lewis's best film stars the often moronic comic as Julius F. Kelp, a bumbling professor of chemistry at a small college who falls hopelessly in love with one of his more popular students, Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens). Seeking to improve his looks, Kelp whips up a chemical potion and is transformed into an overbearing and obnoxious but dashing singer who calls himself Buddy Love. Though totally conceited, Buddy Love (Lewis in a dual role) succeeds in winning over Stella. Unfortunately, his formula has a way of wearing off at the wrong times. Although only tangentially related to horror films, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR can be seen as a strange companion piece to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films, in which the dark, menacing side of an otherwise harmless character seeps through to the forefront. Much has been made of Buddy Love's resemblance to Lewis's former partner, Dean Martin, but the person Love really resembles is the pompous, self-important and bitter Jerry Lewis of talk shows and telethons. leave a comment