The Disorderly orderly

In his eighth, and final, collaboration with director Frank Tashlin, Jerry Lewis plays Jerome Littlefield, a nurse in a sanatorium whose manic and clumsy antics manage to upset patients and staff alike. Lewis is given free reign here to display his usual brand of silly, goofy and slapstick physical humour. Typically, although Jerome is a sympathetic attendant, he effortlessly manages to derail those he cares for. In one hilarious scene a hypochondriac patient relays her many maladies as Lewis displays her symptoms. Another highlight is a quite mad chase through hilly streets, with an ambulance in pursuit of a freewheeling stretcher (with a stunned patient aboard), ending in a catastrophic encounter with numerous supermarket trolleys. As this comedy is set in a hospital, some salient points are made about systemic corruption and profit margins that increase with a simultaneous decline in care. But quite expectedly, the darker tones of the film are marginalised in favour of comedic set-pieces, consistent with Lewis’ other work, and highlights his talent for physical idiocy and facial expressiveness. Also stars Glenda Farrell, Everett Sloane, Karen Sharpe and Kathleen Freeman.