Jerry Lewis’s first film after parting ways with Dean Martin, The Delicate Delinquent (1957) marked the beginning of a new chapter in his career. A comedy that blends humor and melancholy, moving between teenage rebels, surreal gags, and the recurring theme of inadequacy — a defining trait of the future comedy legend.
Indelicate delinquents? Those young bad-but-good boys were a staple of 1950s cinema, with Marlon Brando and James Dean as their prophets. It is in recalling that atmosphere that one can enjoy Don McGuire’s The Delicate Delinquent – just think of the wonderfully parodic opening. Critics often claim that the flaw of the film (Jerry Lewis’s first solo outing after splitting from Dean Martin) lies in mixing comedy and pathos too heavily; but that’s not entirely accurate. In fact, this tale of a despised nobody’s transformation into a real man in a police uniform, under the protective wing of mentor/father-figure cop Darren McGavin, is handled with fair ease (besides, Jerry Lewis always had a penchant for pathos, like Danny Kaye and Red Skelton).
Jerry Lewis’s first solo film after parting ways with Dean Martin, the movie blends comedy and pathos in a story of youthful redemption, portraying the protagonist’s transformation from a “despised nobody” into a policeman under the paternal guidance of Darren McGavin....
At heart, it’s the theme of inadequacy and the struggle to grow that fuels Lewis’s comedy. If anything, the weakness comes in a scene or two (such as when he gets carried away brandishing a knife), where the great Jerry, poorly directed by McGuire, loses timing and tends to overact. On the other hand, there are many highly entertaining moments: the opening sequence, the absurd subplot where Jerry helps mad scientist Jefferson Dudley Searles, the police academy self-defense class in which Jerry faces off against The Great Togo, a Japanese-American wrestler playing himself. And of course, his difficult relationship with objects (that chest of drawers!) which foreshadows so much of his later cinema.
