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  • The Paramount library was a good place for source material for the Martin& Lewis team while they were making big bucks for the studio. You're Never Too Young was a gender reversal remake of the Billy Wilder classic, The Major And The Minor. Not that anyone would confuse Ginger Rogers and Jerry Lewis.

    Just as Ginger Rogers was pretending to be a juvenile in the Wilder film, Jerry is pretending to be a little boy because there's a killer after him. The killer is Raymond Burr and he's killed a man to obtain a very valuable diamond. In trying to escape the hotel where the crime happened Burr palms off the diamond and eventually it winds up with Lewis.

    On the train to Blitzen, Washington (is there such a place) Jerry meets up with Dean Martin and Diana Lynn going back to a girl's school. Also on that train is Burr forcing Jerry to adopt that disguise. Jerry takes shelter with them and boards at the girl's school. Lucky dog.

    Arthur Schwartz and Sammy Cahn teamed to write the score for You're Never Too Young of which the number Simpatico done in a nice Latin tempo by Dean is the best. There's Nina Foch in the cast playing a designing woman whose designs are on Dean and her mother runs the school. And we can never forget Veda Ann Borg who always adds something to any movie she's in. Watch her try to vamp the diamond out of Jerry.

    Even missing some of the Billy Wilder bite, You're Never Too Young is a funny enough film that will please more than Martin&Lewis fans.
  • With this movie, Martin & Lewis have a reunion with a couple of co-stars from their first feature-My Friend Irma: Diana Lynn, Jane Stacy in that and its sequel, is not only Dean's girl here but also a crush of Jerry's. And Hans Conried plays Jer's barber mentor, Francois. Then there's a couple of cameos from other of M & L's flicks-Nancy Kulp, from The Caddy, as a lady with a "12"-year-old son and Bobby Barber, from Money from Home, as a newsstand clerk. With that out of the way, I'll just say the plot of a jewel robber (Raymond Burr) trying to get the diamond out of Jerry's coat pocket-which the latter doesn't know about-as Jer tries to pass himself off as a minor in order to get a half-fare train ticket with him ending up at a girls school where Martin and Lynn teach is perhaps the most ridiculous story yet for the boys' movies but darned if I didn't find myself constantly laughing anyway! As usual, plenty of Lewis' mugging and doing impersonations provide plenty of fun entertainment along with Martin's smooth crooning on many romantic ballads. And seeing the latter get constantly hit and bumped into by his partner just adds to the fun. So despite the many nonsense shenanigans, I heartily recommend You're Never Too Young.
  • The best Martin-Lewis collaboration is, to me, Hollywood OR BUST, but this one is not so far behind.

    It has some hilarious spoofs of Chaplin's GREAT DICTATOR (the sequence where Mussolini and Hitler are on a barber's chair); NORTH BY NORTHWEST (the sequence in the train where Lewis is in Lynn's room), and of THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, but, above all, Lewis is in great form playing an 11-year-old kid on the run from murderer and diamond thief Raymond Burr (fresh from playing the evil Thorwald in Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW the previous year).

    I reckon Martin was a better actor than Lewis, but his part is less eye-catching. He sings two or three songs, but they are not the best in his career repertoire - quite forgettable, in fact - which does not do him any favors. One sequence where he is supposed to conduct a choir and Lewis takes over pretty much symbolizes Lewis' upper hand throughout YOU ARE NEVER TOO YOUNG.

    Diana Lynn is attractive enough in her part, Burr is quite good as the heavy, and the rest of the cast is hardly perceptible.

    Taurog's direction is purely commercial with some great action sequences, especially the final ski and boat chase; color photography is quite good for a 1955 low budget movie; and the script is good enough to keep you interested.

    A well deserved 7/10.
  • Considered the best of the Martin and Lewis comedies, this remake of "The Major and The Minor" (with Lewis in the Ginger Rogers role as an adult disguised as a child to qualify for a half-fare train ticket) improves on the original with a never ending romp of slap-stick humor, musical comedy numbers, and color. Diana Lynn, who plays a teacher, played the teenage roommate to Ginger Rogers in the original. Diana Lynn also starred in Martin and Lewis' debut films "My Friend Irma" and "My Friend Irma Goes To New York." Lewis as a boy is never really believable, but that's okay, it's meant as a spoof of anyone who has tried to pass off an older child as younger for half fare tickets. Most important, the humor is very, very fast and funny. Despite some nice musical moments between Dean and Jerry, there is no mistaking this is Jerry's tour-de-farce, and the reason for their split up obvious. Enjoy the pinnacle of their partnership.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Copyright 1955 by Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Criterion: 25 August 1955. U.S. release: August 1955. U.K. release: 14 November 1955. Australian release: 30 December 1955. Sydney opening at the Capitol (ran one week). Nationally re-issued by Paramount in the U.S.A. on a double bill with "The Caddy" in 1963. 9,250 feet. 102 minutes.

    SYNOPSIS: Escaping a pursuing gangster, an adult poses as a 12-year- old in order to travel half fare on the train.

    NOTES: The original movie starred Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers in the roles now played by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, respectively.

    As a team, Martin and Lewis never achieved anything like the success overseas that they enjoyed in the United States. Their most successful features in foreign shores were in order: Sailor Beware (1952), Hollywood or Bust (1956 — their last movie together), My Friend Irma (1950), Living It Up, Three Ring Circus (both 1954), Pardners (1956), Money From Home, Scared Stiff (both 1953). Even these were only moderately popular at the box-office.

    My own favorite is Artists and Models (1955), which like The Stooge (1953) and You're Never Too Young failed miserably outside America. That's My Boy (1951) and The Caddy (1953) barely recovered overhead and advertising costs, while My Friend Irma Goes West, At War with the Army (both 1950) and Jumping Jacks (1952) returned a modest profit.

    COMMENT: Thanks to the presence of Raymond Burr, this one is a fair deal funnier than the average Martin and Lewis vehicle. Fans will enjoy the slapstick chase ski finale despite the use of obvious doubles in which Lewis (real name Joseph Levitch) has one good joke when he discovers his picnic sandwich is ham. The color photography is always nice, there are lots of girls milling around (who join Dean and Jerry in one high-stepping production number). Dean also has the usual number of obligatory songs which he renders in his usual pleasant style.

    Unfortunately it is just impossible to accept Lewis as a child which undermines a lot of the comedy, especially when Diana Lynn tries so valiantly to play it straight. Nina Foch (pronounced "Forsh') has another of her characteristically acidic, other-woman roles and Veda Ann Borg makes her usual effective moll. Hans Conried has some moments as a French barber. Lewis mugs away with his usual abandon but thanks to the script and Mr. Burr is occasionally amusing.

    Taurog's direction rates as a great deal livelier than usual.
  • This movie may not make the most sense, but it sure is funny. The dynamic between Martin and Lewis is delightful.

    There are so many funny bits and the whole premise is just so ridiculous. I highly recommend watching if you are a fan of silliness. Even my children, who get bored of my old movies, enjoyed this one.
  • With a bit of James Bondesque finale, climax. This is one Jerry Lewis feature with many musicals, as Esther Williams' features were, but with comedy and gags galore. I feel that Frank Tashlin's movies with Lewis were a bit different though. It is efficient, funny, with I repeat more musicals as usual for Lewis, thanks to Dean Martin. Ray Burr as the heavy is an excellent choice.
  • I'll never get tired of watching this movie!

    Jerry Lewis is everything in this movie, from a goofy barber assistant to a spoiled little brat to a suave and sophisticated young man.

    All the funny bits will never be old to me, they still put me in stitches even after I've watched the film umpteen times.

    My favorite part is the choir scene...

    If you haven't seen it, don't be a ninny and get the movie for yourself! You won't regret it!

    I'm glad I still have my good old copy of this wonderful classic.
  • I have watched Billy Wilder's "The Major and the Minor" twice--not because I liked it but because my impression was so poor compared to the film's very good reputation. Here in "You're Never Too Young", the same terribly flawed plot is recycled but with no originality and A LOT of Jerry (whether or not this is a good thing depends on your feelings about his style of comedy). I actually think I am generous in giving this disappointing film even a 4. Here are some reasons I disliked the film:

    1. The plot has to get the viewer to suspend disbelief to the point where the viewer has to be stupid! Who would believe that the almost 30 year-old Jerry could successfully pose as a 13 year-old?!? Not only did he sport a 5 o'clock shadow, but he was 6 feet tall!! And his version of a kid is loud, shrill and annoying.

    2. Jerry is loud, shrill and annoying. I frankly wanted to see him shut up and stop overdoing every scene. Subtle he wasn't--which is a shame, as Lewis could be subtle and funny if properly directed.

    3. There is no originality at all about the film. It's simply a copy of "The Major and the Minor" and does not improve on it in any way. Dean Martin's songs are pleasant but do not make up for this deficiency.

    So, if you love Jerry Lewis films and think he's a genius AND can believe he can pass for a kid, you'll probably enjoy this film. Otherwise, beware!
  • Gooper23 January 2006
    From start to finish, and based on the other pictures the boys were in, this is without a doubt the best of the Martin & Lewis series. For some bizarre reason, 'You're Never Too Young' has been buried in obscurity. Maybe it was because there was just a bit too much M & L exposure in '55, so it got lost in the shuffle. By this time, Paramount was giving M & L pictures the 'A' treatment, in full VistaVision and Technicolor, with a great score of specially-commissioned songs and big production numbers. The Sidney Sheldon script they used in this case wasn't too shabby either, and was more ambitious and wide-ranging than their previous films. There's plenty of the customary wackiness, but more sophistication as well, and the boys can handle it. Lewis is in top form. His multiple role playing is inspired, whether doing a Bogart imitation, or a French barber, or, for most of the picture, posing as an early teen in order to escape tough guy Raymond Burr. Thanks to Norman Taurog's competent direction, he is always 'under control' and consistently hilarious. Dean cruises through effortlessly, and does his usual dandy job. Highlights: crooning to Diana Lynn in his sparkling DeSoto station wagon, and helping Jerry get through 'I Like to Hike' at the girls' school concert. Great supporting roles supplied by Veda Ann Borg, Romo Vincent, Hans Conried and Mitzi McCall as Skeets, who's mad about Jerry. All in all, the best produced, the most rewarding, and the best-managed Martin & Lewis vehicle - not to mention the funniest. Now, Paramount, lift this gem up from the vaults and give us a DVD version. Please? Trust me, you'll get your investment back. UPDATE: Paramount came through: the DVD is outstanding, and the film is better than ever!
  • Role-reversal remake of 1942's "The Major and the Minor" has Jerry Lewis stepping into the part originally played by Ginger Rogers, but unfortunately this anemic outing is missing a lot more than just Ginger. Lewis attempts to pass for a child when boarding a train; he's successful, but the deception leads to a string of comic and romantic confusions. Sidney Sheldon adapted the screenplay, tossing in musical moments for Dean Martin (playing yet another in his stable of second-bananas) and a jewel-robbery subplot (which is dire). Diana Lynn, who played the wily teenager in the original film, plays Lewis' love-interest here. She's cute; Jerry isn't. *1/2 from ****
  • I was watching this movie and suddenly thought it seemed very familiar!! I then realized it was a re-making of the 1942 movie "The Major and the Minor" starring Ginger Rogers! There is a sub-plot that is different,but many of the scenes are identical except for the fact that now it is Jerry Lewis playing a 12 year old boy instead of Ginger as a 12 year old girl.Another pairing of Lewis and Martin-lightweight but enjoyable.
  • A few years back, I watched a Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis movie, "Artists and Models." I hadn't watched any of the 16 movies they made together in ages, and I thought that was one of their best and funniest. Since then, I've watched more of their movies, including "You're Never Too Young."

    I think this may be one of their best pairings on film. And it struck me that most of the movies with plots in which they were not partners or friends in the story, but strangers, turned out to be much better and certainly much funnier films. In their movies, as with other comedy teams (e.g., Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy), when the duo starts off as acquaintances in the entertainment field, the plots are ho-hum and one has the sense that we're just audiences at a stage play, waiting for the next entertaining skit. Those plots don't seem to allow for the spontaneity of the actors that these films have when the stars are strangers.

    In this one, Jerry is Wilbur Hoolick, a cleaning guy in a barber shop. Dean is Bob Miles, an athletic trainer and coach at an all-girl's college. How they wind up together at that school, with Jerry then playing an overgrown kid, is as far out as any plot can get. And, that's just part of the comedy. To me, comedy doesn't have to have a plot that makes a lot of sense.

    This is a wonderful, funny, movie. Some of the individual scrapes and antics that Wilbur gets into are outlandishly hilarious. Paramount must have had a special barber chair made for one scene. There are some marvelous talent scenes in here as well. One is when the college marching team gives a welcoming performance and Wilbur joins them. Before long he is doing the crazy gyrations, jumps and twists of strange dance moves that the entire group of young women imitate to a T. It's one fine job of choreography and must have taken several practice sessions for them all to copy Jerry's lead in synch.

    Another very hilarious scene is Wilbur mimicking a woman on a long-distance telephone call. This change in his voice is very funny. Later he conducts a chorus with many similar laughs.

    An interesting look in this film is Raymond Burr as Noonan. This is in the days before he became "the" Perry Mason on the long running Perry Mason TV series. Burr is one of the Hollywood tough and bad guys from his early films, who wound up on the right side of the law. Here he keeps a straight face but cracks a couple of very funny lines.

    While the general idea for this film borrows from Paramount's 1942 smash hit, "The Major and the Minor," the story is very different. This plot has many original angles and different scenes. A remake is mostly a new cast with the same or an updated setting.

    This is one fine comedy that everyone should enjoy. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

    Nancy Collins, "What's the matter with you - you're trembling?" Wilbur Hoolick, "I have very loose bones."

    Mrs. Brendan, "Wilber's a very remarkable boy. In this day and age, it's so difficult to rear a child properly." Noonan, posing as Wilbur's father, "Yes. I wouldn't give you 10 to 1 on a boy like Wilbur living to grow up." Mrs. Brendan, "Oh, well that's a little on the pessimistic side, Mr. Hoolick." Noonan, "All right, I'll make it 8 to 1."

    Wilbur Hoolick, "I like it here. I wanna go to school here." Noonan, "This is a girl's school." Wilbur, "That's why I like it here."
  • You're Never Too Young is a remake of 1942 film The Major and the Minor (which itself is based on a play). Only with a gender change. It's directed by Norman Taurog and supporting Martin & Lewis are Diana Lynn, Nina Foch & Raymond Burr. Plot sees the duo caught up in a diamond robbery that entails Lewis posing as a 12 year old schoolboy to flee from the pursuing Burr. Tale unfolds at a girls school where confusion and romance reigns.

    It's the same with other famous comedy double acts on the big screen, be it Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Hope & Crosby or this here pair of Martin & Lewis; there's never a definitive movie that's considered the best from the output. You're Never Too Young has many fans, some of whom proclaim it to be the best film they made. Personally speaking I think it's OK as a time filler, but actually one of their weakest colour productions; and certainly inferior to the great Artists & Models released the same year.

    Casting aside the preposterous notion at the heart of the film, since this is slapstick comedy after all, the support cast is weak (Lynn arguably the worst female support in all their movies and Burr underused) and the gags are few and far between. It's weakly plotted and half heartedly performed by Martin, even the Schwartz/Cahn musical numbers lack sparkle (yes even Dino's lukewarm rendition of Simpatico). The colour photography from Daniel L. Fapp is most appealing, as is Edith Head's costuming. But no! Even as an ardent fan of their work, I just can't agree this is anything but distinctly average. 5/10
  • Petey-105 February 1999
    I liked this movie. Jerry Lewis was a great kid in it. Jerry Lewis is one of the best comedians of the century.
  • There are a couple of good moments in this film, but not enough to give it a good review. Plot is inconsistent. Too many holes and unanswered questions. One is at the beginning Dean Martin and Diana Lynn are in LA. They are on their way back to the school. Lynn goes by train and Martin picks her up in Organ. How did he get there before she did? How does the Raymond Burr character know where to look for Lewis??? Where does he spend his time while there?? What happened the the Nina Foch character. She just disappears from the movie!!! Oh, it's supposed to be a farce with no reality. That choral number goes on forever. Much too long. Too bad, because the premise is fun, but the script is atrocious with no logic.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I should preface this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of Dean Martin. But I think I can be objective, and there are films of his (e.g., "Artists And Models" and the later Matt Helm flicks) that are not so hot. But this 1955 comedy is one of the Martin & Lewis films on the high side. The co-stars are second rate -- Diana Lynn, Nina Foch, and Raymond Burr (two years before he hit it big with "Perry Mason" and became a television staple).

    In this film, Wilbur Hoolick (Jerry Lewis) is a frustrated barber's apprentice who spends most of his time sweeping the shop. There are some funny bits when Bob Miles (Dean Martin) visits the barbershop for a trim. But before that, Raymond Burr's character steals the Majuba Diamond and hides it is Miles' pocket. Wilbur, who appears to have inadvertently gotten the diamond, is sent by Burr to Burr's wife's apartment to give her a hair-do...merely a plot to secure the diamond, which fails.

    Wilbur is forced to leave town...again, inadvertently with the diamond. He doesn't have enough fare for the train to Blitzen, Washington so he finagles a boy's sailor suit so he can pose as a child for half fare. Okay, so it's goofy...but this is that kind of comedy. Wilbur as an 11 year old is pretty far-fetched, but he ends up on the train...sitting next to Burr...and ends up in Dean's girlfriend's train cabin....scared of the thunderstorm. And starts the gossip back at the school where Martin and his girlfriend teach.

    Once at the girl's school, things get out of hand with Wilbur falling in love with Martin's girl, but unable to be the adult he really is.

    There's a great finale, with some lake-speedboat photography that's surprisingly realistic.

    Dean has a couple of good romantic songs of the style popular back then -- "Like I Do" and, particularly the romantic "Sympatico". Dean and Jerry are hilarious in "I Like To Hike", with a large chorus. I'm not a Jerry Lewis fan, but there were times he was so good...and this is one of them.

    This film was re-released in 1964...right after Dean Martin hit big with "Everybody Loves Somebody".