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Jerry Lewis wasn't so much a comedian as a one-man demolition derby. His gift lay not in building a gag but in destroying it.
He arrived on the scene in the late 1940s, making his television debut with his partner Dean Martin on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town in 1948. At a time when the stresses of the post-war world had turned America into a nation of nervous conformists, Lewis took a maniacal delight in smashing conventions and expectations with broad physical humor and nonsensical gibberish.
Lewis and Martin were a marvelous team, especially in the early days working nightclubs together. Lewis was an anarchist, and Martin served himself up on a nightly basis as a straight man to be wrecked — the guitar to Lewis's Pete Townshend.
The movies tamed them to a degree then in 1956, split them apart. Lewis without Martin was a flywheel without a drive shaft. The Nutty Professor definitely had its moments, but the rest of his solo work was uneven at best. The telethons raised boatloads of money but boy, could they get maudlin.
As a teller of his own life story, Lewis was a consummate bullshit artist. His self-regard was legendary. But he was sui generis and his death is another light gone out.
My good and great friend, Mister Muleboy, often says that anything becomes funny if you repeat it 400 times—and he's right—but God help you through the first 399.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, directed by the usually pious Stanley Kramer, is the cinematic equivalent of hoarding, piling up so many gags that it quickly wears out its welcome—and then piles up so many more that the sheer chutzpah of the effort makes you giddy.
It's not the best comedy of the year, but it is the funniest. For the effort of juggling the entire insane endeavor and bringing it home in one improbable piece, I've awarded Stanley Kramer the Katie Award for best director (comedy/musical) of 1963.
PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Great Escape (prod. John Sturges)
nominees: The Birds (prod. Alfred Hitchcock); From Russia With Love (prod. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman); The Haunting (prod. Robert Wise); How The West Was Won (prod. Bernard Smith); Hud (prod. Irving Ravetch and Martin Ritt); Jason and the Argonauts (prod. Charles H. Schneer); The Servant (prod. Joseph Losey and Norman Priggen); Shock Corridor (prod. Samuel Fuller)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Charade (prod. Stanley Donen)
nominees: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (prod. Stanley Kramer); The Nutty Professor (prod. Ernest D. Glucksman); The Pink Panther (prod. Martin Jurow); The Sword in the Stone (prod. Walt Disney); Tom Jones (prod. Tony Richardson)
PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: 8½ (prod. Angelo Rizzoli)
nominees: Il gattopardo (The Leopard) (prod. Goffredo Lombardo); Le Mépris (Contempt) (prod. Georges de Beauregard and Carlo Ponti); Nattvardsgästerna (Winter Light) (prod. Allan Ekelund); Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low) (prod. Ryûzô Kikushima and Tomoyuki Tanaka); Tystnaden (The Silence) (prod. Allan Ekelund); El verdugo (The Executioner) (prod. Nazario Belmar)
ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Marcello Mastroianni (8½)
nominees: Dirk Bogarde (The Servant); Richard Harris (This Sporting Life); Rex Harrison (Cleopatra); Burt Lancaster (The Leopard); Dean Martin (Toys in the Attic); Steve McQueen (The Great Escape); Toshirô Mifune (Tengoku to jigoku a.k.a. High And Low); Paul Newman (Hud); Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor)
nominees: Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar); Albert Finney (Tom Jones); Glenn Ford (The Courtship of Eddie's Father); Cary Grant (Charade); David Niven (The Pink Panther); Mickey Rooney (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World); John Wayne (Donovan's Reef and McClintock!)
ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Julie Harris (The Haunting)
nominees: Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room); Jeanne Moreau (La baie des anges a.k.a. Bay of Angels); Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life); Delphine Seyrig (Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour a.k.a Muriel or The Time of Return); Ingrid Thulin (Nattvardsgästerna a.k.a. Winter Light and Tystnaden a.k.a. The Silence)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Ann-Margret (Bye Bye Birdie)
nominees: Doris Day (The Thrill Of It All and Move Over, Darling); Audrey Hepburn (Charade); Shirley MacLaine (Irma La Douce); Maureen O'Hara (McClintock!); Margaret Rutherford (Murder at the Gallop); Natalie Wood (Love with the Proper Stranger); Susannah York (Tom Jones)
DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Federico Fellini (8½)
nominees: Ingmar Bergman (Nattvardsgästerna a.k.a. Winter Light and Tystnaden a.k.a. The Silence); Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds); Akira Kurosawa (Tengoku to jigoku a.k.a. High and Low); Martin Ritt (Hud); John Sturges (The Great Escape); Luchino Visconti (Il gattopardo a.k.a. The Leopard); Robert Wise (The Haunting)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Stanley Kramer (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World)
nominees: Stanley Donen (Charade); Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor); Tony Richardson (Tom Jones)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Melvyn Douglas (Hud)
nominees: Hugh Griffith (Tom Jones); Paul Lynde (Bye Bye Birdie); Walter Matthau (Charade); Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape); Peter Sellers (The Pink Panther)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Patricia Neal (Hud)
nominees: Edie Adams (Love with the Proper Stranger); Anouk Aimee (8½); Claire Bloom (The Haunting); Edith Evans (Tom Jones); Ethel Merman (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World); Sandra Milo (8½); Margaret Rutherford (The V.I.P.s)
SCREENPLAY
winner: Peter Stone; story by Peter Stone and Marc Behm (Charade)
nominees: Nelson Gidding, from the novel by Shirley Jackson (The Haunting); Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., from the novel by Larry McMurtry (Hud); John Osborne, from the novel by Henry Fielding (Tom Jones)
SPECIAL AWARDS
Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts) (Special Effects); Elmer Bernstein (The Great Escape) (Score)
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