Living It Up | |
---|---|
Directed by | Norman Taurog |
Written by | Jack Rose Melville Shavelson |
Produced by | Paul Jones |
Starring | Dean Martin Jerry Lewis Janet Leigh Edward Arnold |
Cinematography | Daniel L. Fapp |
Edited by | Archie Marshek |
Music by | Walter Scharf |
Production company | York Pictures Corporation |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4.25 million (US) [1] 916,275 admissions (France) [2] |
Living It Up is a 1954 American comedy film starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis which was released by Paramount Pictures.
The film was directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Paul Jones. The screenplay by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson was based on the musical Hazel Flagg (1953) by Ben Hecht, which was in turn based on the story "Letter to the Editor" by James H. Street.
An earlier film based on Street's story, Nothing Sacred (1937), had been by Selznick International Pictures (released through United Artists) with Carole Lombard and Fredric March, and directed by William A. Wellman. The 1954 version features original music by Walter Scharf, cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp, art direction by Albert Nozaki and Hal Pereira, and costume design by Edith Head.
In addition to Martin and Lewis, the cast of Living It Up includes Janet Leigh, Edward Arnold, Fred Clark, Sheree North, and Sig Ruman.
Homer Flagg is a railroad worker in the small town of Desert Hole, New Mexico. His big dream in life is to visit New York City while he is young.
One day he finds an abandoned automobile at an old atomic proving ground. His doctor and best friend, Steve Harris, diagnoses him with radiation poisoning and gives Homer three weeks to live.
Wally Cook, a reporter for a New York newspaper, hears of Homer's plight and convinces Oliver Stone, her editor, to provide an all-expenses paid trip to fulfill Homer's lifelong fantasy of seeing New York.
Steve, however, realizes that he made an error and Homer is only suffering from a sinus condition. Steve agrees to keep this new diagnosis a secret after Homer begs him ... particularly after meeting the attractive reporter. Steve announces that only he can provide medical treatment to Homer and must accompany him on the trip.
New York embraces Homer and he becomes a celebrity, with everyone following his every move in the paper. Homer even makes plans to marry Wally, despite the fact that she has fallen for Steve.
Meanwhile, editor Stone is anxious for Homer to die. Every day it costs the newspaper money to support the dying man's extravagant requests, which includes ordering 3,000 shrimp cocktails for his hotel suite. Stone hires three specialists to examine Homer, who is given a clean bill of health.
To escape the fix that they have gotten themselves into, Homer fakes suicide. The newspaper gets the exclusive story. Wally marries Steve, and the two guys get new jobs in New York as street sweepers.
Actor | Role |
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Dean Martin | Steve Harris |
Jerry Lewis | Homer Flagg |
Janet Leigh | Wally Cook |
Edward Arnold | The Mayor |
Fred Clark | Oliver Stone |
Sheree North | Jitterbug Dancer |
Sammy White | Waiter |
Sig Ruman | Dr. Emile Egelhofer |
Richard Loo | Dr. Lee |
Living It Up was filmed from October 19 to December 18, 1953. Sig Ruman, who plays Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer, had played the same role in the 1937 version.
Doing a jitterbug in a dance scene with Lewis, actress Sheree North's character is introduced by a master of ceremonies with her own name, "Sheree North."
The song "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York", performed by Martin and Lewis, was originally written by Jule Styne for the musical Hazel Flagg . Martin also sings Styne's songs How Do You Speak to an Angel? and Money Burns a Hole in My Pocket in this film.
The film was re-released with another Martin and Lewis film, Pardners , in 1965.
The film was included on a five-film DVD set, the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Collection: Volume Two, released on June 5, 2007.
Jerry Lewis was an American comedian, actor, filmmaker, humanitarian and singer. Nicknamed "The King of Comedy", he is regarded as one of the most significant American cultural figures of the 20th century and was widely known for his "kid" and "idiot" persona.
Jule Styne was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: Gypsy,Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl.
William Dennis Gargan was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. He acted in decades of movies including parts in Follow the Leader, Rain, Night Flight, Three Sons, Isle of Destiny and many others. The role he was best known for was that of a private detective Martin Kane in the 1949–1952 radio-television series Martin Kane, Private Eye. In television, he was also in 39 episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane.
Nothing Sacred is an American Technicolor screwball comedy film directed in 1937 by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March with a supporting cast featuring Charles Winninger and Walter Connolly. Ben Hecht was credited with the screenplay based on the 1937 story "Letter to the Editor" by James H. Street, and an array of additional writers, including Ring Lardner Jr., Budd Schulberg, Dorothy Parker, Sidney Howard, Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman and Robert Carson made uncredited contributions.
Sheree North was an American actress, dancer, and singer, known for being one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe.
James Howell Street was an American journalist, minister, and writer of Southern historical novels.
Siegfried Carl Alban Rumann, billed as Sig Rumann and Sig Ruman, was a German-American character actor known for his portrayals of pompous and often stereotypically Teutonic officials or villains in more than 100 films.
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Hazel Flagg is a 1953 musical, book by Ben Hecht, based on a story by James H. Street. The lyrics are by Bob Hilliard, and music by Jule Styne. The musical is based on the 1937 screwball comedy film Nothing Sacred, the primary screenwriter of which was Ben Hecht.
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