The Delicate Delinquent

Just watched this, Jerry Lewis' first movie without Dean Martin, on YouTube. Meant to partially be a spoof of the "delinquent" films of the time, Jer does quite well in mixing his usual goofy persona with that of a more serious learner when he gets mentored by a friendly cop named Mike Damon (Darren McGavin). In fact, this was originally supposed to be Dean's role but either he balked at actually playing an authority figure or he simply just had enough of his former partner's ego to continue on with him. Anyway, whenever McGavin has fights with a female council member named Martha Henshaw (Martha Hyer) there's still some traces of the Martin-like attitude especially when he reveals to Sidney (Lewis' character) his feelings for her. Officer Mike not only has to deal with the punks that hang around Sidney like Monk (Robert Ivers) and Artie (Richard Bakalyan) but also his superior officer, Capt. Riley (Horace McMahon) who has plenty of doubts about Mike's methods. Like I said, this was a good mix of comedy and drama and also, Jerry has a nice number by himself in which he drops his usual whiny voice for his more normal one (which he also does in the more serious scenes). So on that note, I highly recommend The Delicate Delinquent.