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'''Artists and Models''' is a 1955, Paramount comedy in VistaVision. It is Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's fourteenth feature together as a team. The film co-stars Dorothy Malone, Eva Gabor, Anita Ekberg, and Shirley MacLaine.

Contents

Plot

Production

Trivia

DVD release

Notes

External links

Plot

Rick Todd (Dean Martin) is a struggling painter. His roommate, Eugene Fullstack (Jerry Lewis) is an aspiring children's author. Fullstack has a passion for comic books, especially those of the 'Bat Lady.' However, each night he has nightmares which he describes aloud during his sleep. They are about "Vincent the Vulture", who is half-boy, half-man, and half-bird.
A neighbor in the complex, Abigail Parker (Dorothy Malone) is a professional artist and works for a comic book company, Murdock Publishing. Her roommate is Bessie Sparrowbush (Shirley MacLaine), who is Mr. Murdock's secretary, and the model for "Bat Lady". Sparrowbush develops a crush on Fullstack, who is unaware that she is the "Bat Lady."
Parker becomes frustrated at work and quits at the same time that Todd gets a job with them after pitching the adventures of "Vincent the Vulture" from Fullstacks' dreams. He attains success at his new job, but after falling for Parker he keeps his work a secret from her.
Unbeknownst to all of them, Fullstacks' dreams also contain a top-secret rocket formula that Todd publishes in his stories. With spies all around them, they manage to entertain at the annual "Artists and Models Ball" and capture the enemy, preserving national security.

Production

Martin and Lewis' fourteenth feature, ''Artists and Models'' was filmed from February 28 to May 3, 1955 at Paramount Studios^[1]. It was released on November 7, 1955 by Paramount. The film was one of the team's highest budgeted pictures, at 1.5 million USD, and was shot with Paramount's VistaVision cameras in Eastman color, print by Technicolor, and stereophonic sound by Perspecta. Costumes were by Paramount costume designer, Edith Head .
''Artists and Models'' marks the first time Lewis worked with ex-animator Frank Tashlin, whom he admired greatly as a director . Martin and Lewis worked with him on their last film, ''Hollywood Or Bust'', and Lewis worked with him on six of his solo films.
Songs featured in the film were by music legends Harry Warren and Jack Brooks, and included "When You Pretend", "You Look So Familiar", "Innamorata (Sweetheart)", "The Lucky Song", and "Artists and Models". A sixth number, sung by Shirley MacLaine during the party, entitled "The Bat Lady", was cut from the final edit .
Shirley MacLaine, who co-stars as Bessie Sparrowbush, did not make another film with the team or Lewis as a solo, but went on to appear in six other films with Dean Martin, including ''Some Came Running'', ''Ocean's Eleven'', and ''What a Way to Go!''. Dorothy Malone had previously worked with the team in their eighth feature, ''Scared Stiff''.
The cast is filled with cameos and appearances by many Martin and Lewis regulars. Eddie Mayehoff made his cinematic debut in ''That's My Boy'' and also co-starred in ''The Stooge''. Kathleen Freeman also appeared in ''3 Ring Circus'', along with a number of Lewis' solo films. Jack Elam was in the team's second-to-last picture, ''Pardners''. Anita Ekberg would also appear in Martin and Lewis' final film together, ''Hollywood Or Bust''.

Trivia

★ The spaceship model seen in the foreign experimental laboratory is actually a leftover miniature from Paramount's 1955 film, ''Conquest of Space'', directed by George Pal.

DVD release

Notes

1. Neibaur, James L. and Okuda, Ted, ''The Jerry Lewis Films, An Analytical Filmography of the Innovative Comic'', Pages 98-103. McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995.

External links

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