Cinderfella

Director: Frank Tashlin, Jerry Lewis Frank Tashlin

Overview

Both director Frank Tashlin and his comic star Jerry Lewis dilute their comic talents to play for the kiddie crowd in this fractured fairy tale version of the Cinderella story. This simply-told tale lards over the fairy story with un-needed songs and production numbers, but the basic story is still the same, only switched to a male Cinderella. Lewis is Fella, a put-upon flunky to a mean and rich dowager (Judith Anderson) and her three surly sons (all of whom appear to be pushing fifty). Fella falls for the beautiful princess (Anna Maria Alberghetti) and with the assistance of his screwy fairy godfather (Ed Wynn) gets transformed into a pre-Buddy Love lounge lizard who sweeps the Princess off her feet as he struts down an ornate stairway to the beat of The Count Basie Orchestra, leaving his stepbrothers with their mouths agape.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/30/2021
UPC:	0032429355355
Original Release:	1960
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	7,133

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jerry Lewis	Fella
Judith Anderson	Wicked Stepmother
Ed Wynn	Fairy Godmother
Anna Maria Alberghetti	Princess Charmein
Henry Silva	Maximilian
Count Basie	Himself
Robert Hutton	Rupert
Nola Thorp	Cendrillon
Shari Lee Bernath	Jill
Milton Frome	le valet
Stephen Hammer	Maximilian enfant
Brad Brown	Actor
Kathie Browne	Actor
Anne Dore	Actor
George Holmes	Actor
Norman Leavitt	Actor
Del Moore	TV announcer
Ed Wayne	Actor
Walter Scharf	Composer

Technical Credits

Frank Tashlin

Joe Besser

Frank Tashlin	Director,Screenwriter
Jerry Lewis	Producer,Director
Joe Besser	Screenwriter
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

This gender-bending fairy tale is perhaps not one of Jerry Lewis's fall-down-funniest, but, along with The Geisha Boy, it is one of his most family-friendly comedies. Jerry makes a perfectly pitiable Fella, a well-meaning bumbler who lives to please his social-climbing stepmother and stepbrothers. While they ridicule and abuse him, they desperately seek the fortune that Fella's late father has hidden for him on their palatial estate. The delightful Ed Wynn (Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins) costars as Fella's Fairy Godfather, who transforms Fella from a "people" to a "persons" in time to attend a grand ball for Princess Charmein (Anna Maria Alberghetti). Cinderfella is an enchanting blend of Lewis slapstique and Chaplin-esque pathos. Director Frank Tashlin, a veteran of Warner Bros. cartoons, brought out the best in Jerry's animated self. The bravura grand ball sequence in which the transformed Fella makes a grand entrance down a flight of stairs to the rhythms of the Count Basie Orchestra anticipates Lewis's jaw-dropping arrival as Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor. This Special Edition contains breezy commentary by Lewis and Steve Lawrence. Cinderfella will live happily ever after on DVD.

Barnes & Noble - Donald Liebenson

Cinderfella finds Jerry Lewis toning things down slightly, which means that there are actually several segments of this children's film that adults can watch without cringing. Fans of Lewis' over-the-top performing style needn't worry; there are still plenty of opportunities to watch the star mug, convulse, and run circles around himself (and others), as well as turn words and phrases into strings of mush (sometimes at an interminable length). Still, there are also some moments, particularly toward the end, when Lewis plays in a subdued manner that is quite appealing, creating a sweeter version of what will later become his Buddy Love character in The Nutty Professor. Cinderfella also has some nice "slumming" work from Judith Anderson and an enchanting, if criminally underutilized, stunning Anna Maria Alberghetti (whose glorious singing voice is heard only briefly). There's also a nice turn by Joe Williams and Count Basie's band and a decent bit from Ed Wynn; otherwise, there's not much to Cinderfella. The gender-switching fairy tale idea is never really explored, either for theme or for comic invention, and a subplot about Fella's secret treasure from his father is just so much dross. Lewis and Frank Tashlin's direction is surprisingly bland (although they do compose a nicely framed closing shot); even when Lewis lets loose, the film doesn't seem to be having a lot of fun. Better in concept than execution, Cinderfella is harmless but not particularly involving.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler