Three on a Couch

March. 01,1966      NR
Rating:
5.8
Trailer Synopsis Cast

An artist has an opportunity to go to Paris and wants to bring his fiancee along. However, she's a psychiatrist who currently has three female patients who don't like men. So, he guises himself as three different men to gauge their trust and hopefully cure them so that his fiancee can go with him.

Jerry Lewis as  Christopher Pride / Warren / Ringo / Rutherford / Heather
Janet Leigh as  Dr Elizabeth Acord
Mary Ann Mobley as  Susan Manning
Gila Golan as  Anna Jacque
Leslie Parrish as  Mary Lou Mauve
James Best as  Dr. Ben Mizer
Kathleen Freeman as  Murphy

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Reviews

Karry
1966/03/01

Best movie of this year hands down!

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GazerRise
1966/03/02

Fantastic!

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Reptileenbu
1966/03/03

Did you people see the same film I saw?

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Afouotos
1966/03/04

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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preppy-3
1966/03/05

Jerry Lewis plays Christopher Pride. He's an artist who's being paid $10,000 (which was big bucks back in 1966) to go to France and paint a mural on a wall. He tells his girlfriend Dr. Elizabeth Acord (Janet Leigh) because he wants to take her with him to propose and get married. However she's a psychiatrist and is treating three women (Leslie Parish, Gila Golan and Mary Ann Mobley) who hate men and she can't leave till they're cured. Pride and his best friend (James Best) come up with the "brilliant" idea of him romancing all three of the women separately, have them fall in love and "cure' them of hating men! No it makes no sense to me either. Predictable and stupid complications ensue.I'm not a fan of Jerry Lewis. I find his humor shrill, loud and painfully unfunny. I only saw this because it was in the book "The 50 Worst Films Of All Time" and I was curious if it was really THAT bad. Sadly it is. There's not one funny joke or routine--not ONE! I never even smiled! Also the jokes ran on twice as long as they should have or were repeated nonstop (Lewis walks into an elevator door THREE times in 10 minutes). The story is stupid and its grasp on feminine psychology is questionable. According to this all a girl needs is to fall in love and she's fine! Lewis produced and directed this one and the direction is off badly. Some curious camera angles or setups just don't work.The acting varies wildly. Lewis is frantic (as usual) and incredibly unfunny. None of his getups work. Seeing him in drag is actually scary! Leigh is excellent in a worthless role. She's basically the straight man (so to speak) to Lewis' jokes. She gives this movie a better performance than it deserves. Parrish, Golan and Mobley was beautiful women with zero acting ability. Best is pretty good and has a few great moments but the script is against him. Unfunny, offensive and just plain dull. To be avoided at all costs.

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vchimpanzee
1966/03/06

Artist Christopher Pride has won a contest to paint a mural in Paris. He shows up to collect his award from the diplomats in an office, with the nervous energy one would expect from Jerry Lewis. Just one problem: he's about to get married to Elizabeth, a psychiatrist in a Los Angeles office building which must be about the size of the Empire State Building, judging from the number of psychiatrists in the building directory. If they get married, Elizabeth will have to accompany Christopher to Paris.Elizabeth can take time off from some of her patients, but three of them will be devastated if she has to leave them. Mary Lou has a Southern accent and likes insects. Anna sounds European and sells perfume in a department store, but she likes cowboys. Susan is an exercise nut (she can't just lie on the couch; she must always be working out). All three have problems with men and need to talk to Elizabeth constantly about them.Christopher's best friend Ben, an obstetrician, comes up with an interesting idea. What if Christopher goes out with each girl, portraying their ideal man? It might work. I know it'll work for the audience.Ringo Raintree shows up at Anna's workplace with a cigar in his mouth. The poor man struggles with that cigar but somehow always manages to keep it in his mouth while talking up a storm about being the greatest rancher west of Chicago. Let's just hope he never has to prove his ability in, say, a rodeo.Warren tries to keep up with Susan on the jogging trail. I wasn't aware people jogged in 1965, but Susan is kind of unusual.And one of the movie's funniest scenes, and certainly one of Lewis' most hilarious moments, comes when Heather persuades Mary Lou to visit her very shy zoologist brother Rutherford. Heather is actually Christopher in drag, but she uses the key to her brother's apartment, goes in and discovers him hiding out in the bedroom, terrified of meeting this woman. As they argue, Mary Lou listens from the living room, but Christopher is actually taking off his dress and female underwear (lots of it in those days--and grapefruits in his bra) to get dressed as Rutherford. Heather is quietly washing her hair when her extremely nerdy brother finally meets Mary Lou, and he's not nearly as shy as she expected. He's about as goofy as Julius Kelp, though.So will the plan work? Well, there are many funny moments. One of the best that I haven't mentioned is Warren's attempt to hit a board in Susan's karate class. But there's much more that you can probably guess will happen.There was one scene that didn't make a lot of sense to me. After all ... well, I won't give that away. Let's just say there's a lot of excitement at the end. Particularly funny are the elevators.I was surprised at first, because this didn't seem to be the wacky, zany comedy typical of Jerry Lewis. I've only seen a handful of his films only because I waited for them to show up on broadcast TV, which this one did. But it took time to set up the situation, and I worried this would actually be a comedy-drama. No, once the scheme began, it was everything one would expect from Jerry Lewis. Maybe not his best work, but he certainly shows his talent here.James Best even sounded a little like Sheriff Rosco at times. Those noises he made when Ben was nervous must have originated with Best and not Rosco.Kathleen Freeman was very good as Elizabeth's secretary. The poor woman, but she handles herself very professionally. The other actresses did a pretty good job too. And there's a drunk who is entertaining.I enjoyed the music a lot. Jerry Lewis must enjoy big band jazz as much as I do. And there's quiet jazz in restaurants as well as straight elevator music. No, not in the elevator. The elevator scenes are too wacky for that.A great job.

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martimus98
1966/03/07

This movie is one that has both amused me and appalled me over the years. Jerry Lewis is an odd sort of comedic actor. When left to his own devices he can be downright annoying in his portrayals. Too bad this movie falls into that category. Jerry follows the stereotype he so loves as we see him often with cigarette in one hand and drink glass in the other. Lewis has potential to be great as a comedic actor but by acting as star (in multiple roles), director, and producer he's pretty much given himself carte blanche to do whatever he wants while in front of the camera.The premise of the movie is fairly typical for Jerry Lewis movies of the 60's. It does provide us an opportunity to watch Janet Leigh and Mary Ann Mobley which is always a pleasure. All in all it's a pretty silly movie that simply doesn't hit the mark.

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Kakueke
1966/03/08

Dr. Acord (played by Janet Leigh), Christopher Pride's fiancee, is a psychiatrist with three attractive female patients who have problems with men, played out in extreme dependence on her. Chris (Jerry Lewis) wants to go on an extended vacation with her. To ease Dr. Acord's conscience in putting a hiatus on their frequent visits, he decides to be a beau to all three at once, with separate fake identities, to rectify their maladjustments. Lewis shows his varied talents for goofiness in playing three different types of people -- actually four, because in one case he also plays the sister, and in this dual role he is goofy at its most extreme, and very funny. The humor is cornball, but it is enjoyable. Jerry is a klutz -- not in a cheap slapstick way, but rather because he is a man out of place-- a zoologist, a rodeo star, and a fitness nut. But the ladies are each taken, and it is great. A nice syrupy ending too. "Three on a Couch" is a very enjoyable romantic comedy worth seeing.

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