Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

So much average

Must See Movie...

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I've rated this movie a ten - why? For one it's fun to watch - teaches a great lesson when having kids watch with you. Jerry Lewis was a great father and was always good with kids! The acting, slap stick isn't quite up today's standards of 'horror' 'bloodshed' or 'sex' but it's so much better than any of them on the big screen. One you don't have to worry about a scene slipped in or words you don't use and don't care to hear in public or private. This movie came out as I was returning from Africa for my final duty station in the US. When I went to the Far East in 1963 - we appeared to have a sane country - when I came back it was to nudity, sexual gradification, drugs and race riots. Then going to Africa - if possible the society got worse - aiding and abetting the enemy by protests which even today make a pale comparison to some. Jerry Lewis was an exception to this - reminding us of values and morals. chuck

My friends and I laughed so hard. Even at age 10 I thought the movie was totally funny and engaging. Jerry Lewis was my favorite comic back then and I also liked the child actress Donna Butterworth. She and Jerry had chemistry. I loved the characters and I remember Sabastian Cabot trying to squeeze into or out of a car; too funny.Whatever happened to Donna Butterworth? She acted in an Elvis movie and that was it for her. If anyone knows, let me know.

I'll give Lewis credit: even though this one isn't on par with the uproarious stuff he and Dean Martin did or even with "The Disorderly Orderly" or "The Nutty Professor", "The Family Jewels" shows Lewis doing what he does best.Running amok.Playing no less than seven characters here, Lewis changes costumes, accents and venues but stays just as addled in all of them. This time, he plays a chauffeur who takes care of a little girl (Butterworth, a novice here and since) and shuttles her between six brothers (all Lewis again) who vie to be guardian of her and the millions of dollars she will inherit.Of course, it's interesting to see that he brings back (in shape only) his character from "The Nutty Professor". Good to see him.And only Lewis could make a slapstick free-for-all in which Anne Baxter makes a cameo.It's good, nutty fun for all and definitely a better choice than his later work. "The Family Jewels" - definitely a "Jewel" in the rough.Eight stars.

One has nearly always gotten the impression from watching the antics of Mr. Lewis that the humor is being undermined by a fatal egotism which knows no reasonable or acceptable boundaries. 1965's The Family Jewels marks the beginning of Lewis' long decline--his wish to play seven roles, far from constituting a bravura tour de force, is simply a sign of his nauseating hubris and megalomania. What better way to dominate the proceedings and garner all the attention for oneself than to occupy seven of the eight principal roles? Also, Lewis at this stage is teetering indecisively between being a director of kiddie flicks and turning out films designed to appeal (or at least be tolerated by) a mature audience. Here he fails dismally. The kiddie humor is mostly forced; the adult content betrays Lewis' all-consuming flaws of cloying sentimentality, self-righteousness, and hackneyed plot devices. You KNOW the little girl will pick the chauffeur to be her "father," you KNOW the foppish Brit will turn out to be a pool shark, the thug will have a heart of gold, etc. I get the impression that it is at about this point Mr. Lewis should have sought long-term psychotherapy so that he could have combatted the inner demons built up during the course of his (admittedly harrowing) childhood. Even at the self-expressed risk of losing his sense of humor, this move would have been cost-effective--his film previous to this, The Disorderly Orderly, was, in many respects, his last hurrah. Sadly, The Family Jewels (note the smirkingly referential title; note the poster in which a cloyingly "cute" moppet with a soft fuzzy beret is surrounded by seven phallic Jerry Lewises) deserves its reputation as a flop. But at least it's a very interesting case study.