Scared Stiff
Encyclopedia
Scared Stiff is a musical comedy film starring the team of Dean Martin
and Jerry Lewis
. One of the 17 movies made by the Martin and Lewis
team, it was released on April 27, 1953 by Paramount Pictures
and directed by George Marshall
.
), and Myron Mertz (Jerry Lewis
), cross paths with a gangster named "Shorty" when Larry hits on Shorty's girl. After fleeing from Shorty, they meet an heiress (Lizabeth Scott
) who is sailing for Cuba. One unexplained murder and threatening note later, Larry and Myron sail with her to the island. Once there they cross paths with a zombie and other mysterious happenings. Eventually they discover the person behind the mystery and rid the island of him. The movie ends with a cameo appearance by Bing Crosby
and Bob Hope
.
, a 1940 "scare comedy" starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
, also directed by George Marshall. The property has proven successful for Paramount in decades past and they've also filmed two versions in the silent era The Ghost Breaker
(1914) directed by Cecil DeMille and The Ghost Breaker
(1922) starring Wallace Reid
.
Martin and Lewis
had a cameo in Hope and Bing Crosby's Road to Bali
the previous year as part of a "comedy trade" between the two teams. In turn, Hope and Crosby appear for a cameo in Scared Stiff. Both shared a common producer, Cy Howard, who produced Martin and Lewis' first two My Friend Irma pictures and That's My Boy. A few years later, Martin and Frank Sinatra
appeared in the final scene of the final Hope and Crosby road picture, Road to Hong Kong.
According to Lewis, both he and Martin were against making the picture, as they found the original to be satisfactory. However, because the film was a Paramount property that producer Hal B. Wallis
felt was one that could be successful in the comedy team's hands, he held the two to their contract for the film.
Scared Stiff was filmed from June 2 through July 17, 1952. It was the first film of the team's available in 3-track, stereophonic sound
. Some reviews at the time commented on the soundtrack's use of stereo enhancing gag sequences. The stereo tracks for this film are now considered lost
. As with most films of team's work, it garnered a re-release in 1958 on a double bill with another Martin and Lewis
picture, Jumping Jacks
.
Scared Stiff turned out to be the last film for Carmen Miranda
who died two years later, shortly after completing an episode of The Jimmy Durante Show
on TV.
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
. One of the 17 movies made by the Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
team, it was released on April 27, 1953 by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and directed by George Marshall
George Marshall (director)
George E. Marshall was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, film and television director, active through the first six decades of movie history....
.
Plot
Larry Todd (Dean MartinDean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
), and Myron Mertz (Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
), cross paths with a gangster named "Shorty" when Larry hits on Shorty's girl. After fleeing from Shorty, they meet an heiress (Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.-Early life:She was born Emma Matzo in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ruthenian parents who had emigrated from Uzhgorod, in what is now Ukraine...
) who is sailing for Cuba. One unexplained murder and threatening note later, Larry and Myron sail with her to the island. Once there they cross paths with a zombie and other mysterious happenings. Eventually they discover the person behind the mystery and rid the island of him. The movie ends with a cameo appearance by Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
.
Production
The team's ninth picture, Scared Stiff is a remake of Paramount's previous effort, The Ghost BreakersThe Ghost Breakers
The Ghost Breakers is a comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. The movie was adapted by Walter DeLeon from the play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W...
, a 1940 "scare comedy" starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
, also directed by George Marshall. The property has proven successful for Paramount in decades past and they've also filmed two versions in the silent era The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker is a 1914 drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel and based on the Broadway play of the same name by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard. It is considered widely to be the first film of a long line based on the genre of haunted house horror...
(1914) directed by Cecil DeMille and The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker (1922 film)
The Ghost Breaker is a 1922 American silent film comedy based around haunted houses and ghosts. It was produced Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Alfred E. Green and starred popular Wallace Reid in one of his last screen portrayals. The story, based...
(1922) starring Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid was an actor in silent film referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover".-Early life:Born William Wallace Reid in St...
.
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
had a cameo in Hope and Bing Crosby's Road to Bali
Road to Bali
Road to Bali is a 1952 comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It was released by Paramount Pictures and is the sixth of the seven Road to … movies...
the previous year as part of a "comedy trade" between the two teams. In turn, Hope and Crosby appear for a cameo in Scared Stiff. Both shared a common producer, Cy Howard, who produced Martin and Lewis' first two My Friend Irma pictures and That's My Boy. A few years later, Martin and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
appeared in the final scene of the final Hope and Crosby road picture, Road to Hong Kong.
According to Lewis, both he and Martin were against making the picture, as they found the original to be satisfactory. However, because the film was a Paramount property that producer Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis was an American film producer.-Career:Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros...
felt was one that could be successful in the comedy team's hands, he held the two to their contract for the film.
Scared Stiff was filmed from June 2 through July 17, 1952. It was the first film of the team's available in 3-track, stereophonic sound
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
. Some reviews at the time commented on the soundtrack's use of stereo enhancing gag sequences. The stereo tracks for this film are now considered lost
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. As with most films of team's work, it garnered a re-release in 1958 on a double bill with another Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
picture, Jumping Jacks
Jumping Jacks
Jumping Jacks is a 1952 film starring the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. The movie was released by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:Chick Allen is a paratrooper. He invites his former partner, Hap Smith , to help out with a show that he and the other soldiers are preparing...
.
Scared Stiff turned out to be the last film for Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
who died two years later, shortly after completing an episode of The Jimmy Durante Show
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
on TV.
Cast
- Dean MartinDean MartinDean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
as Larry Todd - Jerry LewisJerry LewisJerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
as Myron Mertz - Lizabeth ScottLizabeth ScottLizabeth Scott is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.-Early life:She was born Emma Matzo in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ruthenian parents who had emigrated from Uzhgorod, in what is now Ukraine...
as Mary Carroll - Carmen MirandaCarmen MirandaCarmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
as Carmelita Castinha - George DolenzGeorge DolenzGeorge Dolenz was an American film actor born in Trieste , in the city's Slovene community.-Biography:...
as Mr. Cortega - Dorothy MaloneDorothy MaloneDorothy Malone is an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years she played small roles, mainly in B-movies. After a decade in films, she began to acquire a more glamorous image, particularly after her performance in Written on the Wind , for which she won the Academy...
as Rosie - William ChingWilliam ChingWilliam Ching, also credited as William Brooks, Bill Ching and William Brooks Ching was a United States character actor who appeared in almost 20 films and on television during the later 1940s and throughout the 1950s...
as Tony Warren - Paul MarionPaul Marion (actor)Paul Marion is an American actor, notable for roles in To Have and Have Not , Mysterious Doctor Satan and Captain Midnight. He was once married to the actress Isabel Jewell. He acted on film from the late 1930s to 1955's Devil Goddess, when he left acting to become an agent....
as Ramon Cariso / Francisco Cariso - Jack LambertJack Lambert (actor)Jack Lambert was an American character actor born in Yonkers, New York specializing in playing movie tough guys and heavies. Best known for playing the psychotic cat-loving, iron-hooked Steve "the Claw" Michael in Dick Tracy's Dilemma.Following a stint on Broadway, Lambert moved to Hollywood and...
as Zombie - Tony Barr as Trigger
- Leonard StrongLeonard Strong (actor)Leonard Clarence Strong Leonard Clarence Strong Leonard Clarence Strong (b. 12 August 1908, Utah - d. 23 January 1980, Glendale, California was a prolific American character actor specialising in playing Asian roles....
as Shorty - Henry Brandon as Pierre