Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River starring Jerry Lewis

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Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River - Jerry Lewis - the original King of Comedy at his outrageous best - DVD

Editorial Review of Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River starring Jerry Lewis, courtesy of Amazon.com

The opening sequence of Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River has a bowler-hatted Jerry Lewis mischievously striding (in his oddly graceful, loose-hipped way) along the streets of London. The spontaneous business he creates is, alas, the last bit of freshness in the movie, which quickly reverts to a painfully labored plot. Jerry is in Swinging London (wrap your mind around that), an entrepreneur who spends the entire film trying to make up to his estranged British wife for turning her family estate into a Chinese restaurant-discotheque. The story also involves Arab oil barons, Portuguese automobiles, and a philandering dentist. Lewis didn’t direct himself in this one, which accounts for the off pacing and total lack of good visual gags. It was 1968, and his rapid decline from creative excellence (see The Ladies Man and The Nutty Professor) and box-office potency was already into its skid. --Robert Horton