Science — weird science! Or at least nutty science

Up until The Ugly Duckling, Hollywood presented Dr. Henry Jekyll’s experiments as evil, pure and simple. In that film, however, Jekyll’s formula had a positive effect, turning dorky descendant Henry (Bernard Bresswell) into a confident, cool dude. Instead of erasing his morality, the drug erases his insecurity and social awkwardness. I don’t know if that inspired Jerry Lewis in his 1963 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, which takes the same view, but it’s not inconceivable.

As science professor Julius Kelp, Lewis is brilliant but erratic; his research is more likely to blow things up as to produce anything useful. When he’s shoved around by a football player, Kelp feels humiliated and tries working out to build a real he-man body … which doesn’t work out well. Working on a formula that can get him buff without exercise, he transforms into what appears to be a monster. Instead, when we see him, he’s coolly arrogant lounge lizard Buddy Love.

Stripping away his dorky awkwardness hasn’t turned Julius into a wonderful human being. Buddy is arrogant, constantly belittles people, perfectly willing to slap someone around if he thinks it’s necessary (one theory is that he’s based on Lewis’ former comedy partner, Dean Martin). However he’s also confident enough to charm/manipulate people if that works better — winning over Dean Warfield (Del Moore), for instance — and to make a move on Stella (Stella Stevens), a cute blonde student. She’s quite clearly into Kelp but he’s too shy to act on it; as Buddy, he’s not. Rather than engage in small talk or beating around the bush, he’s up front about wanting her. She’s charmed. But Buddy only exists part of the time, and Julius is no match for him in the romance department.

This movie is considered the best of Jerry Lewis’ solo efforts. It doesn’t really work for me as Lewis is grating as Kelp and obnoxious as Buddy (yes, I realize that’s part of the point). However I can’t deny Lewis does a great job creating two distinct personas. There are also a number of good scenes, such as his opening discussion with Warfield. Kelp sits in the dean’s office, silent and nervous and the scene stretches out uncomfortably. Not cutting or having something happen makes it that much more effective.

On the downside, Stevens is bland as Stella, which is never a plus in a rom-com. Plus, of course, having a relationship between professor and student isn’t one of those things that’s aged well (I’m guessing it might have been less remarkable in the early 1960s, when women marrying young was the norm — though the age gap is still higher than the norm). And when Stella agrees to go off alone with Buddy right after meeting him — maybe it’s me but Buddy seems creepy enough I can’t see her trusting him that much.

Ugly Duckling showed that become Teddy Hyde had brought positive things — courage, confidence — out in Henry. Nutty Professor doesn’t agree. In the big finish after the truth comes out, Julius denies any connection with Buddy or any control over him. And the moral he draws is that by becoming Buddy he’s learned to like Julius — “You might as well like yourself. Just think about all the time you have to spend with you.” Though the ending shows he has taken some confidence from his time as Buddy so perhaps I’m misreading it. “One of the rare times of my life when I dig down into my soul—and you doubt my veracity.”

Lewis gave the go-ahead for Eddie Murphy’s remake, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996) but later regretted it, saying he couldn’t stand the far humor. Here, overweight Professor Klump (Murphy in a fat suit) has a bad date with chemist Carla (Jada Pinkett) which convinces him to test his experimental weight-loss treatment on himself. As handsome, confident Buddy Love, he’s free to eat anything, can wear normal clothes and loves the way people look at him. There can’t be any downside to this wonderful transformation … can there?

Murphy gives an excellent performance. Where Lewis carries off being two people, here it feels like Buddy is Klump given a new, improved body and enjoying every minute of it. I wish they’d stuck with that — I can buy Klump turning into a jerk when he realizes how much he can get away with — instead of eventually going with the two personas struggling for existence. And why did Klump initially pretend to be someone else? Why not just admit that his weight-loss drug works great?

Then there’s the fat suit. Unlike Julius, Klump is a confident man, comfortable in his own skin … except he has so much skin. He gets close to the blackboard in class, his belly smears chalk all over his suit. Going through a bar with Carla, his gut bumps up against people without even trying. It’s cringey comedy which the fat suit serves to make acceptable (I think): people might wince if the film embarrassed a real fat man, but as Murphy’s only faking it, it’s okay. Not worthless but a poor patch on its predecessor. “This woman is suffering from what I like to call ‘jello arms.’”

NUTTY PROFESSOR II: The Klumps (2000) has Klump on the brink of proposing to geneticist Janet Jackson (much blander than Pinkett’s teacher though her character gets to do more sciencing) but held back by his fears Buddy Love is surging back into his personality (this film does emphasize that Buddy’s personality is part of Klump, but nothing comes of it). When he uses Jackson’s gene treatment to purge himself of Buddy this not only fries his brain, a freak accident causes Buddy to reincarnate from thee extracted gene-goop. The results are dreadful and too heavy on slapstick. “Buddy Love is a representation of the uninhibited, hedonistic id.”

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