Pardners (1956)

Fresh and Exciting

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Pardners is a comedy set in the western. The story starts in the old west when Slim and Wade is forced to defend, well not before they finish their checkers game ,their ranch and families from masked raiders. During the fight Wade's wife Matilda takes Wade Jr and runs off to New York. Slim's wife with Slim Jr stays but both Slim and Wade are shot and killed. The Juniors are raised separately, Slim in the west and Wade in New York. The two don't meet until 25 years later, Slim is a capable foreman at the ranch but Wade is just a big kid ruled by his dictator (and successful businesswoman) mother. Coincidentally they both end up at the ranch, yet again attacked by masked raiders. Can Slim save the ranch and the accident prone Wade from himself?Supposed to be funny, a comedy based on the incompetent Wade, who can't help trip over himself. Problem is, it isn't. The character of Wade is too over the top, too clumsy and frankly too stupid to be any fun.The tandem of Martin and Lewis certainly performed as they was directed to, but the character Wade is just too ridiculous. And the tempo killing singing, mostly Dean's, even though beautiful, isn't helping. Wade and the singing kills any tempo, any humor and any exciting twists.So, it isn't funny, it isn't much of a western. It isn't much of anything. Unfortunately.The only fun part was to spot Lee van Cleef in a small role.3/10

After years of just seeing parts of this Martin & Lewis movie, I finally watched the whole thing on YouTube. As you can discern from the title, Dean & Jerry are in the old west. First, as their fathers from the previous century. Then, as their sons with the mother of Lewis (Agnes Moorehead) raising him back in New York to marry some Amazon woman but that son will have none of it. I'll stop there and just say that while I enjoyed Pardners, I did feel that some of the plot points and characterizations seemed rushed in order to parody certain clichés. Still, Jerry's as funny as he can be doing what he does here and Dean seems quite comfortable in his first of many times he would wear cowboy duds. The leading ladies of Lori Nelson and Jackie Loughery sure look good and nothing more. The villains of Jeff Morrow and John Baragrey provide good enough menace. So on that note, I recommend Pardners. P.S. Despite the team mentioning at the end they plan to stay together in movies for years, by the time this was released in August of '56, they had already done their last performance in tandem the previous month. It would be 20 years before they would publicly reunite on Jerry's telethon with Frank Sinatra doing his bit...

This is the second to last film starring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis--and so the title does seem a bit ironic! The film begins with Dean and Jerry's fathers (played by them with powdered hair) dying in a shoot out with baddies. However, both men had sons. One was a capable and manly cowboy (Martin) and the other a pampered mama's boy (Lewis) and they grow up not knowing each other. However, when Martin meets with his old partner's widow (Agnes Moorehead) to try to get money for a prize bull, she refuses but her son (Lewis) decides to go west with Martin and learn to be a real he-man. Plus, his mother has plans for him that include marriage to an amazon--and he wants no part of it. The rest of the film consists of Jerry acting wimpy and very goofy (perhaps too much so at times) and Martin being exasperated but loyal to his new friend who makes everyone (including Jerry) think he's a lot more rugged and brave than he really is.If you think about it, this plot is basically "That's My Boy" (an earlier and better Martin & Lewis film) all over again. The locale is different, but the rest is basically the same formula. It's a pleasant formula, but also shows lazy writing as well and the film could have benefited from more originality. Plus, in a few scenes Jerry really does ham it up too much (even more than normal) and there are just too many "ooooo, oooohs" and "whoo-oooaa" moments in the otherwise pleasant but unremarkable film. And, as a result of so much screen time for Jerry, Martin is mostly relegated to the background--and you can see how films like this ultimately pushed them to their dissolving their pardner-ship.By the way, this film also bears a strong similarity to the Bob Hope films "The Paleface" and "Son of Paleface". See them all and you'll probably agree.

This is a great Martin and Lewis Comedy from 1956, which is the same year that they broke up as a Comedic Duo, and this film "Pardners," was the second to their last that was made. Jerry's father and Dean's father were the best of friends, and died together in the hopes of saving their land. And of course, the story picks up with the children fully grown and ready to go back get some justice in the western town in which they were both born. Dean has some great singing numbers in this film, and Jerry's special brand of physical comedy is very effective in a number of saloon fight scenes. A very entertaining comedy!