SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

vranger The idea of a rich man, rejected by the army as 4F, then creating his own military experience, has possibilities. It could be a funny movie.This wasn't. Lewis' vision of the comic bits has no sense of timing. It moves along at a snail's pace, and includes myriad supporting scenes that just aren't funny. Each scene has a punch line, but most of them were a waste of film. Evidently, firing a mortar and then blandly declaring "We just blew up a Texaco station" just doesn't pack the comedic punch it used to.Jerry stammering gibberish was barely tolerable in his early days. In this film, it just looks tired.While the film is set in 1943, hair styles, colloquial expressions, mores, costuming, and just about everything else are firmly rooted in the late 60s.To get picky, the freeze frame method of ending scenes, as used in this film, is just odd.I actually got pained looks from my wife when I held on past the first twenty minutes hoping that it would eventually get to the "good part". Twenty-two minutes after that I finally gave in and stopped watching this mess.

BobbyWaggs s a lifelong Jerry Lewis fan I felt a review was necessary for this film which is so commonly maligned by people and I'll never understand why they detest it so. 1st of all after Dean and Jerry split in 1956 Jerry Lewis spawned some excellent comedies on his own from 1957-1970 - Which Way to the Front being the final one in his 14 year run after the split. Non Lewis fans and critics only seem to notice Nutty Professor as being any good --- They are so wrong it disgusts me. Everyone of Jerry's Paramount movies from 57-65 were financial successes not just in Europe but in the USA - some reviewer claimed Jerry had failures at the box office during this period in the USA but again they are very wrong. There were only 2 Lewis films that didn't make bank from this era and none of them were Paramount they were Don't Raise the Bridge and This film - not that they weren't good films but Columbia and Warners never distributed them correctly but out of 30 films only 2 is a pretty good run in his home country the USA.Now to this film, yes the first 20 minutes or so are very slow and tedious with all the little stories Jan Murray and the other 2 4Fs shpill --- but as soon as the credits are done (20 minutes in) it is as funny as any WW2 comedy made during that period.Jerry's impersonation of the German Field Marshal with the high pitched accented voice is funny as all get out - it makes for true genius in sound and film --- his presentation of awards to 3 Nazi soldiers is truly slapstick at its very best ---His getting through the checkpoint with a Black German soldier driver (played by Dodgers star Willie Davis) is hilarious ---Echoes of Mel Brooks The Producers Dick Shawn are brought to mind and Hogans Heroes ---Truly a time capsule classic --- NO you don't have to be a Jerry only fan to like this film but you must have patience as the 20 minute lead in is quite tedious...I say 10 out of 10 because the foolish reviews giving it 1 out of 10 are truly misguided and just wrong. A MUST SEE yes --- watch it and pay attention and you'll agree a Classic --- If you don't like Jerry Lewis loud voice then why are you watching any Jerry Lewis movie to begin with ???The supporting cast is superb - Jan Murray leads it --- Appearances by great comedians Kaye Ballard, Fritz Feld and Benny Rubin are just some of the highlights of this one of my favorite Jerry Lewis movies ever ...

MartinHafer "Which Way to the Front?" is a hugely disappointing films...even for die-hard Jerry Lewis fans. I personally WANTED to like the movie, as ever since I got to see Lewis in person a few years ago, I have really come to respect and enjoy his films. But no matter what I think of the guy, I cannot in good conscience give this film a positive review because it makes the biggest mistake of any comedy...it's simply not funny. Additionally, the film is set in WWII and looks as if Lewis didn't even bother trying to make the film look as if it was set in the 1940s. The hair, clothing and sets look straight from 1970!The film COULD have been funny. It seems that the richest man in the world, Brendan Byers (Lewis) wants to fight in WWII but has been declared 4-F. So, he decides to create his own tiny commando unit and he and his men plan on kidnapping a German Field Marshall who looks exactly like Byers. Each member of the team seem about as manly and menacing as a cannoli and one guy (played by baseball star Willie Davis) is black...and they go behind enemy lines dressed as German soldiers. I mention that it COULD have been funny. The biggest supposed laughs are when Jerry pretends to be the German Field Marshall---and this mostly just consists of him screaming. It looks like a 7 year-old's idea of what a German SHOULD sound like. As for the Japanese, late in the film Jerry dons big teeth and does an impression that is not only racially offensive but cheap and unfunny. But with no real laughs and the men dressed in what look like 1970 Armani uniforms of orange and bright blue, it just comes off as bizarre and ill-conceived. Even Lewis' worst comedy, "Cracking Up" has ONE hilarious scene (aboard the discount airline)..."Which Way to the Front" has nothing...absolutely nothing that will elicit a laugh in anyone. I truly think that if the audience had no idea who Lewis was, they'd think this movie wasn't even supposed to be a comedy! A film best skipped...especially by Lewis fans. It's so unfunny I can understand why Jerry didn't make another starring vehicle for a decade following this one (aside from the never released and reportedly god-awful, "The Day the Clown Cried").

bkoganbing After Which Way To The Front was released Jerry Lewis ceased making films as a star attraction. With a few funny moments involved, there were more eggs laid at this film than a chicken farm on a slow day. It's not a horrible film but it's definitely not among Lewis's best and in the lower tier of his work.Jerry plays one of the richest men in the world who for some reason I can't fathom wants to serve in the ranks. So it rankles him that he's declared a 4-F something around the time that this film came out many young men would have sold their souls for. As he and three fellow 4-Fs Jan Murray, Steven Franken, and Dack Rambo sit and commiserate about their fate Lewis has a brainstorm. He's rich enough, he'll form his own army and equip it. I will say he designs some snazzy uniforms for his troops which also include his butler John Wood and his chauffeur Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers.Those flashback sequences involving Murray, Rambo, and Franken are the best part of the film. Even for an audience in the middle of the Vietnam War, those guys all have excellent reasons for wanting to leave their current situations. Unfortunately the rest of the film isn't as good. The guys train on Lewis's palatial estates, get the best chow any army ever had and then decide on their own mission which is based on Jerry Lewis's resemblance to Field Marshal Kesselring. If you believe their account they actually break the stalemate on the Italian front and later participate in the bomb plot against Hitler.Hitler was played by Sidney Miller and his scenes with Lewis as Kesselring are taken straight from The Great Dictator. I'm not sure Charlie Chaplin really liked this particular homage.A lot of World War II film clichés are dealt with here. The coda to this film with Lewis impersonating one of those bucktooth Japanese that were popular at the time I'm not sure was really needed. Nor was it all that funny. Jerry came up short with this film.