It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Scared Stiff (1953) – Musical #797

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lizabeth Scott, Carmen Miranda, George Dolenz, Dorothy Malone, William Ching, Paul Marion, Jack Lambert, Tony Barr, Leonard Strong, Henry Brandon, Earl Holliman (uncredited)
Cameo appearances: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby

Plot:
Mary Carroll (Scott) has inherited an estate in Cuba, but throughout her travels, she receives death threats and notes of warning. Before sailing to Cuba, Mary meets performers Larry Todd (Martin) and Myron Mertz (Lewis). Larry believes that he killed someone in New York at Mary’s hotel, so Larry and Myron stowaway on the ship for Cuba. Once they arrive at the home, that’s believed to be haunted, the trio tries to figure out who is behind the warnings.

Trivia:
• A version of THE GHOST BREAKERS (1940), which was also on film under the same title in 1914 and 1922. The 1940 version starred Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. The 1914 and 1922 versions are considered to be lost.
• George Marshall directed both the 1940 version and this version.
• Carmen Miranda’s final feature film.
• Bob Hope and Bing Crosby make a cameo appearance. Hope starred in the 1940 version of the story.

Highlights:
• Cameo appearance by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
• Carmen Miranda
• When Jerry Lewis isn’t on screen

Notable Songs:
• “I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine” performed by Dean Martin
• “You Hit the Spot” performed by Dean Martin
• “Bongo Bingo” performed by Carmen Miranda
• “Enchiladas” performed by Dean Martin and Carmen Miranda

My review:
I begin writing this review with a heavy sigh, as I have with the other films I’ve written about starring the duo, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

The “comedic” duo (I use quotation marks because they are allegedly funny) star in a remake of THE GHOST BREAKERS (1940). This is the fourth version of this story, but unfortunately, the 1914 and 1922 versions of this film are considered to be lost.

In SCARED STIFF (1953), an overly complicated plotline that opens the film leads us to Mary Carroll (Lizabeth Scott) in a New York City hotel room. Mary is packing to catch a boat so she can travel to Cuba to claim an estate that she has inherited. Even before getting on the boat, Mary is receiving warning phone calls and a family advisor, Mr. Cortega (Dolenz) is trying to advise her to sell the property. Singer Larry Todd (Dean Martin) and bus boy Myron Mertz (Jerry Lewis) end up at Mary’s hotel. When someone is murdered, Larry is wrongly accused of killing the man. Larry and Myron stowaway on Mary’s ship, meeting her along the way and also determining how to figure out who is sending Mary the warnings.

To compare to the original film, Lizabeth Scott plays the Paulette Goddard role, and Martin and Lewis play a combination of Bob Hope’s character.

Here’s the thing, I love the movie GHOST BREAKERS (1940) and find it genuinely funny. SCARED STIFF is not funny (I chuckled maybe twice). GHOST BREAKERS is also an hour and 28 minutes, and somehow SCARED STIFF is nearly 2 hours. Why?! Why is every Martin and Lewis film so long?! To be fair, the movie is mostly fine as long as Jerry Lewis isn’t on the screen.

Thrown into the cast but underutilized are Dorothy Malone as a sexy show girl tied up with the mob, but we only see her briefly, and Carmen Miranda as an entertainer.

Carmen Miranda is a major highlight of the film, though the numbers she is given are lackluster compared to what she performed in her 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films. And why couldn’t Miranda have performed on her own? She would get a few bars alone and of course Lewis and Martin then had to chime in. I did wonder — in the “Bongo Bingo” number, when Jerry Lewis leapt in front of her and she’d push him out of the way, I wondered if that was scripted or … Miranda acting independently. I hoped the latter

Sorry to Mack David and Jerry Livingston, but the songs are largely stinkers. “Enchilada”? Are we serious? Pee-ew.

Interestingly, by the end of the film, the murder accusation plot is largely forgotten. The highlight is when we FINALLY get to the haunted house. I was actually rooting for the knight with the spiked club to hit Jerry Lewis.

It just seems really odd that noir queen Lizabeth Scott was cast in this. Was she being punished for something?

When I watched this – I followed it up with a viewing of Gentle Annie (1942). This could have been the worst movie I’d ever seen, but it would be outstanding compared to SCARED STIFF (1953). I would be SCARED STIFF if I ever was forced to sit through this movie again.

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