Cinderfella
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| Cinderfella | |
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| Directed by | Frank Tashlin |
| Produced by | Jerry Lewis |
| Written by | Frank Tashlin |
| Starring | Jerry Lewis Ed Wynn Judith Anderson Anna Maria Alberghetti |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 16, 1960 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Cinderfella was filmed from October 19-December 15, 1959. It was released on December 16, 1960 by Paramount Pictures. It is a comedy version of the classic Cinderella story, with several of the roles reversed. Fella (Jerry Lewis) has two stepbrothers and a Fairy Godfather. He is also in love with a Princess.
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[edit] Plot
When Fella's (Jerry Lewis) father dies, he continues to live with his stepmother (Judith Anderson) and her two sons (Henry Silva and Robert Hutton). His stepfamily takes over the family mansion, while Fella is reduced to living in an unfinished room at the end of a long hallway. He has in essence become their butler, catering to their every whim.
Fella dreams nightly that his father is trying to relay a message to him about where he has hidden his fortune, but he always awakens before he learns the hiding place. His stepfamily knows of this secret fortune and they go to great lengths to try to discover it whereabouts. They pretend to befriend him in order to wrangle his fortune away once it is found.
The Princess Charmein of the Grand Duchy of Morovia (Anna Maria Alberghetti) is in town and the stepmother decides to throw her a lavish ball in order to get her to marry one of her sons. Fella isn't allowed to go to the ball, but his fairy godfather (Ed Wynn) tells him that he won't remain a "people" much longer, but will blossom into a "person".
On the evening of the ball, Fella is turned into a handsome prince and sent to the ball in a limousine. Count Basie is playing at the ball when Fella makes his grand entrance. The young man quickly gains the attention of the Princess. The night is cut short when midnight strikes and Fella flees, losing his shoe along the way.
Back home, one of Fella's stepbrothers realizes that Fella is the supposed "prince." They wind up in a struggle under a tree, in the process discovering that that is where Fella's father's fortune is hidden. Fella gives the money to his stepfamily, telling them that he never needed money to be happy, he only wanted a family. Shamed, his stepmother orders her sons to return the money to Fella.
The Princess arrives with Fella's lost shoe, but Fella explains that they could never be together because she is a "person" and he is a "people". She tells him that underneath the fancy clothes she is a "people" too.
[edit] Trivia
- Lewis suffered a heart attack halfway through production.
- Paramount wanted to release the film during the summer, but Lewis considered it a holiday film and wanted to hold it back for a Christmas release. The only way that the studio would delay its release was for Lewis to provide them with another movie that they could release in its place in the summer. Lewis agreed and wrote, produced, and directed The Bellboy in 4 weeks in February 1960 while he was performing at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach. That movie was released on July 20, 1960.
- It was re-released on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, The Errand Boy in 1967.
[edit] DVD release
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[edit] External links
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