That's My Boy was the first film in which people really started to take notice of Jerry Lewis and start classifying him with comedians like Chaplin and Keaton and Langdon. After over 60 years the film still holds up very well because it's got a universal theme, a kid who can't get out from under the shadow of his father.

Jerry is the nervous, spastic, and underachieving kid of former All American Eddie Mayehoff who later went on to be a captain of industry. Mother Ruth Hussey tries to help, but she too is dominated by Mayehoff who can't hear anyone's voice beyond his constant bloviating bellow. The man isn't blind he has to see what kind of kid he raised. Nevertheless he's going to turn Lewis into the next generation Mayehoff and he's got the money to make the attempt. He even pays for school jock Dean Martin to go to college as well and tutor Lewis in the fine arts of being a football hero and big man on campus.

That however interferes with Dino's efforts at courting Polly Bergen who Jerry is also interested in. I think you can see where this is going.

It all culminates as it always does in college pictures in the big football game at the end. Some of the gags are not as well presented as in such films as College Humor, Horsefeathers, and Hold 'Em Jail, still you'll get a few laughs from them.

Dino was shortchanged here. He gets two numbers nothing original just interpolated songs like Ballin' The Jack which he sings and dances with Bergen and I'm In The Mood For Love. Dino is strictly in support of Jerry for the first time.

But Jerry shows some real pathos in That's My Boy and was rightly praised by the critics. This film might have marked the beginning of the end for them as a team.

I can see Jim Carrey doing a remake of this for today's audiences. If not, every nerdy kid in America will identify with Jerry's character in That's My Boy.

There is one point in this film where not so proud papa Eddie Mayehoff begins to think that high school football player hero Dean Martin was switched with his son Jerry Lewis at birth. Wife Ruth Hussey has to remind him that Jerry was born at home, and I don't even consider checking out Dean's birthday. If they did, they'd find out he was much older than what he is playing here, and the same goes for Jerry. It's the weirdest casting for graduating high school students that I had seen in an older film, even though it isn't necessarily a bad film.

This is a different type of role for Jerry Lewis. His character is said to be rather sickly, needing a certain diet and allergic to many foods, and susceptible to colds which is why he leaves his window closed and only rushes to open it when his father knocks on the door. Lewis is also easily knocked over when his dad makes his mom and housekeeper Lillian Randolph act out a football play, and when Lewis does try to play football, he makes all sorts of errors until making a surprising touchdown which the coach simply calls an accident.

Anybody who was ever picked last in a high school gym class will relate to Lewis here, yeah I can relate to the character of Dean Martin taking Lewis under his wing to help him become a better athlete thanks to kids in my class to try to do the same thing. It's also a bit manipulative for the father to force Lewis to go to his local alma mater rather than the agricultural college out of town that Lewis really wants to go to. But everybody gets together to help Jerry readjust and become a better athlete, and that's presented as a good thing. There aren't any bullies, just kids of a different strength, and that makes this seem like a high school and college that never existed in history.

Dean Martin gets to sing a jazzy version of the standard "Ballin' the Jack" (also sung by Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in "For Me and my Gal", and years later, Gilda radner and Dom DeLuise in "Haunted Honeymoon"),and there's also a Charleston which is rather strange considering the assumed time period in which this takes place. Still, it is a pleasant film, even if it's lack of reality is obvious. Martin and Lewis have terrific chemistry, even though Dean really has very little to do.

I'm not a big fan of Martin and Lewis movies, though I think I saw all of them over the years. When I was a kid, I was a bit of a fan so I tried to see the films whenever they came on television. Of all their films together, this one is my favorite. It may not be hilarious from start to finish, but for this comedy team it is awfully good.

Lewis is very funny as the extremely clumsy and nerdy son of the rugged Eddie Mayehoff. Martin plays a football-playing student who Mayehoff WISHES were his son--in order to carry on the legacy. You see, because MANY years earlier Mayehoff had been a big college football star and he was beside himself having an embarrassment for a son. So, he makes Martin a proposition--take Lewis under his wing and make him a real man. In exchange, Mayehoff will bankroll Martin's college expenses.

What ultimately happens is a bit predictable but worth watching. The scene I particularly enjoyed watching was when Mayehoff took Lewis hunting! Good work by Martin & Lewis and a film that deserves to be seen a bit more often.

By the way, I am not sure if I'd consider this to be the team's best film or "The Stooge". "That's My Boy" is certainly a lot funnier but there's something likable about the oddly realistic "The Stooge".