A goldmine of comedic talent from the 1960s, Ethel Merman tries to persuade her beach bum son Sylvester to drive direct to Santa Rosita to find Jimmy Durante’s hidden money before – ah what the hell, the story is irrelevant, when the Stanley Kramer’s film was pitched to the greatest comedy actors in 1962 many signed up, but many didn’t – when they started filming and word got around just how good the film was going to be then suddenly everyone wanted a part, hence Jerry Lewis only being given a 20 second non-speaking part and dozens of other walk-on, walk-past appearances by those who you’d think would have top billing – the film being all the much better for that.
Terry Thomas asks Milton Berle what his beach bum son-in-law is like and his reply is used by Ned and I at least once a week as one of our stock phrases, “He’s a nut”.
Jerrychicken - The Diary 