When Paramount Pictures and Hal Wallis decided to debut their new comedy team find of Martin and Lewis, they chose a vehicle with a built in audience should the new team fail. My Friend Irma was a popular radio comedy from that period with Marie Wilson in the title role of Irma Peterson.

Irma is one of those dumb Dora blonds so popular back in the day who seem to just sail through life oblivious to what's around and somehow get through it. She causes all around her to scratch their heads and those closest to her scratch the most. Diana Lynn is her roommate and levelheaded best friend Jane Tracy and John Lund is Irma's charming loafer of a boyfriend complete with New York speech.

Lund as boyfriend Al seems so suited for Wilson because anyone else would have given this bum the heave ho years ago. They're engaged, but she's the one who bought him a ring. He's forever got some get rich quick scheme that never works out and that was part of most of the radio comedy episodes.

But he might have latched onto a good thing now when he discovers Dean Martin entertaining the customers at a juice bar he works at with a song or two. And of course Dean is working their with Jerry who is trying hard not to burn down the place.

Lund signs Martin to a contract and now he will be his manager. At the same time Martin is falling for Lynn and she him. But Lynn has that practical streak in her and she's set her cap for her rich boss, Don DeFore. I think you can see where this is all going.

It was a good debut film for Dean and Jerry. But Jerry wanted Lund's role and complained all the way through the shooting to Hal Wallis and director George Marshall. Lewis's part is created and practically shoehorned into the picture. But give Jerry credit, he took the part and made himself a star with it.

The one tragic note in this film is that Felix Bressart was supposed to play Professor Kropotkin the doorman of the Gypsy Tea Room. He died in the middle of shooting and Hans Conreid was rushed in as a last minute replacement.

My Friend Irma did have a successor film with Martin and Lewis as well in My Friend Irma Goes West. And Marie Wilson recreated her signature part for television for three years. If they ever decide to revive it for the 21st century, Jessica Simpson would be perfect casting.

I'd pay to see that.

Don't be fooled by the 3 hour, 12 minute running time listed on Google search for this movie; that appears to have been written by Irma herself, combining the two films in this series released a year apart. However, be forewarned as well that even without a cellphone to distract her as she walks down crowded Manhattan streets, she ends up walking into an open manhole. Yes, Irma is the stereotypical dumb blonde, lovably portrayed by veteran actress Marie Wilson who had specialized in those type of roles for over a decade.

Irma, in spite of her dimwit personality, is completely lovable, giving the urge to see her protected (from herself mostly) rather than ignored. I wish I could say the same for squeaky voiced Jerry Lewis in his film debut, o.k. in small doses (if you're not French),but at length rather annoying! At least where there's Lewis in these early films, there's also Martin, and he's a suave, likable young actor whose characters had to have the patience of Job to deal with the cloying characters his overrated costar played. Wilson hits her comic height in a scene, where as the secretary to the slimy looking Percy Helton, she turns his office totally upside down, only keeping her job as he tells her, because only she knows how to figure out her filing system.

I take each of the Lewis/Martin teamings patiently, and in a few, he's less annoying and obnoxious than others. When Dean sings, the thoughts of Jerry slip into the background, and in their first two films, they are basically supporting. Think Lenny and Squiggy to Wilson and roommate Diana Lynn's Lavern and Shirley. The basic story is simple of how Wilson and Lewis's airhead antics affect the lives of their smarter pals, Lynn and Martin. Don DeFore plays Lynn's romantic interest (and boss) whom she manipulates a job out of. Thanks to Wilson and her agent boyfriend John Lund, Martin and Lewis end up at Wilson and Lynn's house guests, leading to a few amusing complications but not much else. What little plot exists surrounds their attempts to get Martin discovered. At least other than their scenes together, Wilson and Lewis aren't paired romantically; that would in itself would be a recipe for disaster!

Just rewatched this film which marked the debut of the comedy team of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis on YouTube. They're shoehorned almost awkwardly into it since this movie was based on a popular radio sitcom about a young woman named Jane Stacy (Diana Lynn) who's trying to snag a rich guy named Rhinelander (Don DeFore) by working as his secretary and having to deal with her scatterbrained roommate Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson) and her con artist boyfriend Al (John Lund). Martin & Lewis are a couple of orange juice stand employees named Steve and Seymour who's discovered by Irma and Al as Steve sings a little something there. Despite many contrivances, the way Jane and Irma seem to fit certain stereotypes of women at the time, and the fact that Irma cries constantly whenever she realizes when it's her fault, this was quite funny especially whenever Lewis is on screen. And Martin shows just how appealing a crooner he was though I'm sure even then some thought he was just a Bing Crosby imitator. The cast as a whole manages to make the somewhat slight material go down easy. In fact, one of my favorite lines comes from a bit player named Hans Conried who says of Irma and Jane, "One with her head in the air and the other with air in her head." So on that note, My Friend Irma is worth a look for comedy fans especially that of Dean & Jerry.