In Jerry Lewis' original "The Nutty Professor," when his nerdy Julius Kelp transformed into oily, abrasive lounge lizard Buddy Love, many viewers thought Lewis was making fun of his old partner, Dean Martin, but he was actually skewering himself. Buddy was the monster he feared success had made him become. Twenty years later, Lewis got to star in "The King of Comedy," a movie about a Julius Kelp who yearns to become a Buddy Love and then, horrifyingly, gets his wish. Here, it's not just fame, but the mere pursuit of it, that transforms Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) into a monster. In this movie, fame is like a communicable disease that Rupert wants to catch, and he does so by forcing himself on Jerry Langford (Lewis), a TV star who has become something of an aloof jerk precisely to protect himself from hangers-on like Rupert. Lewis' understanding of...
- 2/18/2013
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
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