Martin and Lewis (film)

Martin and Lewis is a 2002 biographical CBS TV film, written and directed by John Gray, portraying the lives of the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. The film stars Jeremy Northam as Dean Martin and Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis.

When lounge singer Dean Martin Northam and burlesque comic Jerry Lewis Hayes clicked during an impromptu pairing in 1946, neither anticipated their unparalleled success as a team. Lewis was going nowhere fast with an act built around miming to records, while Martin was making a subpar living as a crooner, sleeping on his agents couch. Lewis had beseeched his agent to reteam him with the reluctant Martin Lewis instigated their act and adopted the jaded pro as his unofficial big brother. Ever aloof, Martin is content to cash in on the bonanza and continue his sideline in womanizing. But as Lewis assumes more control, Martins mistress, Jeanne Levering, nags him to take more credit. From bistros to radio to television, the seductive singer and the wacky stooge click with audiences. As the act takes Hollywood by storm in 1949, Lewis becomes paranoid about Martins popularity psychosomatic stomach pains become his way of grabbing attention. Handsome and effortlessly charming, Martin successfully launches a solo acting career, in part to escape Lewiss directorial aspirations and oppressive neediness. When Martin is called on the carpet by his wife, Betty Cale, he walks out on his family his frustration and resentment at being part of a twoheaded showbiz monster only increases. Engineered by managers and agents, the last lap of the MartinLewis partnership is a cheerless financial arrangement, and though each triumphs after the official split in 1956, neither ever recaptures the elation of their early chemistry.In real life, Dean Martin was married to Jeanne Biegger in 1949, many years before the breakup of his professional partnership with Jerry Lewis. ........

Source: Wikipedia