Cinderfella

Cinderfella
Directed by	Frank Tashlin
Produced by	Jerry Lewis
Written by	Frank Tashlin
Starring	Jerry Lewis Ed Wynn Judith Anderson Anna Maria Alberghetti
Editing by	Arthur P. Schmidt
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	December 16, 1960
Running time	91 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English

Cinderfella is a comedy film version of the classic Cinderella story, with several of the roles reversed. It was released December 16, 1960 by Paramount Pictures and stars Jerry Lewis as Fella.

Plot

When Fella's (Jerry Lewis) father dies, he continues to live with his wicked stepmother, Emily (Judith Anderson) and her two sons, Maximilian (Henry Silva) and Rupert (Robert Hutton). His stepfamily takes over the family mansion, while Fella is reduced to living in an unfinished room at the end of a long hallway. He has in essence become their butler, catering to their every whim.

Fella dreams nightly that his father is trying to relay a message to him about where he has hidden his fortune, but he always awakens before he learns the hiding place. His stepfamily knows of this secret fortune and they go to great lengths to try to discover its whereabouts. They pretend to befriend him in order to wrangle his fortune away once it is found.

Princess Charming of the Grand Duchy of Morovia (Anna Maria Alberghetti) is in town and the stepmother decides to throw her a lavish ball in order to get her to marry one of her sons. Fella is not allowed to go to the ball, but his fairy godfather (Ed Wynn) tells him that he will not remain a "people" much longer, but will blossom into a "person".

On the evening of the ball, Fella is turned into a handsome prince and sent to the ball in a limousine. Count Basie is playing at the ball when Fella makes his grand entrance. The young man quickly gains the attention of the Princess. The night is cut short when midnight strikes and Fella flees, losing his shoe along the way.

Back home, one of Fella's stepbrothers realizes that Fella is the supposed "prince". They wind up in a struggle under a tree, in the process discovering that that is where Fella's father's fortune is hidden. Fella gives the money to his stepfamily, telling them that he never needed money to be happy, he only wanted a family. Shamed, his stepmother orders her sons to return the money to Fella.

The Princess arrives with Fella's lost shoe, but Fella explains that they could never be together because she is a "person" and he is a "people". She tells him that underneath the fancy clothes she is a "people" too.

Production

Cinderfella was filmed from October 19 through December 15, 1959.

While rehearsing for the scene in which he makes his entrance to the ball, Lewis realized that the movement of his pants was distracting. On the day of filming, he asked the wardrobe staff to attach elastic bands to the hems of his pant legs that would go under his shoes, keeping the pants straight. In the DVD commentary to the film, Lewis called this "an old dancer's trick." The scene was shot with one take of Jerry Lewis going down the stairs and one take going up. He ran up the stairs in less than nine seconds and collapsed at the top. He was taken to the hospital and spent four days in an oxygen tent with his second cardiac event. This delayed filming for two weeks.

Release

Paramount wanted to release the film during the summer, but Lewis considered it a holiday film and wanted to hold it back for a Christmas release. The only way that the studio would delay its release was for Lewis to provide them with another movie that they could release in its place in the summer. Lewis agreed and wrote, produced, and directed The Bellboy in four weeks in February 1960 while he was performing at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. That movie was released on July 20, 1960.

In 1967, the film was re-released on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, The Errand Boy.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack for the film was released by DOT Records (DLP 38001).

Track listing

1. OVERTURE (Arranged and Conducted by Walter Scharf)
2. LET ME BE A PEOPLE (Jerry Lewis)
3. TICKA-DEE (Jerry Lewis)
4. I'M PART OF A FAMILY (Jerry Lewis)
5. TURN IT ON (Jerry Lewis & Choir)
6. WE'RE GOING TO THE BALL (Salli Terri, Bill Lee & Max Smith)
7. SOMEBODY (Jerry Lewis)
8. THE PRINCESS WALTZ (Jerry Lewis, Loulie Jean Norman & Choir)
9. TURN IT ON (Jerry Lewis, Del Moore & Choir)

Home media

The film was released on DVD on October 12, 2004.

External links

• Cinderfella at the Internet Movie Database