Two very intellectual, avant garde comedies from the same year. Carl Reiner directs Steve Martin in "2 Brains" & Jerry Lewis directs himself in Smorgasbord (its original title by Jerry).
Now TMW2B is more commercial, more Americanized and less personal, but its still a far classier experience than most comedies since. I'd argue its better than most comedies that came before too. This is not the Reiner/Martin collaboration that gets the most props or notice, but its probably the most consistently funny. The plot is secondary but its not non-existent or throwaway. The film is a collection or selection of comedy skits all with the theme of modern romance. It has a detached coolness in its intimate portrayal of social suicides & defeating heartbreaks & magical rebirth.
Reiner was of course rivaling his ex-partner Mel Brooks at the time, so there's heat of critical gesturing and maybe loaded rejections of certain Brooks-style gimmicks. This is a pure Reiner madcap effort while Martin is at the top of his game as a performer & thinker. He trusts the humor and brings his own twists to much of Reiner's retro vaudeville. He plays it in a perfect slapstick tone so Reiner can build the rest of the film (Kathleen Turner, the plot, the music) as the "straight man". The film has a dreamy, sometimes queasy mixture of deadpan with the texture of absurdist realism. Its between a cartoon and a documentary.
I have to heavily recommend this to anyone. Its very welcoming, gentle and yet brilliantly enlightening.
Smorgasbord should be watched afterwards, when you have a wet palette for comic extremism. "Cracking Up" was a title studios slapped on it to appropriate it for "general" audiences. "Smorgasbord" is so much more fitting as the film is an almost plot-less collection of wide ranging dreams, fantasies, episodes and introspections from Jerry's well-established clown persona.
Its very low budget, feels European in production style and it actually plays to the European critics who were Lewis' biggest fans at the time. Lewis has some of the most fun of his career here as a humble aging master performer playing to his adoring crowd of philosophically astute and culturally accepting post-French New Wave. This might be Lewis' most auteurist work. Its filled with naked confessions, mature honesty, fiery snark & love for the craft of being a film comedian.
Lewis is one of the greatest screen comedians ever, if not the best. He utilized gags, reactions, one-liners, misdirection, staging, scope, color, timing, editing, emotion, etc. so simultaneously that it all felt effortless. And this is his purist effort. He's like a kid playing with cinematic toys. And he gives us all a fun, strange, gripping seat on a ride through a portrait of his mind. Excuse the word salad, but this film is that psychological, surreal and existentially profound. Yet it stays unpretentious and grounded in the spirit of a big kid having fun in the street with every other big kid.
Jerry famously taught a lot of people how to stay a big kid, but also how to remain an intellectual adult on the outside. In this film, Jerry apologizes for any negative reproach his fans might get, but assures them that they are the real geniuses for understanding his humor. This was the last feature film of Lewis' directorial career and its a wonderful swan song.
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