# The Ladies Man

The Ladies Man is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961, by Paramount Pictures.

## Plot

Herbert H. Heebert is a young man who loses his girlfriend, swears off romance, and then takes a job at a genteel, women-only boarding house, run by retired opera singer Helen Wellenmellon. Although most of the women treat him like a servant, Fay helps him with his fear of women.

## Cast

* Jerry Lewis as Herbert H. Heebert/Marna Heebert
* Helen Traubel as Helen N. Wellenmellon
* Kathleen Freeman as Katie
* Hope Holiday as Miss Anxious
* Lynn Ross as Miss Vitality
* Mary LaRoche as Miss Society
* Madlyn Rhue as Miss Intellect
* Sylvia Lewis as Miss Cartilage
* Jack Kruschen as graduation emcee professor
* Pat Stanley as Fay
* Jacqueline Fontaine as working girl
* Gloria Jean as Gloria
* Ann McCrea as Miss Sexy Pot
* Buddy Lester as Willard C. Gainsborough
* George Raft as himself
* Harry James as Harry
* Marty Ingels as himself
In addition, Lillian Briggs made her Hollywood acting debut in this film and actor George Raft appeared in a cameo role. Patty Thomas plays herself a dancer.

## Production

Mel Brooks worked on the screenplay. He fought with Lewis and left the production. In Brooks's biography, he stated that the final draft screenplay only featured two of his scenes and asked the Writers Guild of America to make sure that he did not get given any credit. Filming started in November 1960. The main set is a four-story doll house-like interior of a mansion turned boarding house with a central courtyard allowing crane shots spanning its three and a half floors. The structure was several rooms deep at each level and in total 177 ft (54 m) deep, 154 ft (47 m) wide and 36 ft (11 m) feet high. The main set alone cost $500,000 to build (equivalent to $3.95 million in 2023). After two weeks of filming, Lewis fired cinematographer Haskell Boggs, who had worked with him on most of his films, over a disagreement and replaced him with W. Wallace Kelley.
The film features the real-life wedding of Daria Massey and David Lee Joesting.

## Release

The film premiered in Brooklyn on June 28, 1961. In New York City, it opened on July 12 in a double-bill with Love in a Goldfish Bowl.

## Reception

Howard Thompson, in a review for The New York Times wrote: "Now, in all fairness to a frankly light-headed vehicle that dies on its feet, Mr. Lewis' latest gets off to a fresh and really funny beginning." However, after the first half-hour, "the remainder of the picture, with everyone else firmly relegated to the background, has Mr. Lewis shuffling and stumbling in full view, as if he and the movie were merely improvising." Overall, it received mixed reviews in New York. Based on a limited selection of non-contemporary reviews, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.
The film grossed $271,635 in its first week of release in New York.
In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.
Herbert H. Heebert's line "Hey, lady!" was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2005 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.

## Home media

The film was released on DVD on October 14, 2004, and again on July 15, 2014, as part of the four-film collection 4 Film Favorites: Jerry Lewis, along with The Bellboy, The Errand Boy, and The Patsy.