Pardners
Tags: violence, murder, comic

Plot synopsis:
Masked raiders led by Sam Hollis attack the "K" Ranch, where owner Wade Kingsley and partner Slim Mosley bravely defend their property after Matilda Kingsley and infant son Wade Jr. safely return east to New York, her hometown. Wade and Slim (played by Martin and Lewis) are murdered, but vow before they die that their sons someday will avenge them.
Many years later, the wealthy Matilda receives a visit from her niece Carol and cowboy Slim Mosley, Jr. (Dean Martin again), who has come to New York City to compete in a rodeo. They intend to use Slim's earnings to buy a prized bull called Cuddles and take him back west to replenish the K Ranch's stock.
Sweet but inept Wade, Jr. (Jerry Lewis again) has always wanted to be a cowboy. He goes to the rodeo, where his bungling interference costs Slim first prize. To make amends, Wade buys the bull for Slim and accompanies them back west by train.
After a while, Slim warms up to Wade and agrees to become partners, like their dads. Out west, to keep townsfolk from mocking the tenderfoot, Slim decides to introduce Wade to one and all as "Killer Jones," a tough hombre. Due to his heroic actions in stopping a runaway stagecoach, with Slim performing the actual heroics, Wade ends up being elected sheriff, impressing dance hall girl Dolly Riley.
Ranch hand Pete Rio is secretly working with banker Dan Hollis, who is every bit as corrupt as his father was. Dan's got his eyes on the K Ranch so he can sell the land to the government, which wants to build a dam. Dan tries proposing marriage to Carol, but she rejects him, so he announces that the bank will begin foreclosure proceedings against the ranch.
In disguise, Wade infiltrates the gang of masked raiders. He is caught and bound to a chair, strapped to sticks of dynamite, and when Slim comes to his rescue, Dan Hollis knocks him cold. All seems lost until the boys manage a last-second escape. Dan is dealt with accordingly, after which the pardners and their romantic partners celebrate their success.

Review: Martin and Lewis are seen as old men in the beginning of the film.They are these ranch partners who are brutally murdered.Their sons ought to revenge for their death.In 1910 their sons are fully grown men, at least Martin's character Slim Mosely Jr. is.Lewis' Wade Kingsley Jr. is a rich momma's boy.But together they head back for the old west where they meet a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders".Norman Taurog is the director and Sidney Sheldon is behind the screenplay of Pardners (1956).It's a western comedy that stars the comedy team Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.Actually this was the second last picture they made together before their break-up.The collaboration between them still works even though this isn't the best picture they did together.But still pretty funny.Just watch Jerry Lewis learn how to be a real cowboy.And how he's in the saloon acting tougher than he actually is.The rest of the cast does good job, too.Lori Nelson plays Carol Kingsley.Agnes Moorehead is Mrs.Matilda Kingsley.Jeff Morrow plays Pete Rio and John Baragrey is Dan/Sam Hollis.Lon Chaney Jr. is Whitey.Lee Van Cleef plays Gus while Jack Elam is Pete.I became an admirer of Jerry Lewis movies, with and without Dean 10 years ago.They showed all these great and funny movies during the summer that made me laugh.Lewis and Martin worked great together.Just like Laurel and Hardy did, or Hope and Crosby and the Marx brothers.What ever happened to great comedy teams?.
This is a great Martin and Lewis Comedy from 1956, which is the same year that they broke up as a Comedic Duo, and this film "Pardners," was the second to their last that was made.
Jerry's father and Dean's father were the best of friends, and died together in the hopes of saving their land.
Dean has some great singing numbers in this film, and Jerry's special brand of physical comedy is very effective in a number of saloon fight scenes.
RIDE ALONG WITH THESE TWO COMEDIC COWBOY LEGENDS - 8 out of 10 ratingI love Jerry Lewis films so when I popped in this DVD which is classified as a Western/Comedy I was hoping to see a film that may provide a few chuckles.
Much to my surprise for a picture that was released almost 60 years ago the picture quality was in pristine Technicolor, the tandem of Martin and Lewis and a strong supporting cast that included Agnes Moorehead kept me entertained throughout the film from beginning to end.Lost in the production values of today's films is that combination of a simple but effective plot, the bantering between the two co- stars Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the slapstick comedy of the King of Comedy of the 1950's and 1960's Jerry Lewis, and the film also threw in a few cowboy songs that were sung by swooner Dean Martin.
Heck even Jerry and Dean sung a few numbers together.I keep hearing that life was much simpler back in the 1950's than it is now 60 years later.
It has a simple plot with great comedy relief and a few light songs to go along with the cowboy's journey.
The two old cowboys from the late 1800's played by Dean Martin and Lewis die together at the hands of an evil desperado but leave behind their sons (also played by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) who 25 years later in the early 1900's join forces together once again to take down the evil banker who also happens to be the son of the rustler who killed their daddies 25 years earlier.Jerry Lewis plays the bumbling heir apparent to mom's (Agnes Moorehead) industrial revolution fortune who runs away to reunite with real life cowpoke Dean Martin to save the ranch that Jerry's and Dean's daddies died trying to save many years ago.
I urge families to sit back and relax with a bowl of popcorn and just enjoy this comedy western classic.I give the film a strong 8 out of 10 rating.
Pardners is the 15th of the 16 feature length pictures that Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis made together.
It'a a reworking of the 1936 Bing Crosby film, Rhythm On The Range, which just like this remake was directed by Norman Taurog.
Plot sees the comedy duo playing sons of one time wild west partners.
Brought together by accident 25 years later, the boys head out west and get into all sorts of scrapes; with Jerry even becoming sheriff!
It was inevitable that Martin & Lewis would end up out west playing cowboys since all the comedy duos do it.
On the list of their collaborations Pardners probably sits some where in the middle, it's a safe mix of songs and buffoonery, with pretty girls represented by Jackie Loughery & Lori Nelson.
The Wind!" "Buckskin Beauty" and "Pardners," (music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn).Safe & colourful comedy fare for fans of the successful duo.
Considering when this was released, Pardners was an ironic title for this Martin & Lewis picture.
After years of just seeing parts of this Martin & Lewis movie, I finally watched the whole thing on YouTube.
As you can discern from the title, Dean & Jerry are in the old west.
Then, as their sons with the mother of Lewis (Agnes Moorehead) raising him back in New York to marry some Amazon woman but that son will have none of it.
Still, Jerry's as funny as he can be doing what he does here and Dean seems quite comfortable in his first of many times he would wear cowboy duds.
P.S. Despite the team mentioning at the end they plan to stay together in movies for years, by the time this was released in August of '56, they had already done their last performance in tandem the previous month.
I'd heard a lot of great things about the comedy pairing of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
I'd seen Jerry Lewis in some other films before this (such as "The Nutty Professor" and "Rock-A-Bye-Baby") where he didn't really stand out as being a comedy legend, if anything he just seemed really annoying at points.However I wasn't going to let that get in the way of enjoying what I had heard was a great double act.But...
this movie kind of sucked.The most important thing that a comedy needs is to be funny, and unfortunately this doesn't quite hit the right mark.
Jerry Lewis screaming and whining in that voice of his gets irritating after a while, and pairing him with the rather subdued and (in my opinion anyway) boring Dean Martin doesn't help as there's no one around to rein him in.The story of this film feels like it was thought up five minuted before shooting began.
However I will give the writers some credit as they did try to add a little twist to it, but ultimately it doesn't work because you don't really care about what's happening.There's also this weird thing about an inter-generational family war which means that Dean Martin's character (a cowboy) and Jerry Lewis' character (a spoiled socialite who has always dreamed of being a cowboy) have to team up to stop the bad guys who are...
Either way, it was unnecessary and pointless and only served to waste time.Overall, this movie was a pretty big disappointment, but it wasn't completely awful.
Fun Martin & Lewis Film.
Pardners (1956)*** (out of 4)Our film starts off with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis playing Slim Moseley and Wade Kingsley who die protecting their ranch.
(Martin) stays out West where he eventually tries to save the ranch and he goes out East to track down Wade, Jr.
Wade, wanting to become a cowboy, follows Moseley out West and soon they are going up against a crooked gang who wants their land.I really wasn't sure what to expect from PARDNERS but it turned out to be one of the better Martin & Lewis movies even if it does borrow quite heavily from their film THAT'S MY BOY.
This film here benefits greatly from the beautiful Technicolor plus the fact that the two leads are surrounding by a very good supporting cast.
Plus, you can't help but enjoy seeing Martin in his first Western and especially when you consider the great things he did for the genre after the duo's split.As far as this film goes, Martin & Lewis were just built for the Western setting and both of them do a very good job here.
This character seemed like a legit one and I thought Lewis did a very good job.
Martin was perfect here as he gets some very good numbers throughout the picture including the title track, which is done with Lewis on a good Western set.The supporting cast includes fun performances from Lori Nelson, Jackie Loughery, Agnes Moorehead, Jeff Morrow, Lee Van Cleef and Lon Chaney in a small role.
The film has a lot of funny moments here including one very good sequence where Martin is having to fill in for Lewis during a fight while making sure the weak one gets the credit for it.
As I said, the Technicolor here looks terrific and I liked how the film played well as not only a comedy but also a Western..
1956's "Pardners" showed how the partnership of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was not only fraying at the edges, it was beginning to crumble, with only "Hollywood or Bust" ahead before they finally split.
Here they finally turn to a Western spoof, and gather together an impressive cast of veteran heavies, such as Lon Chaney, Bob Steele, Lee Van Cleef, Douglas Spencer, and Jack Elam (relegated to a single line), all of whom are grievously wasted with virtually nothing to do but watch the gyrations of the tiresome Jerry Lewis.
A straight prologue depicting the demise of Dean and Jerry certainly sets a grim tone for the dreary remainder, as poor Dean has to try to save Jerry's hide whenever he gets into trouble, eventually made sheriff by the main bad guy, out to steal the heroine's ranch by marrying her as a last straw.
By the time the duo arrive out west to the ranch where their fathers died the picture is already half over, though not soon enough for this viewer.
The plot is quite simple: Dean Martin is the rodeo riding, singing cowboy, and foreman of a ranch.
Jerry Lewis is a rich kid who wants to become a real cowboy, and hence he becomes the clumsy (unwanted) sidekick of Dean Martin.
Oh, and for good measure there's some bad guys trying to take over the ranch, as well...If you expect "Cat Balou", don't watch this.
Also, the characters are just as simple as Stan and Ollie, just as loveable if you're a kid.As adult, I'd recommend to grab a "Cat Balou" tape instead, for a good classic western comedy..
This is the second to last film starring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis--and so the title does seem a bit ironic!
The film begins with Dean and Jerry's fathers (played by them with powdered hair) dying in a shoot out with baddies.
One was a capable and manly cowboy (Martin) and the other a pampered mama's boy (Lewis) and they grow up not knowing each other.
However, when Martin meets with his old partner's widow (Agnes Moorehead) to try to get money for a prize bull, she refuses but her son (Lewis) decides to go west with Martin and learn to be a real he-man.
The rest of the film consists of Jerry acting wimpy and very goofy (perhaps too much so at times) and Martin being exasperated but loyal to his new friend who makes everyone (including Jerry) think he's a lot more rugged and brave than he really is.If you think about it, this plot is basically "That's My Boy" (an earlier and better Martin & Lewis film) all over again.
And, as a result of so much screen time for Jerry, Martin is mostly relegated to the background--and you can see how films like this ultimately pushed them to their dissolving their pardner-ship.By the way, this film also bears a strong similarity to the Bob Hope films "The Paleface" and "Son of Paleface".
Like every other comedy team, even the decidedly city-fied Martin & Lewis eventually had to put on chaps and kick up the sawdust.
And like most of these mergers of western and comedy teams, it doesn't generate much entertainment.
The ending tag of the film has Martin & Lewis speaking directly to the audience---pleading with their fans to keep coming to their movies (obviously the world knowing at the time that the pair were practically falling apart).
No matter: They only made one more movie after this junk, the equally second-rate 'Hollywood or Bust' (in which Martin no longer looks bored but actually angry)..
It was always interesting to me how the writers at Paramount managed to rework some of the plots of their old classics to fit Martin and Lewis.
In this next to last film Pardners, it's taken from the old Bing Crosby classic Rhythm On The Range.
They even managed to get the old director of Bing's film Norman Taurog to direct.Dean and Jerry are the sons of a pair of ranchers who were both killed in a range war.
Dean's parents stayed west, but Agnes Moorehead as Jerry's mom, went East, made a ton of money and raised Jerry as the tenderest tenderfoot ever.
He meets up with Jerry who 'helps' him out in his usual manner.Most of Rhythm on the Range involved Bing Crosby on the journey back west with Cuddles the bull and Frances Farmer where some romance develops.
Jerry's cousin Lori Nelson does this for Dean.
In fact according to the Nick Tosches biography on Dean Martin, the interest was off the screen as well.Jerry doesn't do too bad in this film either.
By that time Jerry's been made the sheriff and he's gotten the ire roused of one particular bad guy Jeff Morrow who thinks of Loughrey as his own.
Not without the usual broad comedic gags that are a Martin and Lewis specialty.Bing made out miles better in his film than Dino did in the song department.
In fact I'm An Old Cowhand would have been a great comic duet for both Dino and Jerry.Still the accent was on comedy rather than romance in Pardners and that is what Martin and Lewis do best..
This Martin & Lewis film is beautiful in full-color Vista-Vision!
It's set in the Old West, where Dean is managing a ranch and Jerry wants to be a cowboy...like their fathers, who were pals in the Old West at the same ranch.
Of course, in the old days and the new days there's a villain attempting to take over the ranch, and it's up to the boys to save the day.Dean has several great songs here.
The Wind!" is probably one of his best recordings during the Capitol years, and "Me 'n You 'n the Moon" is a very nice up-temp love song.
For Jerry there's "Buckskin Beauty", and for the boys together there's the title song...which is very nice, though ironic since this film was playing in theaters just about the time the duo had split up.
In terms of supporting actors, Agnes Moorehead is good as Jerry's mother, and Lori Nelson fine as Dean's love interest (though this is not big speaking part).
There are a number of familiar faces among the cowboys -- Jeff Morrow, Lon Chaney, Jr., Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, and Bob Steele.Incidentally, if you have a chance to watch "The Caddy" and "Pardners" in succession -- which I did yesterday and today -- wow, what a difference in Dean's body language and facial expressions.
You don't see that in "Pardners".All in all, a rather pleasant effort, and in my view one of the better of the Martin & Lewis pics..
It is one of the Best ones that Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin ever did.
It's about the west back when your great great great grandfathers were ranchers, and these two Lewis & Martin are so funny in this one.
Lewis & Martin are great in this one.
It's about Lewis trying to get away from a thug, and in doing so ends up posing as a teenager and going to the school that Martin is a teacher at...
A brilliant movie with Lewis & Martin.
I honestly thought at the beginning, Lewis and Martin were gonna look like old bucks throughout the whole movie but when they were suppose to be killed, I actually nearly cried.
However it wasn't the case after all because the old bucks were meant to be their father's and they just suddenly changed into their regular selves.I really loved the scenes of the old West, it does take you right back in time when cowboy movies were increasingly popular in the 50's and 60s.
This movie is such a gem, I honestly loved Lewis and Martin teaming up on this one!.
Pardners is a comedy set in the western.
The story starts in the old west when Slim and Wade is forced to defend, well not before they finish their checkers game ,their ranch and families from masked raiders.
The two don't meet until 25 years later, Slim is a capable foreman at the ranch but Wade is just a big kid ruled by his dictator (and successful businesswoman) mother.
Can Slim save the ranch and the accident prone Wade from himself?Supposed to be funny, a comedy based on the incompetent Wade, who can't help trip over himself.
The character of Wade is too over the top, too clumsy and frankly too stupid to be any fun.The tandem of Martin and Lewis certainly performed as they was directed to, but the character Wade is just too ridiculous.
And the tempo killing singing, mostly Dean's, even though beautiful, isn't helping.