It seems odd, to say the least, that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival is screening The Delicate Delinquent, a decent but unexceptional Jerry Lewis dramedy that opened in June ’57.
All I can figure is that Delinquent has recently been restored due to having been shot in VistaVision (I adore the clarity of black-and-white films in this process, The Desperate Hours and Fear Strikes Out being two examples) and Venice is offering a showcase out of respect or allegiance.
The Delicate Deliquent was Lewis’s first feature after the breakup of Martin & Lewis, and I guess the idea was to show the industry that he had a serious side and could play a normal, ground-level guy without going “hey laaaaady!”
It’s a passable shoulder-shrugger about an odd, not-that-young janitor named Sidney L. Pythias…named after the ancient Greek figure of legend? The film, directed and cowritten by Don McGuire (directed Johnny Concho, co-wrote Bad Day at Black Rock and Tootsie), doesn’t present Sidney as a j.d. out of Rebel Without a Cause or West Side Story. He’s basically just an aimless adolescent (Lewis was 30 when it was filmed in ’56) who lives in a cellar apartment.
The story is about Sidney being guided into a law-enforcement career by Darren McGavin‘s Mike Damon, a fair-minded cop who takes an interest.
