Max Wilk Movies

Humorist Max Wilk scripted this listless film version of his book of the same name. Jerry Lewis plays George Lester, an American entrepreneur living in London. After a money-raising scheme fails, his wife Pamela (Jacqueline Pearce) threatens him with divorce. Trying to demonstrate his willingness to get serious with Pamela, George, with crackbrained finesse, turns her country home into a discotheque. Pamela, shocked, demands that George restore her home the way it was. While defending himself, George notes than Pamela now has a snobbish suitor in tow -- Dudley Heath (Nicholas Parsons). To show up Pamela, George contacts an old friend, conman H. William Homer (Terry-Thomas). Together, they concoct a scheme to abscond with Dudley's blueprints for an electronic oil drill and sell it to the Arabs. But complications occur when George catches the mumps and has to rely upon airline steward Fred Davies (Bernard Cribbins) to transport the microfilmed blueprints to Lisbon in his teeth. Once in Lisbon, a local dentist, Dr. Pinto (John Bluthal), is tabbed to remove the blueprints from Davies's mouth, but Dr. Pinto double-crosses them. George flies off to Lisbon with Pamela in pursuit, and the chase is on. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Filmed entirely on location in New York, Close-Up affords a rare starring role for character actor Alan Baxter. While on assignment, newsreel photographer Phil Sparr (Baxter) happens to film a passerby named Beaumont (Richard Kollmar). Suddenly, everyone is interested in what Sparr has captured on film, none more so than girl reporter Peggy (Virginia Gilmore). It turns out that both Beaumont and Peggy are members of a secret neo-Nazi organization, headed by the very mean-spirited Mr. Gibbons (Philip Huston). Taking advantage of his newfound "hero" status (he was usually the bad guy), Alan Baxter shows off his athletic prowess in a pulse-pounding climactic chase involving two speeding ferryboats. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi