Jerry Lewis is Lester March, a TV repairman and would-be detective without a clue—call him Sherlock Jr., Jr. Inspired by admiration for a private-eye friend and too many detective novels, Lester sets out to solve a televised mystery: a wealthy spinster (Mae Questel of Betty Boop fame) is searching for her long-lost nephew and heir, whose ancestral portrait bears an uncanny resemblance to Lester himself. A crooked lawyer and a sinister butler impede the hapless sleuth’s progress with a series of near-fatal interventions. Recruited to direct an already prepared production, Tashlin brought to it his typical flair for reality-defying gags (try parallel parking à la Lewis), mock-Hitchcock cinematography, and a fascination with the perils of modern technology, from vacuum cleaners run amok to a platoon of man-eating lawnmowers to, of course, television.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by John Fenton Murray. Photographed by W. Wallace Kelley. With Jerry Lewis, Zachary Scott, Joan O’Brien, Mae Questel. (84 mins, B&W, ’Scope, 35mm, From Paramount)