Jerry Lewis appreciation: A vital element in the formula for mid-20th century American comedy

"What does he become? What kind of MONSTER?" In the original trailers for his 1963 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde comedy, "The Nutty Professor," a riot of private neuroses running amok, Jerry Lewis asked the questions of any standard-issue horror movie of the time, with an atypically straight face.

We know now, of course. The chemistry professor Julius Kelp's formula turns the schlemiel into a slicked-back compendium of Lewis' own fears and desires, swinger Buddy Love. He was a little of Lewis' former partner, Dean Martin; a little more of Frank Sinatra; a little more of his own, harsh, unpleasable father, the small-time Borscht Belt comic Danny Levitch; and, most of all, the other, darker half of Lewis himself.

It's a stunning Janus of a performance, in what is generally (and I think correctly) considered his masterwork. Lewis died Sunday