"How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave" is not just a movie with an odd title, but it's one that was simply unavailable in the USA until recently. Why? Because the leading man, Jerry Lewis, stipulated in his contract that the film NOT be released in the States. I can only assume it is because he thought it would be a bomb and that the French were generally far better disposed towards him and his sort of humor. Well, despite this, the movie is currently posted on YouTube...with English subtitles.
This film finds Jerry Lewis playing Clovis Blaireau, a private detective. A middle-aged woman wants to divorce her husband and apparently in France contested divorces are not granted. So she wants Clovis to get incriminating photos of him with another woman....though she herself is already cheating on her husband. So Clovis pretends that he's a long lost friend of the husband and the pair soon are out getting into all sorts of nonsense....and women. But because Clovis is a complete incompetent, every time he snaps a photo of the husband with another woman, he somehow screws up...and this simple task goes on and on and on through the movie. Later, he and the husband end up on the run and are assumed to be mobsters from the Mafia. Why and what happens next is something you should find out yourself.
While I'd never say that Jerry Lewis' humor is subtle nor sophisticated, in "How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave" the jokes are even less subtle than usual and Lewis deserved better than this ineptly written and directed movie. I simply cannot understand why he agreed to make it. Was he in desperate financial straits back in the 1980s? I just know if Lewis had directed it himself, as he was wont to do back in the 1960s, it had to have been better. Now this isn't to say there are no laughs in this movie. Once or twice, I actually thought mildly funny things happened in the story...though most of the time the laughs were cheap and unfunny. The best example of cheap and unfunny is the beginning of the film, where Clovis' office is located under a suite where fat ladies are exercising and Clovis' office keeps bouncing like a herd of elephants are dancing above...which is really unfunny and cruel and poorly done. The same with Jerry pretending to be Japanese...complete with gigantic teeth....uggh!
Overall, a waste of time and talent....and after seeing it, I can understand why Lewis refused to allow this film to be released in the USA. It's simply a terrible film with only a few tiny bits that ALMOST made me laugh...almost.
