As with Living It Up (1954), Lewis takes what was once the female lead in an earlier picture. In this case, he takes on the Ginger Rogers role from The Major and the Minor (1942). For an extra dollop of nostalgia, the role originally played by Ray Milland goes to Lynn, who had played a supporting role in the earlier film. Since Lewis rarely had a love interest in his films with Dean Martin, his comic partner takes over the role of Lynn's fiancé, originally played by Rita Johnson, with Nina Foch in a newly created role as the spoiler out to keep Martin to herself.
There are other significant changes from the original. Where Rogers had to buy the half-price ticket because she was out of work and broke, Lewis is fleeing a gangster (Raymond Burr) with no clear idea of why. The film opens with a jewel heist, after which Burr hides a precious diamond first in Martin's coat pocket and then in Lewis' pants. Burr gets his wife (Veda Ann Borg) to come on to Lewis so he can catch them in the act and steal back the diamond, leading to Lewis' hurried train trip with the diamond still in his back pocket. In addition to impersonating a child, Lewis also gets to don beret and moustache to pose as a French barber in a slapstick scene with Martin
By this point in their partnership, the once close friends were drifting apart. Both had very different approaches to filmmaking. After the first reading of the script, Martin pronounced it fine and took off to play golf, while Lewis peppered director Norman Taurog and screenwriter Sidney Sheldon with questions about how the film was to be made. Though Lewis was more serious about making movies, however, his relentless clowning was getting on Martin's nerves. They were barely speaking off-screen during location shooting in Lake Arrowhead, where they filmed some of the scenes at the girl's school and a climactic speedboat race. Paramount publicists tried to keep the feud out of the papers. When Lewis was hit in the head with a water ski filming the chase scene, they issued stories claiming that Martin had saved him from drowning. Nonetheless, it was hard to keep people from noticing when Martin pulled out of the premiere, scheduled in the Catskills, where Lewis had started his career as a comic. The team would end after three more films.
One partnership that would endure, was Lewis' work with Taurog. This was the fifth of eight films they made together. The former child star had shot two-reel silent comedies starring Larry Semon in New York and then built a reputation as a comedy director with the coming of sound. He was one of the first winners of the Best Director Oscar®, for the family film Skippy (1931), which made a star of his nephew, Jackie Cooper. Taurog spent years at MGM, where his skills at directing children were particularly valued. Among his top films there were Boys Town (1938), which brought Spencer Tracy a Best Actor Oscar®, Little Nellie Kelly (1940), in which Judy Garland played her first adult role, and Rich, Young and Pretty (1951), a vehicle for teen soprano Jane Powell. He moved to Paramount in 1951, where he started out directing Martin and Lewis in The Stooge (1951). Once the team broke up, he would direct Lewis in the solo vehicles Don't Give Up the Ship (1959) and Visit to a Small Planet (1960), after which Lewis started directing his own films.
Paramount sold You're Never Too Young with the tag line "Dino's the singing dean of a girl's school, Jerry -- a wolf in kid's clothing -- in a class by himself with 503 coeds." As was usual with the Martin-Lewis films, it got poor reviews from critics in top-scale papers like the New York Times but did well with the trades, with Variety hailing it as "one of their funniest pictures." Audiences in the U.S. ate it up, though, also typical of their films, it did not fare that well overseas. It would take the team's dissolution for Lewis to find favor in Europe.
Director: Norman Taurog
Producer: Paul Jones
Screenplay: Sidney Sheldon
Based on the play Connie Goes Home by Edward Child Carpenter and the story "Sunny Goes Home" by Fanny Kilbourne
Cinematography: Daniel L. Fapp
Score: Walter Scharf
Cast: Dean Martin (Bob Miles), Jerry Lewis (Wilbur Hoolick), Diana Lynn (Nancy Collins), Nina Foch (Gretchen Brendan), Raymond Burr (Noonan), Mitzi McCall (Skeets Powell), Veda Ann Borg (Mrs. Noonan), Nancy Culp (Marty's Mother), Hans Conreid (Francois), Whitey Haupt (Mike Brendan).
C-103m.
