A Martin and Lewis chemistry analysis

They were the oddest of couples. Yet from 1946 through 1956, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had no peers when it came to comedy teams. Spontaneous, crazy, joyous and exuberant, Martin and Lewis were the toast of nightclubs, headlined the NBC variety series “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and made 16 movies.

And now, their tumultuous relationship is chronicled in the CBS movie “Martin and Lewis.” Emmy-winner Sean Hayes of “Will & Grace” plays the insecure, obsessive Lewis, and British actor Jeremy Northam (“Gosford Park,” “Emma”) plays the suave, self-assured but emotionally detached Martin.

Jeanne Martin, the entertainer’s second wife, who was married to him from 1949 to 1973, says that the duo had more fun on stage than anybody in the audience. “I don’t think they even looked at the audience or played to the audience,” she says. “They just played to each other. It’s such a shame that they never filmed their [nightclub] act. It was such a time of discovery and magic, and each one just amazed the other. It was awesome to watch it.”

Before they paired up for the first time in July 1946 in Atlantic City -- a few months earlier they had appeared during each other’s acts in a New York City club -- Martin was a rising young singer from Steubenville, Ohio, who had been a boxer and toiled at odd jobs before finding his voice. Lewis, who was eight years younger than Martin, was filled with so much self-doubt that he would do pantomime on stage so he wouldn’t have to talk to the crowd. The movie portrays Lewis yearning for acceptance because his father, also a comic, had little faith in his son’s ability. “They just stumbled onto each other in Atlantic City, and [their relationship] developed immediately,” Jeanne Martin says. “That is where the magic comes in. It was just supposed to be.”

Writer-director John Gray (who directed the TV movie “Haven” ) was a fan of both men individually but knew very little about their partnership when he was hired by executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. “But I was fascinated with that era, and the whole notion of this one guy who desperately needed the friendship and approval of this enigmatic figure and, when he can’t get it, seems like he’s going to try to destroy it.”

So Gray spent months poring through books and watching their films, such as “My Friend Irma,” “The Caddy” and “Jumping Jacks,” and “Colgate Comedy Hour” episodes. Writing the movie was difficult, he says, “because there is no record of their nightclub act. Even people who were there, including Jerry, aren’t able to say specifically what they did together other than they had this amazing chemistry. They ran into the crowd and did stuff, so it was very difficult to try to come up with physical stuff for them to do.”

Gray talked with Jeanne Martin while writing the script but not Lewis. That came later.

“We expected Jerry to be adversarial because he had his own HBO movie,” Gray explains. “Indeed, we were getting lawyers’ letters when the trades broke we were doing the movie. And then I got this call from Jerry because he had read the script and really loved the script, and then we started speaking. He was my new best friend. But I was impressed with him because he never asked me to change anything. It’s not a totally flattering portrait of Jerry. I don’t think we tried to pull any punches in the movie. I just really feel like it is a really brave thing for him to get behind the movie. Now, he’s seen it and really loves it.”

Jeanne Martin has also seen the finished product but says she really can’t be objective about it. “I must say they did a wonderful job of the production and the story,” she adds. “I don’t know if I am seeing a little more passion for Jerry in this and a little more disdain for Dean. I thought I felt that, but then again maybe I just have to see it again.”

The film does capture Martin’s aloofness. “Nobody really got to know him,” Jeanne Martin says. “He loved doing the nightclub work. He loved being on stage. He loved doing westerns because he could be outdoors. His background was completely different than Jerry’s, so for him, he did his work and then he wanted to play golf.

“He was always a loner. I saw home movies of him when he was 16 or 17 with his cousins. The guys are playing football, and the camera pans over and Dean is sitting there whittling. He was not a joiner.”

But, she says, he was funny at home and marvelous with his children. “He absolutely stood behind me in raising these seven children. He sat down at dinner every night at 6. That was one of the rules we had, and we always did.”

Both Hayes and Northam were intimidated about playing these stars. “This is kind of why you do it, because it is so scary,” says Hayes, who plays the outrageous Jack on “Will & Grace.” “Moving out here in a broken-down car in 1995 to Los Angeles is scary, but you do it. To me, you are not living life if all you do is live safely.”

Northam says he’s nervous about even doing publicity for the film because “having played him, you always feel people think you are good at doing it, or you somehow cracked something about him, or have a special relationship with this almost legendary person who is so loved by so many people. I really, genuinely hope we haven’t offended people who knew these characters. I think it is a well-meaning piece. It doesn’t seek to take any shortcuts. It takes the relationship as the center issue, and I think it looks at it quite unsentimentally.”

Jeanne Martin says the team’s balance changed once they came to Paramount Pictures in 1949 to make “My Friend Irma.”

“It was a progression that one would expect,” she says. “But it was a fateful one as far as a team, because they were no longer together. Nothing was spontaneous [in the movies]. They made quite a few films together, and in that time span Jerry became obsessed with filmmaking, and he loved every aspect of it. He loved every day on the set, and Dean didn’t like any days they were on the set.”

Many films followed but the die was cast. “They both had different roads to travel,” she says.

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‘Martin and Lewis’

When: Sunday, 9 p.m.

Where: CBS

Rating: TV-PGDL (may be unsuitable for young children with advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language)