Atlanta Jewish Film Festival: The Bellboy

Spotlight Screening

Jerry Lewis cements his reputation as a cinematic innovator and comedic genius with this landmark directorial debut about a klutzy bellboy at Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau Hotel. The endearingly clumsy Stanley stumbles from one ridiculous situation to another, turning mundane tasks at the swanky resort—delivering luggage, fielding reception desk calls, or chasing runaway dogs—into laugh-out-loud chaos. Loosely connected vignettes serve up riotous sight gags, playful silent-era nods, audacious self-referential twists, and celebrity cameos, all narrated with a sly wink by Walter Winchell. A marvel of efficiency, the film was shot in just four weeks at the Fontainebleau, pioneering Lewis’s video assist system that revolutionized filmmaking with instant scene playback.