Artists and Models

Artists and Models (1955) is Frank Tashlin's screwball comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Dean Martin plays struggling painter Rick, while Jerry Lewis is his roommate Eugene — a comic-book obsessive who talks through the violent adventures of Bat Lady in his sleep.

The catch: Eugene's nightmares are pure gold. Rick starts writing down his friend's nighttime ramblings and selling them to a comics publisher, and the two stumble into a plot involving real spies chasing a secret formula. Shirley MacLaine turns up in one of her earliest roles alongside Dorothy Malone, with Anita Ekberg adding some glamour.

Tashlin came from animation, and it shows in every frame — flesh-and-blood actors bounce around like cartoons, the gags never let up, the color is loud. This is late-period Martin and Lewis at full tilt, shot before the duo split for good. Silly, surreal and slyly satirical about the comic-book craze. Stream Artists and Models online on iFILM.